You may recall that on this blog recently I wrote the story of my mum Pat's terrifying experience of having a WW2 incendiary bomb drop at the bottom of her bed one night in 1941 (see Terror of a WW2 bomb - was Jack to blame?).
Since then, I've come across an account of the episode written by mum's elder sister, Micky, (pictured left, beside my mum), in which she revealed how close the incident came to being a deathly disaster.
In a folder she'd compiled about memories of her family, my late aunt mentioned that the date of the bombing had been on the very same night that Coventry was almost destroyed - 14th November 1941- confirming my estimate that my mum was six years old at the time and Micky would have been eleven.
She'd written: "It was 9 pm just before my Gran and Granddad were ready for bed. An incendiary bomb crashed through the roof, finishing up on the pillow of the bed, setting it alight. I ran to the front door and shouted for help while my mother [Wyn] rushed upstairs with a bucket of water. Fortunately an air raid warden heard us and came up the stairs in time to drag Wyn out of the way before the bomb exploded. These bombs always exploded when water was thrown on them. My grandparents, Pat and I sheltered in the kitchen behind a strong wooden door while all the bedding was thrown through the bedroom window on to the garden. We were very lucky as within a few minutes my grandparents would have been in bed and would certainly have been killed."
Earlier, she'd written that her very first memory was seeing a barrage balloon over Crewe and how she'd run home in fright, thinking it was a Zeppelin come to bomb them. The irony is that Wyn had brought her daughters back home to Wednesfield believing they'd be safer from any bombing.
I wonder if the family had nightmares afterwards. I think I'd have be frightened to go to sleep after an experience like that!
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