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This story has been added to the People’s war website by Jenny Burnett on behalf of Harry Moore. Harry has given his permission and is aware of the site’s terms and conditions.

We were living in Hornsey, London where my father was a bricklayer. One day a German plane came over, very low - a lone raider. They dropped bombs and machine gunned. I could see the crew they were so low. They seemed to be laughing - I don’t think they were trying to kill people.

After they’d gone people came outside shaking their fists. I wonder what happened to the crew, they haven’t got back. We could see one bullet hole in a chimney pot. It was there for years - I don’t suppose people realised it was there.

I played with Martin O’Neal who lived three doors away. When the sirens went because of the buzz bombs, his mother would scoop us up into her shelter. She was a little Irish lady, and she would pray throughout the raid and hold her rosary. We were very frightened.

Mother and I were evacuated to St Ives, Huntingdonshire in 1941, and stayed with an old chap. We returned home before the war ended though.

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