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I was 9 when war broke out and we were living up near the cemetery in Ipswich. There was an air raid warning one time and a land mine was dropped at the stone masons on the corner of Suffolk Road. We were all told to get our things and go to Christchurch mansion. When we got there we realised we were going to be out of our homes for a while so we decided to go to my aunt’s in Surbiton Road. The bomb disposal squad were working on the bomb for a week or 2 and we were still at my aunts when we heard the explosion. It blew my aunt’s door open and we were the other side of town. We found out later that the bomb disposal people had managed to get most of the explosive out of the bomb, but there was a third or quarter left which they couldn’t get out because of a bent pin or something. The offered to take the mine up to the cemetery to explode it but the powers that be wouldn’t let them. The mine might have had most of its explosives removed but it still did a lot of damage when it went off. A lot of the houses along cemetery road were completely destroyed. My house was at the top of Hayhill Road and it was damaged. Everything was covered in soot. We heard that the bomb disposal died while working on a bomb on the east coast somewhere about a week later.

Whenever there was a raid my mum used to come and fetch me out of school. I was at St Helens Street and she used to cycle to the school to collect me. I’d have been much safer in the school shelter! One time we got home and heard planes roaring over head. They were German planes and were bombing the docks. When the raid was over I went along the passage that led to our house and I found a piece of shrapnel that was still hot. I’d been in that passage way about half an hour before, and that shows how illogical it was for mum to come and get me from school.

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