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I lived throughout WW2 as a young child in Staines, Middlesex. I was only 15 months old when war broke out so do not remember the early days. However the later part I remember well.
In July 1944 a doodlebug landed about 100 yards away from our house while I was asleep. The whole of the ceiling fell onto my bed but because I always slept with the sheets over my head I was spared from breathing in any of the dust directly.
The house was in a very bad shape with many windows blown out and most of the plaster down.
We had one room which had been reinforced with what looked like tree trunks and we stayed there for the rest of the night.
I was then packed of with my nanny to my Grandmothers in Cardiff while Mum stayed on to make sure that the repair work was carried out satisfactorily.
The journey took ages. First we went from Staines to Waterloo and then my Godfather and his wife looked after us until a train was available at Paddington to take us to Cardiff. That train was diverted via Gloucester because ther was a scare about the Severn Tunnel being bombed.
We finally arrived at Cardiff at about 10 pm which was very late for a 6 year old boy who had not had much sleep the night before.

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