Hello LPG,
 
I noticed the experiences of a reader in the last issue of the Gazette and wondered if anyone would like to hear one of mine?
 
My family had been bombed out during WW2 when living in Peckham, and so with what we could carry we took a tram to Catford.  We stayed at my Dad’s relatives in Glynwood Road and I attended Rathfern Road Junior School.
 
In the autumn of 1942 they acquired the use of Stanstead Lodge. In an autumn magazine an Article said it was now called Seniors’.  It was a marvellous old house with large rooms and extensive grounds all around it.  We loved play times.  We had camps under the spreading trees and many acorn battles.
 
 One day my friend and I left for lunch well before 12:30.  It was Wednesday 20th January 1943.  When we were about 30 yards away the air raid siren sounded.  We decided to run for home, not go back to school.  At the corner of Faversham Road was a church with a tall steeple. 
 
As we reached this church a single aeroplane appeared at the side of the steeple.  It was so low we could see the pilot who had a leather helmet and goggles.  On the side of the plane the German Cross was very clear.  We were petrified with fear and dived between a fence and privets in a front garden until the plane had passed.  Then we ran screaming to our homes.  I was too traumatised to go to school in the afternoon.
 
 Later we heard that at 12:30 lunch time, when mothers and children were in the playground, the children waved at the lone plane thinking it was one of ours.  Suddenly it machine-gunned them down and dropped a bomb into the centre of the school.  Many were buried and people used their hands to clear the debris.  Thirty-two children and six members of staff lost life and sixty were badly injured.
 
I shall never forget that day, I think because I was twelve years old and old enough to know what war was about.  It was me involved.
 
PT, Honor Oak Park.