My experience with a V2.

It was probably March 1945. I was 19 years of age. I had gone to bed early, and was reading. Suddenly the windows blew wide open, and there was a bright orange glow in the sky, and a rushing noise. I realised that a V2 rocket had exploded nearby.
I dressed quickly and hurried to the end of my road, The Circle. The windows of shops had blown outwards, and littered the pavement. I crossed the North Circular Road. I walked along Annesley Close, which had houses on the left hand side, and Wykeham School, and its playing field,on the right.Due to the black-out,it was quite dark, perhaps just starlight. A few of the houses in the middle of the close were completely destroyed, and those abutting, partially so. I must have heard calling from one of these. I clambered up the staircase which was covered with rubble. In the bedroom were a man and a woman. The woman seemed to be OK, and she handed me a baby, tighly wrapped in a blanket, which I took down, and handed to someone in the street.The blanket was covered in large dark spots of a liquid, but because of the darkness, I could not tell whether or not this was blood.I climbed back to the bedroom where the man was lying in the bed. A joist, apparently supporting the partially collapsed roof, seemed to be pinning the middle of the man's trunk to the bed. He appeared to be coherent, and told me there was a saw in the garden shed with which to cut through the joist. I did not follow this advice. It has troubled me since as to whether it was cowardice, or a realisation that this might have caused the whole roof to collapse. I descended to the street, and waited for the professional rescue squad to arrive. After I had informed them of the situation, I was relieved to leave the scene. I described the incident to my mother. A day or two later she told me that the man had survived, but how could she have known, as several people must have been killed and injured? I am sure that she was trying to put my mind at rest with an untruth. I did not make my own enquiries. Very recently I have seen this incident referred to as a direct hit on the school. This does not accord with my memory.

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