A Near Escape

I was born in January 1944 and my mother was very ill, so my christening did not take place 'til later in the year. The vicarage was close to an airfield protected by barrage balloons. Raiders often off-loaded bombs on return from raids elsewhere from a great height in the hope of hitting something and we were the unwitting targets. The previous night we had been bombed and the window above my cot blown in.I was very active and crawling by that time. I was put in a temporary improvised play pen area in the back garden of the vicarage, whilst the family rushed round getting ready. Some how I escaped from the pen area and when my sister came to find me she heard me banging on a metal drum. The latter turned out to be a UXB from the previous night's raid.

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