- Contributed by听
- Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2005
- People in story:听
- Gentleman in his seventies
- Location of story:听
- Addlestone
- Article ID:听
- A4392885
- Contributed on:听
- 07 July 2005
This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer on behalf of Mr X and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr X fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
In 1940 I was living with my family in Addlestone. We had taken in lots of evacuees, so there were six children in the house. I remember the date was September 26th and we had all gone to bed. In the early hours of the morning, a 1000 pound bomb landed near our house, causing the whole of the top floor to come down. I was buried in the rubble and hit my head on a concrete beam. While I was trapped I can remember a light was still on and because of the hole in the roof, it was now visible to the sky above. An air raid warden shouted "put that bloody light out- Gerry's still up there!"
After I was rescued from the rubble, I was taken in an ambulance to St Peter's hospital, which had just been built. In the days that followed I saw lots of wounded soldiers coming in from Dunkirk.
Everyone else in the house was ok, but my sister hurt her legs and it took a long time for her to be able to walk again.
We had to be rehoused for a while as our house was in ruins. It was finally re-built in 1946 and we were able to return.
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