Bombing along the Thames

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer from BBC London, on behalf of Win Bryan, and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Bryan fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

At the beginning of the war, we were living in Creek Road, Greenwich, and our house was damaged on the first day of the Blitz — September 7 1940. The family were at a friend’s wedding, just sitting down to the reception, when the first bombs came down. We rushed across the road to our own shelter and stayed the rest of the afternoon and most of the night after that. The bedrooms were damaged, but we were amazed to find that gas mantle was still perfect. They managed to shore the house up that time, but as it wasn’t repaired, in time we had to move to Catford.

My father worked for the Port of London Authority at the George V docks in Woolwich. He worked 48 hour shifts. One day they bombed the docks including the sugar warehouses. The whole docks were on fire from one end to another. From our road you could look across and see the flames. The sky was all red. We didn’t hear from him for two days and my mother said “that’s it then”. But after two days, he walked through the door, black as the ace of spades, and my mother turned round, looked at him and said “where the bloody hell have you been?” He just stood there and grinned. She said “you can have a cup of tea, but then you’re going to have a bath.”

Once after I’d joined the WAAF, my friend and I hadn’t heard from our parents for a while and we were worried and got a 24 hour pass to come to London to see if they were alright. We didn’t have any money for the train fare, so we hitch hiked. And we were coming over Westminster Bridge in an open lorry, and a doodlebug was following us. The driver was going faster and faster and we were screaming at him to get a move on. At the end of the bridge our route and the bomb’s parted. When I got home, my mother was in the garden, and when she saw me, she said “what the hell are you doing home. Get back to base. You’re safer there.” I agreed, we were safer in the services than the civilians.

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