91热爆

After my personal experience of Sunday 3rd September 1939 鈥� the day War broke out - (as already reported) the jangled nerves , both mine and the nations , slowly settled down mainly because the expected onslaught never materialised . Action both here and in France was localised and limited for many months , which led to that period becoming known as 鈥� the Phoney War鈥�
But with the German 鈥淏litzkreig鈥� invasion of Holland, Belgium and France , our so-called phoney war ended abruptly. Within a few short weeks those countries had fallen or surrendered and we were alone . We then had the
鈥淢iracle of Dunkirk鈥� with the evacuation of over 300,000 British and French troops across the Channel and back to this country . Although it was a military defeat the extent of the rescue made it feel like a victory .
As a 19 year old Post Office counter clerk and telegraphist all these momentous happenings had very little physical effect . Life went on just about the same as before although I suppose the introduction of food rationing implied something different , but I remember thinking at the time that that was Mum鈥檚 problem and I had no doubt that she would be able to sort it out .
Then in July the Battle of Britain started and went on until September . Again this vital and historic event did not mean too much to me because , apart from white smoke trails and aircraft noise in the sky , which was mostly in the distance , I never actually saw a plane brought down or managed to capture a German pilot or even collect any Nazi memorabilia 鈥� as did many people , especially those who lived in the country . I remember at the time an envy of their good fortune
We in Kilburn- and any other part of the rest of the country not directly involved 鈥� heard about these things in the radio news bulletins or read about them in the newspapers . None of my relatives or friends who were already in the Forces had been affected by these events 鈥� in fact , two had returned safely from Dunkirk .
However , the advent of the London 鈥淏litz鈥� quickly changed that false sense of wellbeing . Starting in September with daylight bombing raids the Luftwaffe switched fairly soon to bombing London at night and continued nightly without respite for at least a couple of months .There was then an occasional let-up whilst the Luftwaffe switched their attention to other towns and cities in the U.K. But heavy and regular raids continued to be made on London until about May 1941 鈥� in all , that was about 10 months from September of the year before .
During the whole of that time I continued to live and go to work in Kilburn and it is that experience that I am trying to explain here . We had a few bombs in that time in my area of North West London . The nearest was about four streets away . A stick of bombs were dropped and one brought down the front of a house leaving its contents on show , re-arranged and dust covered ,but without producing any noticeable damage to the houses on either side . Two bombs fell in a park and another damaged a second house even further away . I always felt that these weren鈥檛 very big bombs . In all the Blitz period my family was never bombed out , never had our windows shattered and I slept , most of the time , in my own bed which was on the third floor of a terraced house which backed onto the Metropolitan railway line .
In my suburbs of N.W.London we never had to suffer the weight of bombing that was dropped on the target areas , i.e. the Docks and the East End , the City and the West End . My experience was that the further you were from those target areas the safer you felt . Five miles was useful , ten miles even better but fifteen miles was ideal . That is not to say that those areas that were such distances from the centre of London never had any bombs , as we know that they did, but they were not the targets.
In spite of the nightly air raids , the sirens , the sound of bomber engines , the ack-ack fire and the searchlights I still went out in the evening to visit friends or go dancing or the cinema or a pub . Whether inside or outside you could always hear the guns and from time to time the scream of a bomb which would make you hold your breath and hope to hear its explosion a long way off .The explosion usually produced a sigh of relief because you knew that you were safe 鈥� at least until the next time .Then a thought for those who might not have been so lucky .
I do however have vivid memories of being out in the street during air raids particularly when the ack-ack shells were exploding up in the night sky above you and trying to get some kind of protection from the nearby buildings from the shrapnel that was flying about 鈥� not particularly easy in residential areas because its meant going up the front path to shelter in a doorway ! You felt you were trespassing and yet there was not the same feeling about business premises and shop doorways .
However , I had a number of 鈥渟hrapnel鈥� experiences , particularly when walking along Mill Lane in West Hampstead where the road crosses over the railway line. The sides of the road bridge were some 6-7 feet high and made of solid sheet metal .Whilst walking across the bridge , in the dark with no steel helmet , only a small torch to light my way and the shells bursting overhead , I would hear the 鈥渮ip鈥� of the shrapnel flying through the air and the 鈥渃lang鈥� it made as it struck the metal sides of the bridge . It could be quite nerve wracking if you thought too much about those chunks of hot metal flying about and what damage they might do it they hit you 鈥� but none ever did !
I used to get some consolation from the opinion of my Dad
( who went through the First World War in the Highland Light Infantry ) that
鈥� If you hear shrapnel ( or a bullet ) it has already passed you by 鈥� it鈥檚 the ones you don鈥檛 hear that do the damage 鈥�. I still can鈥檛 make up my mind whether that kind of logic is useful or not ! However , I never was struck by any shrapnel which is surprising in view of the number of times when I was in a situation where I could be - how is that explained ? Is it just good luck , is it fate , did I have a guardian angel or a lucky charm or is it something quite inexplicable . After all , who or what decides whether shrapnel , or a bomb , will miss you and hit the other fellow or his house ?
Whoever or whatever , I am grateful that it worked and I came through and yet there is a sadness for all those who did not have the same good fortune 鈥� they probably did not choose to live in the wrong part of London and did not choose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time any more tha

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