Surviving the Blitz
Last updated: 03 December 2005
Richard Hills from Monmouth stayed in London with his mother during the war while his father and sister were evacuated.
Richard tells his story
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Richard was playing in the street outside his house in Southwark when he first heard the air raid siren on the morning of September 3rd 1939.
"I was four years old - I had no idea what this appalling noise was," he said, "this terrible roaring, swooping sound - absolutedly petrifying.
"I remember that the front door of the house flew open and my mother came hurtling down the steps, snatched me up in my arms and ran to the nearest shelter."
To this day he remains puzzled by the shelter's location - underneath a factory making parts for ships, presumably a prime target for Nazi bombers.
your comments
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Danny Morris from Manchester
This is very good info and lots of detail - I like it. It helped me with my work in school. Thanks, mate.
Tom Bellgard, Cardiff expat in Cooma, Australia
I used to like watching the barrage balloons (bags on bits of string I used to call them). Particularly liked the George Formby movie where he and some mates were on top of one when it drifted over the channel to France and they cooked a fish they had caught, on burning gas from a hole in the balloon.
