- Contributed by听
- Newcastlelibrary
- People in story:听
- Ethel Cable Charles Cable Mr Baxter
- Location of story:听
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4482425
- Contributed on:听
- 18 July 2005
In 1943, my husband Charles and I had a house on Brighton Grove in Newcastle. Our neighbour was called Mr Baxter and he used to love to watch the air raids going on from his front porch. It was all very exciting, the sound of the air raid sirens, watching the searchlights flash around in the sky,hearing the explosions, but of course it was very dangerous. When the air raids were on, Charles used to say "Mr Baxter, you better get yourself in."
But he wouldn't listen and he just kept right on standing there on his porch to watch the bombings. One night during an air raid,Mr Baxter was out watching as usual, a piece of shrapnel from a nearby explosion hit his porch and shot right through, hitting the lamp hanging from it's ceiling, the lamp fell and shattered at his feet, narrowly missing his head. Well, Mr Baxter never came out of his house again to watch another air raid after that.
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