Bombing Of West Hendon

I too remember the so-called 'mysterious bomb' that Ann Midson refers to. It was 13 February 1941; I was at home with my mother and brother in another part of Hendon. No air raid siren was sounded, but we should have had a clue that something was going to happen when our cat wanted to go out; he normally did before any air raid; I think he could hear something that we could not. There came a massive explosion that shattered the silence. in later years it was learned that a lone German plane dropped a SC2500 maximum heavy explosive bomb (equivalent to two V2 rockets).destroying forty houses and killing 80 people and injuring some 400. It was after the explosion that the air raid siren sounded; we took ourselves off to our shelter which was the cupboard under stairs, and stayed there until the 'All Clear' sounded. The bomb may have been destined for the factories in area, the likes of Schweppes, or Duple motor body works, Romac or Spurlings; all close together doing vital war work. The Hero of the event was seven year old Freddie Harrison who went back into the remains of his bombed house and rescued his baby sister Winifred. Back in 2004 Winifred wrote to me and informed me that Freddie went on to become a commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. On his retirement from the Royal Navy in 1971 he moved to Australia with his family and took a commission in Royal Australian Navy; He continued to live with his wife Di, six children and several grand-children.