Home Front Girls by Rosie Goodwin

Author:Rosie Goodwin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781472101006
Publisher: Constable & Robinson Limited
Published: 2013-07-15T12:39:30+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Time became irrelevant as the people in the shelter sat whitefaced, wondering if they would ever get out of there in one piece. And if they did, what would they be going out to? Would their homes still be standing, their loved ones still alive?

And then the sound of an enormous explosion reached them, followed shortly by another and then another.

No one could have any idea what was being targeted, but one man muttered, ‘God help us, some poor buggers are coppin’ it.’

‘Looks like it’s our turn now,’ someone else said fearfully. ‘They must be givin’ them poor sods in London a night off.’

Dotty wrapped her arms about herself as her thoughts returned to Robert. London had been under attack for weeks and she worried about him every single day, although up to now the Germans had been targeting the docks and the East End. The first wave of bombs had hit the Royal Victoria Docks, and soon after the East and West India Docks had become prey to the Messerschmitts and Heinkels that had now become a far too familiar sight in the skies above London. Madame Tussaud’s had also been destroyed. The Tower of London had been hit, though not too badly, and some of the West End shops had also suffered damage. She wondered what Robert would be going home to.

There was nothing to be heard within the sanctuary; everyone was holding their breath, and as they stood huddled there in the semi-darkness, two more explosions sounded. And then the roar of the planes could be heard again as they turned from wherever they had been bombing and flew back directly over them. The roar became a drone before fading to a distant buzz, then dying away altogether.

‘Do yer reckon they’ve gone?’ A woman’s terrified voice broke the silence but for a while no one answered.

And then someone said, ‘Do yer think it’s safe to go back out there yet?’

‘Not until the all-clear sounds,’ someone else warned. ‘They might come back again.’

The woman clutching the baby began to cry, yet strangely the child was silent; he had fallen fast asleep impervious to the danger they were all in.

And then at last the sound they had all been waiting for came and two men wrestled to pull the heavy metal doors open. It was growing dusk by now but even so, the dim light that flooded the shelter was the most welcome sight that Dotty had ever seen.

They staggered out into the cooling evening and looked about, then someone said, ‘Over there – look. Seems they’ve hit Ansty Aerodrome from the direction o’ the smoke.’

In the distance a great pall of smoke was rising into the sky like some ugly great giant, but thankfully, the area around them appeared to be untouched.

People began to drift away, intent on getting home in case the Germans should return. Dotty stood for a time silently staring at the smoke in the distance and then she too set off, her shaking legs barely able to take her weight.

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