Father in WW2

Dad was in Civil Defence Heavy Rescue during the London blize. When I was old
enough to understand Dad told me stories
about his experiences some of which were
horrific and for which he never received
any councelling..not known in those days.

Dates/Times unknown.

Story 1. Dad told me of a woman he shouted
at while a Doodlebug (Flying Bomb)could be
heard approching very near..the woman was
too far away to hear Dad's shouted warning
and carried on walking down the street..
..the Doodlebug went silent..a sign it was
heading for earth..Dad dived undercover...
..the dooblebug exploded followed by total
silence..Dad got up and ran down the road to
where he had last seen the woman..he thought she was completly naked as he approach her but found she had lost not only
all her clothing but all her skin too..she lived for less than 5 minutes while Dad held
held her in his arms softly taking to her as
she passed away. Dad only ever told me this
story once as it affected him badly..Mum said he came home that day covered in blood
and she had to boil pots of water for his bath and Dad asked Mum to scrub him so hard
he was sore..He cried himself to sleep that night Mum said but was out the next day back
at his job.

Story 2. Dad was on duty during a heavy
bombing period in north London and when
the All-Clear Siren sounded he was sent
out with his rescue crew. During searching
and digging people out of bombed buildings
Dad spotted a Sailor standing on top of a
pile of rubble..the sailor was "leaning" at
a weird angle..Dad called out but got no
reply so walking over to the Sailor Dad
said.."you should take cover son"..as Dad
got nearer to the Sailor he realised the
young man was dead and was being held up
by a rod of reinforced steel which went
right through his body and the end was
sticking out of his head..Dad & his crew
had to cut the steel rod and remove the
Sailors body to the Undertakers.

Story 3. While heavy bombing was going on
Dad found a man with both his eyes blown
out of his face and resting on his cheeks,
Dad replaced the mans eyes back in their
sockets and placed two(Old)pennies over
the mans eyes telling the man to hold the
pennies in place while Dad found a Doctor,
the Doctor become our family GP in later
years.

Dad never received any medals for his time
in the Civil defence during WW2 and never
asked for any acknowledgement..he died in
1977 God bless him..we were very poor after
the war but Dad & Mum always made certain
we had food on the table..Mum died in 1995.

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