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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Roland Gardner from Sidley I.T. Centre, and has been added to the website on behalf of Bernard Dent with his permission, and he fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

MY EARLY MORNING PAPER ROUND.

When the following incident took place in 1940, I was 15 years old and lived in the Coney Hall area of West Wickham, Kent.

I used to do a paper round in the early morning. At night, I would sleep in a community air raid shelter in the local park. Amongst the regulars in the shelter was an elderly gentleman. In the morning, before starting my paper round, I would take his bedding home for him, and leave it in the porch of his house.
On this particular morning, I had just reached the shops, which were immediately before his house, when I saw a German Dornier Bomber come in very low and drop a bomb, which I heard explode. No air raid warning had been sounded, so I ducked into a shop doorway and trembled whilst events unfolded. When the enemy aircraft had disappeared I continued my journey, only to find that the 50lb bomb had detonated in my elderly gentleman’s front garden drive, which led to his porch. Looking at the smoking crater, I was very glad I hadn’t arrived a few seconds earlier.

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