computedshorty

The trams entered the Depot on a set of rails to be loaded onto a transporter platform in the foreground that moved them to the appropriate row of parked trams. The passengers had no glass in the tram for days. Second picture The Tram Transporter can be seen here to the right the controls can be seen they are the same as a trams controls.

The Large Tram Depot at Camberwell Green was bombed and put many trams out of service. They all got repaired, as the staff there had been used to altering them one of the early pre war makeovers was to enclose the drivers cabin that had been open to all weather, the passengers were grateful of the door that was behind the driver being closed.

" No standing on top " as the conductor would call out, not much chance of this bus ever being repaired. So its now no longer serving the public. The advert on the bus here in Holbourn says Black & White, very apt as everything was indeed Black & White in those days.

Just a normal day in the kids life, sitting outside the old home, wondering if the rest of the neighbours are being cared for, and where they have been moved to. So many did not get moved, but the children were not told they all died.

Not many can be expected to be alive under this. The early strechers were just two long poles with a canvas in between. There was no thought of not moving a casualty, they just moved them holding arms and legs to the nearest place an ambulance could pick them up. Here in the road you might see many covered stretchers, covered over completely with a red blanket, awaiting removal to the morgue.

Blitz Cristmas 1940. Not a very good Christmas for them. There were not normally as many rescuers on the bomb site. Unable to trace place of Picture.

During my search for records of the V1 & V11 Bombs, I came across this website by Steve who wrote the V1 & V11 Doodle Bugs & Rockets, who is also a member here of this Eastdulwichforum. He had read that I was trying to trace the bomb dates, and contacted me. I was able to tell him that my father was one of the Air Raid Wardens based in the Dulwich Library that attended the damage in Court Lane where his Grandmother was living, on Dovercourt Road where the V11 Rocket landed on 6/1/1945. He asked if I could give any information on the V1 Doodle Bug that Landed in the Lordship Lane / Eyenella Road / Court Lane triangle on 13/7/1944, as he was now living there. This is his own entry. The V1 fell in the area behind Dulwich Library at the junction of Lordship lane and Woodwarde Road. It injured 14 people and demolished part of a church and the priest?s house in Lordship Lane. . 9 shops and 40 houses suffered severe damage in Lordship Lane and 50 houses badly damaged in Court Lane. The damaged/rebuilt area can clearly be seen. My younger Sister was in the Library Gardens when it fell, she was luckily dragged into a brick Air Raid Shelter in time. The bomb explode just a few hundred yard away. Her account is somewhere on the Wartime Memories caled " Dont pick the Daiseys " This is by Steve; I have been interested in the V1 and V11 attacks for many years. My family lived in South London during the war, in Beckenham and Dulwich and I was often told stories of the Blitz and the V weapon attacks. My mother ,who lived in Beckenham, used to tell a story of how she used to travel from Clock House Station to Charing Cross on the train to work. One day she looked out of the window and saw a Doodlebug flying along on a parallel course !. Everyone just went on reading their news papers and after what seemed like a long time it veered off and exploded . I recall asking her if she was frightened. She replied, "well yes but you just got used to it !" My Dulwich Grandmother, who lived in Dovercourt Road , used to frequently mention the bombing. I now live a few hundred yards away, in Court Lane, in a house itself damaged by a Flying bomb on the 13th July 1944. My Uncle Peter, once told me that he used to go up to the Addington Hills, near Croydon, and watch the V2's being launched from the Netherlands (on a clear day you could see the vapour trails going up into the sky). He was later employed patching up Flying bomb and Rocket damaged houses. So, intrigued with these recollections, a few years ago I started reading books on the subject including Bob Ogley's excellent Doodle Bugs & Rockets, and the very comprehensive "The Doodlebugs" by Norman Longstaff. These provided me with a huge amount of information. However, being of an enquiring mind, I wanted to find out exactly what happened in South London during the Period, how many bombs, where they fell, what damage was caused and what affect that this had on the post war shape of the area. Currently I am not able to handle any queries due to pressure of other work.

I have been looking on an old computer this is the map of the bombs on East Dulwich that I made saveral years ago.

The most important communal shelters were those in the stations of the London Underground. Although many had used them as such during World War I. The government rejected their use in 1939 to not interfere with commuter and troop travel, and because of fears that occupants might refuse to leave. Although Underground officials were ordered to lock station entrances during raids, by the second week of heavy bombing the government acknowledged the popular demand and opened the stations. Each day orderly lines of people waited for 4 pm when they were allowed to enter the stations. In mid-September 1939 about 150,000 a night slept in the Underground, although by the winter and spring months the numbers had declined to 100,000 or less. Noises of battle were muffled and sleep was easier in the deepest stations, but many were killed from direct hits on several stations. Peak use of the Underground as shelter was 177,000 on 27 September 1940, and many others used the stations at some point. A November 1940 census of London found that about 4% of residents used the Tube and other large shelters; 9% in public surface shelters; and 27% in private home shelters, implying that the remaining 60% of the city likely stayed at home. By the end of 1940, significant improvements had been made in the Underground and in many of other large shelters. Authorities provided stoves and bathrooms, and canteen trains provided food. Tickets were issued for bunks in large shelters to reduce the amount of time spent queuing. Deep tunnels were built within the Underground to hold 80,000 people but were not completed until the period of heaviest bombing had passed. Locals would go to the Oval or the Elephant & Castle Stations

Memories of Bombing V1 & V2 20/06/1944 East Dulwich The first V1 to fall in Dulwich 8 houses were demolished, 55 suffered severe damage and 71 slight damage. The area today around Friern Road and Etherow Street has been totally re-developed as a result of this V1 and the V2 which fell on the 1st November 01/11/1944 East Dulwich This was a very serious V2 incident when 24 people were killed, the Rocket struck at the South East end Of Etherow Street by Friern Road. This Rocket followed a V1 in the area in August 1944 and there is wholesale destruction of housing shown on the bomb maps in this area. It is recorded that 23 houses were totally destroyed with at least another 80 very badly damaged. The area has been extensively re-developed with post war housing demonstrating the extent of damage at this point The two bomb incidents were to remain in my memory as they happened a very short distance from my home, and I saw the devastation myself. I had reached fourteen years of age and had to find employment, my father wrote to the owner of a building contractor that had it offices a few doors from our home, asking if he could find a job for his son now leaving school and wanted to go into the building trade. We had an invitation to go for an interview, my father explained that he was in the building trade but thought it would be better that I was not employed with him, as we knew the reputation of this builder and he wanted him to be apprenticed as a carpenter, where he could learn all about building from the foundations to the roofs. I was accepted and reported to the foreman at Friern Road Bombsite, the site covered five roads that had been destroyed by a V1 & V11 Bombs. The men were in the process of salvaging parts from the worst houses to repair the least damaged, nearly all had the stair cases damaged as the tall brick chimney stacks had fallen on them and smashed them through. There was no new timber available so the salvaged joists that were the thickest timbers available were de-nailed and cut on an ancient petrol driven circular saw bench, to cut to the size of the timbers needed for the staircases, these had to be hand planned to smooth the surface, then the joints cut and assembled. Window frames were the worst to repair as they need so many different shaped parts, and the replacement glass was sub standard with wavy lines in them. We repaired the roofs but had to wait weeks until slates came, so the tarpaulin sheets had to remain in place. When this site was done we moved to the next. At a later date we put up Prefabs on the ground. where the houses had been totally destroyed. The picture shows the Prefabs from Lordship Lane corner down Friern Road to Etherow Street, a few houses were repaired one is just in the pictur to the right we used it as aur workshop. Interesting the trees that were damaged are now showing new growth with new branches.

Memories Children of the War 1940 The Second World War had started. Was I going to get hurt or killed? I was eight years old. What did it all mean? Some weeks after the declaration of war things started to happen. A horse drawing a cart pilled high with corrugated steel sheets, stopped outside the house and a man knocked at our front door to ask ?How many people live here?, Mum said ?Ten?. The man said with that many, we would have to have an Andersen shelter to be dug into the garden. He would leave enough parts. He and his mate brought in ten curved side panels and eight flat ones for the ends. There were channels that were to be used for the foundations to stand the corrugated iron sheets upright, otherwise the sheets would sink into the clay with the weight, an iron bar to fix the front and back, and lots of nuts and bolts with diamond shaped washers bent to fit the shape of the corrugation. Some days later two men came to dig the hole for the shelter to be put into. They dug down three feet, and fixed the shelter together in the hole, stuffed old newspapers into the gaps that were left as the ends of the sheets did not fit into the corrugations, then piled all the earth from the hole over the top of the shelter. When the men had gone we looked at the shelter, we could not see any of it from the outside only a big hump at the bottom of the garden. We got inside. We had to get in backwards and drop down feet first into the darkness inside. It smelt earthy and some of the soil was falling in past the old newspapers that did not fill the gaps fully. Later two men came to put a cement floor inside, but left a little hole to bale out any water if it got in. Water did get in , lots of it, down through the newspaper with brown clay streaking the end, and water came through the bolt holes in the roof. Some wooden bunk beds came, just a wooden frame with rigid wires nailed across to sleep on. Mum received a letter to say we must all go to the Air Raid Precaution Post to get gas masks, Mum, Dad, My brothers and sisters all got the same, a black one with just one window in it, and a cardboard box to keep it in, with a string to hang it over your shoulder. We were told to take it everywhere with us. I had a brown one with two windows like glasses, it had a kind of flat rubber nose sticking out with two holes in it. I found that if I was wearing it and wet the two holes and blew, it made a nice rude noise. The baby twins were next. The lady had a thing like a diver?s helmet that was made of red rubber and canvas. It was laid on its back and baby was put in head first, it came down to the baby?s hips, the arms were inside, but the legs were outside. Laces were pulled tight around the waist then tied to make it airtight. On the outside was a pump about three inches wide. This must be pumped all the time baby was inside. Mum said she wanted two. The lady showed all of us how to use the pump and said that one of us must always be there to help Mum with the babies. The baby in the gas mask was screaming, the large window in the gas mask had misted up and we could not see baby, Mum started crying and got the baby out. The lady said that if we did have to use them, she would have to make baby stay inside, we must wear them for a few minutes a day until we got used to them. When we got home Mum said she did not like them! About a month later we heard a noise out the front. We went out to find men with big hammers smashing our cast iron railings. They had been five feet high with a big gate. All the posts had a point on them. The brickwork was broken, and was left like that and was never repaired. They took away the railings for the war effort. The trams that ran past our home had curtain netting glued to the inside of the windows , so that if they were blasted the glass would not cut the passengers, but as time went by the smokers made the glass so dirty that you could not see out. A wet finger could just about clean a small hole between the strands of netting to peep through. There were no street lights, and in the fog the only thing you could see were the three white bands that were painted on the trees and lamp posts. The cars and other vehicles had shades put over their headlights, something like a tin can with a slit, just a tiny light showed. No light was allowed to show from the houses. Thick curtains had to be closely drawn. If a light did show, someone would shout ?Put that light out!?. Dad had joined the A.R.P. service as an Air Raid Warden. He had a white tin hat, a dark blue uniform and another different gas mask, a whistle and a torch. Dad worked at Peak Frean?s biscuit factory doing maintenance to the buildings by day, then in the evenings he had to go to the A.R.P. Post to do duty. Sometimes he was away all night. Part of his job was to go round the public shelters. These were brick built in the streets and underground ones in the park. He had to count how many people were in each, chalk it on the blackboard in the shelter, and enter it into his note book to record back at the A.R.P. post. Incendiary bombs were dropped. He would have to dislodge them from roofs with long poles. Once they fell to the ground they could be put out with sand or with a stirrup pump, with one foot on the pump, keeping the suction part in a bucket of water, using one hand to pump and the other to direct the hose pipe. The water would make the incendiary bomb throw out white hot bits of phosphorous! Dad told us of the damage that had happened that night and of the people who had been injured, and how he had to dig people out of their bombed homes. We liked to listen to the wireless , when Dad fixed it up. We heard this man say, ?This is Germany calling. We are going to bomb London tonight?. His name was Lord Haw Haw. Dad said he was a traitor, as he was English. In fact his real name was William Joyce and he had lived just across the park from where we were living. I don?t know what I thought I was going to do, but one day several of us boys went to Alison Grove near Dulwich Park Pond and looked at the house where he had lived. We heard a piano being played and we shouted abuse and ran away. A lady came to the door, it could have been Eileen Joyce, his sister, the well known pianist, but we didn?t wait to find out. Dad always went to work on his little Coventry Eagle motor bike. He had a small ration of petrol coupons as he had to get to his wardens duties. In the morning he would get his motor bike out of the shed at the side of the house, put a wooden ramp from the step to the pavement, run his bike down, then put the ramp back in the front garden. Then he would sit astride the bike and shake it from side to side. He said this mixed the petrol and oil in the tank.. He then started the engine. He would adjust his overcoat, put on his goggles and pull on his gauntlets. Twenty minutes to eight, off he went to Bermondsey to arrive in time to change into his white overalls ready for work at eight o'clock. I remark on his preciseness as one evening he did not return at his usual time of five twenty five. It was very foggy and there had been an air raid. At half past six there was a knock at the door, Dad stood there, soaking wet, covered in clay, coat torn, no cap and cut a head. We thought that he had been blown up, but he told us what had happened. As he rode home he turned a corner in the fog. A rope had been strung across the road as a bomb had been dropped making the road impassable. The rope had caught him under the chin and he fell off. The motor bike carried on into the bomb crater, so my elder brothers went back with him to pull it out of the hole, then, half carry it back home, they all worked on it, to repair it for the next day, after lots of straightening of the metal, and adjustments, it was thought to be usable on the following day.? They all came indoors and washed the oil and muck off. Mum bathed Dads head, and repaired his torn trousers and coat, the clay had dried and could be brushed off, he had not been able to find his cap. Dad started his tea but remembered he had to go to the A.R.P. post for that nights fire watch at the Dulwich Library, he was worried that he would be late.

22/8/1944 Lordship lane East Dulwich. This V1 in Lordship lane fell on the West side just South of the junction with Townley Road. It demolished 20 houses in Lordship lane and damaged 130 others in Lordship Lane, Beauval Road and Heber Road. The impact site is very clear to see particularly on the West side of Lordship lane where the site is still partly populated with pre-fabs. The other side of the road has also been re-developed post-war. I person was killed. This bomb fell just 17 days after the one down the road, this time only 14 houses and a church away from our home. The bomb fell in the night but we were not allowed to look until it got light, our doctors surgery where we could either see Dr Hunter or Dr Pitman,had been demollished. I found a glass jar with human bits preserved in it that was lying in the road, mum would not let me keep it!. One of the houses was the one that the builder used as an office that I would in later date go to work for. We had our roof off again. I think that the church being so high had protected our house from more damage than would have got. The picture shows one of the Prefabs that were built just after the bombing now it is just one of the thousands built. These buildings came in sections and one of my first jobs was to help build them.

This is the report by Steve who colated all the V1 & v11 Bombs. This was a very serious V1 incident, one of the worst in South London. The V1 hit the co-op store at the corner of Northross Road in Lordship Lane. The Co-op and 6 other shops were demolished and 20 houses damaged in Lordship land and 40 in Shawbury Road. A Salvation army hall was also damaged. It is stated in ARP reports held in the public records office that damage extended across a 700 yard radius, greater than the normal blast area. This is probably due to the fact that later V1's were packed with a heavier, more deadly warhead. It was also reported that Anderson shelters in the area stood up well to the blast. Bulldozers were called in to clear the debris and one tram track was cleared by 20.30 of the same day. The whole block where the Coop stood has been re-developed with post war shops. The opposite side of Lordship Lane also shows significant signs of re-building as do houses up Shawbury Road. I used to go on Saturday morning as a child to the Salvation Army Hall in Shawbury Road to watch the film shows it cost one penny, and we all sat on long forms, I remember the film breaking down every time we went, we would all ?chi? ike? like mad till it was mended. I lived in Lordship Lane a bit up the road, and came on my wooden scooter made from bomb site nicked wood with ballbearing race wheels taken from old engines, we would all pile them up in front of the hall in a heap and sort them out later, each owner had a number of lemonade crown caps nailed to the front of their scooter so you soon found your one, the wheels made a clonk / clonk as they run over the Portland stone paving slabs. The V1 put an end to our Saturday morning outing. By the end of the war we had 8 V1 & V2?s drop in our road.

The London Blitz now 72 years ago today, the constant bombing and the casualties and damage, not a lot is now available to see it as it was then. It is very difficult to visualise just what it was like. I can post a few pictures if there is any interest.

Do you want a Push Start?

I think a certain Judge has been reading your posts and is encouraged by your uncertainty of using a gun to protect yourself, most seem to be undecided. If you were a Paraplegic and had won many medals, would you be in your right, and would you shoot and try to save them from being stolen and never be replaced? Lets hope our winner was awarded the medals for shooting.

I was intending to shoot a Picture of the intruder to hand to the police to proove that he had intruded into my home, But as he fired first, wiith his gun that he carried ( just in case he was discovered, but he had no intension of using it, and did not know it was loaded ). You can visit me in hospital but be quick, I have a rare blood group, and they are a bit concerned should they use the valuable blood of this group on an octogenarian? I'v had one visitor I asked him what was written on the board at the end of the bed, he said " Do not resuscitate " well he could not lie as he was the Padre. The Police have told me he has put in a claim to have his blood stained clothes cleaned, I think he will be unsuccessful as I have left my personal effects to the RSPCA and they are against Blood sports.

They dont like it up em!

Would you shoot a burglar? The law in now on the side of the victim of a burglary . If you caught one or more robbing your possessions, would you challenge and shoot them? A burglar is giving justification by being in your home and in the process of removing your possessions that you have bought with the money you earned during your life time. Having been taught during my army service to shoot the enemy on sight, not knowing that person or having any other good reason to shoot him you would do it. My reaction? I have no about it.

The holes now being dug in the Peckham / Nunhead Lane area is an ongoing investigation prior to a Wind Turbine being sited on the Peckham Rye. The object is to find the River Peck to use the natural water that is fed from a spring. It appears to be that it will power the pumps to the refurbished Peckham Lido ( open air swimming pool ). Concern has been voiced of the appearance of the Wind Turbine, it has been suggested that it might be in the form of an old style Wind Mill, with four Sails instead of three Propellers, this will blend in with the open area of Peckham Rye, and may bring an interest to the Rye. Due to the local epidemic of mosquitoes causing harmful attacks on the workers on site, the work has been suspended until winter months. This does give the public some time, if they wish to give their views on this development.

This was in 1939 The Day War Broke Out ?September 1939 It was the day we were getting ready for our holiday at Margate. Mum, Dad, two elder sisters, two elder brothers, myself and the baby twins in their double pram, bags and parcels, all made our way to Herne Hill Railway Station. First a half mile walk, then the bus, as we got off the bus there was confusion, people were running about saying that war had been declared, between England and Germany. Dad said that we would have to go back home, as it would not be safe to go to the seaside, as it was on the coast near to Germany, and we may be invaded by German Soldiers or get bombed by aeroplanes. We waited at the bus stop for ages but none came. A car driver stopped, he said that no buses were running as all the bus drivers had taken them back to the bus depot,and he asked where were we trying to get to, and Dad said, ?East Dulwich?. The driver offered to take us all home, as it was a very large car it took all nine of us, and the bags! And the pram! As we drove home Dad said to the driver; ?All I want to do is get home with my family?. In the first World War he had been a prisoner in Austria for four years. He thought that now as he was fifty-four years old he would not be called up for service abroad, although he thought he might have to join something. Aunt Ali who lived with us, she had a room on the forth floor, came running down, she was flustered, and did not know why we had returned home. I can still remember her saying, "Oh my gawd! What?s happened??. Dad said it ?Its because the war had started?. Aunt knew nothing of this, but she did wonder why the church bells had been ringing all morning. Dad thought that the wireless would be broadcasting the latest news of the war. We had a radio that worked from an accumulator, that is a glass jar with lead hanging in acid with two terminals, when charged it worked as a battery. Dad always put this away after it was used into the cupboard under the stairs, and we were forbidden to go near it as we could get burnt by the acid if it were spilt. We all watched and waited while Dad fetched the accumulator, put it on the table, then got the receiver connected two wires to it, then an other wire that he pulled in through the window, The other end of this wire went up to the top of the house, down the garden to the conker tree. This was called the aerial. all these were fitted together, we all sat around the large table, all ten of us, waiting for the set to warm up, we could see the valves inside start to glow as they warmed up. Dad fiddled with the tuning knob, then we could hear someone speaking but it was foreign. Dad tried again, this time it was music, but after a while a man said; ?There will be a special announcement shortly by The Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain?. The speech was made, we were told that a state of war was between us, nobody knew what this meant, or how it would affect us. Mum made tea, and opened the sandwiches that we were going to have on the beach at Margate. By Shorty aged 8.

The Bus Stand beside the Plough Public House here in 1941 shows the buses that were in service then, some had been brought out of retirement as regular buses were being used for Troop transport. It is interesting to see the white painted rings around the trees and lamp posts, and the front mud guards of all transport all front lights had a cover fitted over them to stop a beam on the road a very small slit was cut in the cover to allow oncomig trafic to see them. This was to help to see oncoming vehicles in the unlighted streets, it was even more dificult to see out of the windows of trams and buses as they were covered in a lace to stop the glass that might be smashed by bombs showering the passengers that was glued to the glass, that and the smokers who covered the windows with nicotine soon became hopeless to see anything outside at all. When the Smog came down the Conductor would have to walk in front of the bus ro show the deiver the way. At main junctions of trams a lighted lamp that looked like a watering can with a wick in the funnel containing a diesel mixture were lighted giving off a yellow glow, adding to the smog.

This picture was taken near the corner of Blackwater Street a little up from Lockharts shops. A ninteen twenty nine Austin seven Chummy with a brass bath tap on the radiator cap. Sid Gerkin sitting next to the driver who lived in Whatley Road, Victor Jex lived in Bassano Street, and Computedshorty at the wheel, who lived in Lordship Lane. Sometime in the fifties.

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