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WW2 - People's War

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First Memories: Dog-fights, Sirens and Destroying Shelters

by millerm

Contributed by 
millerm
People in story: 
michael miller
Location of story: 
Halstead, Kent
Article ID: 
A1960120
Contributed on: 
03 November 2003

We originally lived in London and when war broke out dad joined the RAF and I moved to Halstead in Kent with my mother. This was not such a good idea as many of the approaching planes were intercepted overhead and many a dog-fight took place which we could see in the searchlights. When the sirens went off I remember being grabbed from my bed and being taken to the cellar of the big house next door. Later we moved back to London and when a bomb was dropped on our road I remember hiding under the table with my family as a shower of glass fell all about us.
After the war the air raid shelters seem to stay for months and we children loved playing in and around them.
They were finally demolished by a crane with a huge ball on the end which finally removed the last traces of war

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