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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Berkshire on behalf of Anthony Toms and has been added to the site with his permission. Anthony Toms fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Felton, Bristol used to build military aircrafts, so it was always bombed. Once a German aircraft got damaged in a raid and landed in a heap at the back of our house in Patchway. Repairs were made to it then it took off the next morning. When it was shot down I was about 5 then.

When I was at school at Patchway Primary, our air raid shelters were across the playground. And this particular day an air raid warning went off and we were running for the shelters and the plane gunned down some of the children. Some kids got hurt. It was exciting to go to the air raid shelter. Scary but we didn’t stop to look like you’d normally do. It was a game, That’s how the teachers got us to play along and get in the shelter. We were rehearsing sitting in the shelters with gas masks on. So when it happened for real it was orderly. Otherwise you would have had kids all over the place.

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