The Night the Bombs Fell

“At least three bombs fell that night. One of the bombs had fallen in Orchard Street and demolished three houses. People had been killed. Our front windows had been blown in. I went and stood in the front window looking out and I was crunching broken glass under my feet. 'My dad came across and said 'Look we have got a Iady over the road she's just been dug out of the rubble of her house'. He said that she had got broken ribs and was suffering from severe shock and she wasn't expected to live the night so could they bring her to us and could mum look after her?.”

'We had only got a little narrow hallway and we had to bring the stretcher through the window. Mum and I nursed her all night and she recovered. We had this lady, her husband and her son staying with us for about a week until the Council managed to rehouse them. They were all in a terrible state of shock I heard later that the bomber wasn't aiming at Redditch, he was being chased and needed to get rid of the bombs. 'As a result of my father's stretcher-bearing efforts he got pneumonia and was in bed for Christmas. It had been a very cold night he had got hot and gone out in the cold again. 'We were only there until April 1942 as they moved all the stuff back to London, evidence they thought the worst of the bombing was over. Then they used all four houses as a hostel"

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