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The siren went off! It was black dark, quite late in the evening; my dad was on nightshift at work. My younger sister and I were quite used to the sirens by then, so we weren’t too scared but mum didn’t like to be alone when the sirens were going. I remember I was 6 years old at the time. My mother told my sister and I to put on our coats and wait by the door, we did as we were told. Mum told us we were going to her friend’s house because we’d feel safer there.

We hurried out the door; we could see the searchlights looking for the enemy aircraft. Everyone had the black out curtains shut and so it was very hard to see. On the way we bumped into the home guard he asked us what we were doing out of house at such a dangerous time, that’s when the bombs started dropping, my heart was racing and I remember shaking with fear knowing that any minute we could be hit.

Mum quickly picked up my sister and the home guard picked me up, we were running as fast as we could but it was difficult to find our way. After about ten minutes we had made it to my mums friends house. We went inside and my mums friend had a big pot of soup already prepared, she grabbed it and we all ran out to the Anderson shelter.

We all huddled close together inside and had soup while we waited for the all clear. It was awful I hated the shelters. I remember the smell vividly; it was a damp musty smell I’ll never forget.

When the siren eventually stopped and it was safe, everything was silent. It was around lunchtime of the next day and I remember the light hurting my eyes as I got out of the shelter and started making my way home. I was glad but I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I would be getting back in again.

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