Our First Bomb Of The War

A Memory of Petts Wood.

Firstly, I must say I was prompted to write this on reading the previous article, I went to school with that writer, Alan Tutt, at Crofton lane School, in 1939 I think it was, or perhaps 1941, anyway we were just starting our schooling.
The memory I write about occurred in late October 1940. In June of that year we had, like millions of others, had an Anderson shelter installed in the back garden, and when the bombing attack was switched to the night blitz our habit was to go to the shelter at dusk and come out in the morning to carry on. This procedure continued for about six weeks, until one October evening mum went to take our thermos and sandwiches to the dungeon only to find that the hole was a foot deep in water.
We camped in the house that night. As usual, "Moaning Minnie" sounded about eight and mum, gran and I sat in a small cupboard under the stairs as recommended. By ten PM I had dozed off on a small wicker lounge. It was then that the first close one of our war landed in the back garden of the corner house, No 80 Woodhurst Avenue. Both 78 and 80 were written off as not habitable and rebuilt after it was all over. We lived at No 76, my gran, Mrs Davey's house, ,which had all the windows blown out , the roof tiles cascaded down and the heavy built kitchen chimney was blown down by the blast
I was woken by my frantic mother who thought I might be hurt, I was just annoyed to have missed the big moment My grandad was a local ARP warden and he came round pretty soon to help out and I can remember the sound of the broken glass in the dining room, under foot as we moved about. No 80 was knocked down, but they left 78 standing and it became the hide out for the kids at that end of the street, almost like a clubhouse . We never went to the shelter again and had two more close ones as well as a parachute mine in Diameter Road, another that didn't go off in Crescent drive, the chute got hung up in a tree, and another big bomb near the junction of Crescent Drive and Diameter Road, Later, in 1944 a V2 hit Bushy Avenue, around eight AM , as I was just walking to school but I was not not close to it at the time.
I was six at the time of the first one and have just turned eighty last February, these memories remain with me today, as clear as a bell, though I have forgotten much more recent things, I suppose it was the forming of my early experience. The house we lived in looks substantially the same as when I last saw the place in 1948, and my grandson was there early this year and took more photos for me
E G (Geoff) Pogson
Sydney
Australia