Wartime voices

From August 1940 until May 1941 the Germans carried out a bombing campaign that became known as the Blitz - short for blitzkrieg meaning 'lightning war'. Night after night fleets of bombers dropped tons of explosives across London and other towns throughout Britain  - particularly in industrial areas.

The first serious attacks on the borough started on 7 September 1940. Battersea was a prime target with a vast network of railways, power stations and many factories involved in war work.

"I was home for the summer holidays when the bombing started. Surrey docks were bombed. I can remember we went up to the flat roof at the back and could see all the flames in the distances. We were sitting there as it got dark. That's when we heard the first bombs. By the time it landed we were down in the cellar. That's where we used to go."
Alan Buss

"It was something people got used to. I know you can't get used to it completely, but you did. You just ducked in and out of shelters and that's it."
Ronnie Elliott

"We used to put the children to bed down there and carry on normal - you had to. You couldn't let your kids know you were scared. We had guns on the common. Mitcham Lane was bombed. The undertakers was bombed. It was ghastly. There was guns going all night. What I was scared of was that a plane would crash down on the house. Everything was so close. It was horrifying really, but you had to keep your nerve for your kids. You wouldn't let them see you were scared. You just carried on normal."
Eilza Mason

"Battersea Bridge Road got bombed and that was the most worst night of my life. People were laying injured. There were three and four storey houses. We used to take a door off and go round and put the injured on the door and take them to the hospital which was called Battersea General Hospital in those days."
Irene Lavin

Elsie Young was an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) warden based at Battersea Town Hall. Her role was to receive calls from wardens detailing where bombs had dropped so that the emergency services could be directed where they were needed.

"If the bombs dropped in places where a lot of people had been killed they were telling us how many bodies had been picked up; how many limbs they had found - how many heads - horrible things like that ... Sometimes when the bombs were dropping really heavily I had blisters on my two fingers where you hold the pencil - scribbling so hard you just went home with blisters."
Elsie Young

"I would go down the shelter 'cos a lot of my friends were down there you see. A lot of people stayed home, my mum and dad. My dad wouldn't go down, my mum stayed with him and my sister was here that particular night. I was down the shelter with my friends. 'Oh' I said 'that one was close'. I remember saying 'my goodness, I felt as if my feet had been hit by a fourteen pound sledgehammer.' Then the warden came down. He said 'Balham Station'. I thought it was near. I came home to see if they were all right. Well my sister was in shock. I can see her face now, got a blanket wrapped round her and her face was white and she really, really was in shock. I mean she was quite ill, she had to have psychiatric treatment."
Rose Barker

"When a bomb lands you get an outwards explosion and then equally as much damage is done as it gets drawn back in again. Often you found places with walls sucked off. It was just as if you were looking into a doll's house with the door off. You could see everything there. The stair case was still there, the beds and all the furniture were in place."
Patrick Child

"When the Blitz started, every day from then on I was travelling from Wandsworth up to Westminster during the air raids. Never knew when you went out how you were going to get to work, if your work was going to be there when you got there, if you'd still be there at the end of the day. Didn't know how you were going to get home or if your home would be there when you got there - but it was."
Hilda Middleton

"I think we were probably scared, but as kids we used to love going and picking up bits of shrapnel. I can remember the mantelpiece being adorned with all these bits of metal. You thought it was like prizes if you found something. I think you just got used to it and lived from day to day."
Rose Wingrove