HITLER IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE

This story was submitted to the BBC People’s War site by Wymondham Learning Centre ^{About links} on behalf of Eileen Campbell and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My first baby was due in August 1940. Hitler had boasted that he would be in Buckingham Palace by August. My Doctor told me that if the worst came to the worst I would have to be prepared to have the baby by the side of the road, and that I should pack a bag with all the necessary things for a newborn baby and keep it ready. He foresaw, I suppose, that we might have to flee invading troops. I packed a bag with nappies, baby clothes, feeding bottles and other necessities and put it by my bed.

Hitler didn’t make it to the Palace, and my son was born in August. But I kept the packed case by the bed for the duration of the war.

We lived in Potters Bar, which was on the direct rail line to London. The German aircraft bombed the line continuously and there were terrible casualties in the houses on either side. One bomb fell on a house near ours and killed a young mother with four babies. The house was completely demolished and no recognisable trace of their bodies was found.
In the house next door, a woman and her grown-up daughter and little grandchild were about to go shopping.
“I’ll just pop to the loo,” said the older woman. The loos were all outside in those days — flimsy wooden outhouses. She was in the loo when the house received a direct hit. Her daughter and grandchild were killed. She survived, untouched.

How did we survive six years of that and keep sane? I suppose it was fatalism — we felt that if your number was up, it was up, and if it wasn’t, you lived another day. But we walked in fear all the time, especially of the doodle bugs. You’d hear the noise of them flying over and you knew, when the noise stopped, the hit would come — but you didn’t know where. It could be right on top of you or miles away. When we slept, it because we were too exhausted to stay awake.

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