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The Dance Hall Bomb

Early in the war I was 16 and I went with friends to a dance in Palmers Green, London.

The dance hall was packed, filling the upstairs of the building. Absolutely packed out. My friends and I sat out because we couldn鈥檛 do that dance. Everyone was dancing on the floor at the time.

There was a big draught of wind, you don鈥檛 hear anything. That was when the bomb dropped. Everything went dark.

We had to be pulled out of the rubble. The whole floor was gone, empty, not a soul on it. Nobody.

Also a bus was hit outside as well at the same time. It was like daylight, the fire was so bright in the blackout.

I wasn鈥檛 frightened in the war until the rockets started coming over. They came at the end of the war, after the Doodlebug. You can鈥檛 hear them coming. One hit the factory during the night. It was lucky it was the night. It was absolutely flattened. That was Edmonton, London. If that had dropped in the daytime there would have been hundreds killed there. The factory was called Dunlops, they made army uniforms.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Frances Harris of the 91热爆 Radio Cambridgeshire Story Gatherer Team on behalf of Mrs Wyn Whiddington, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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