70 years ago. The Battle for Britain.

[wombat2u2004]

I had a client once who immigrated here in the 1950's. Old Mrs.Cope was very old when I worked for her and her son. When the war was on, she lived in one of the cities over there on the first floor of a building. She had about 6kids, and they were all littlies at the time. They were having dinner, and then heard a buzz bomb droning away nearby.....she got all the kids together, took them into the main bedroom, and covered herself and the kids with the double bed mattress. Next thing, the buzz bomb hit the house behind them, completely demolishing it, and blowing the back wall of Mrs.Copes home away. When they emerged from under the mattress, they had no back wall on their house, but they were all safe and sound.

[Freedom]

My Mum grew up in London during the Blitz. (She was age 6 when the war started there, and 14 when it ended, if I remember right).

There is one family story of my Mum trying to "out run" a buzz bomb. It was coming down the street and Mum, in terror, was running down the street ahead of it. A man - they never did know who - ran across the street grabbing her to get her out of the path.

Mum had an "assigned" spot on the 3rd step of one of the Underground stations. That is where she was supposed to go during a raid. She had been rather far away across town and was running to "her spot," when the above happened.

I don't remember which station now, but when Mum took us over there in 1972, visiting "her step" was one of the places she took us to see.

Mum had nightmares about the Blitz all her life, right up until she passed at age 66.

[Miss Z]

No matter how many times I hear the wail of sirens or the steely voice of Churchill on the news reports at the moment, it never fails to send a chill down my spine. Every man, woman and child was so brave during those dark years, I just cannot fathom how terrifying it must have been to experience the Blitz as a reality.

Still keeping calm and carrying on; yes, I am truly proud to be British.