including
Woolwich & Districts
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Plumstead
Baths and a Tragic Birthday
I had a
friend living next door, who was the same age as me. On October
8, 1940, it was his birthday, and we decided to commemorate
it by going swimming in Plumstead Baths.
We arrived
to find that a bomb had fallen on a shelter in Woolwich Arsenal,
and it killed 200 people. They were using the baths for the
mortuary, so we couldn’t go swimming. So we had to go
back home then, and in the evening we had a big raid, so we
went into the shelter.
A landmine
landed on the fence between their shelter and our shelter, and
my friend was killed and so was his mother. I was blinded, so
I lost most of the sight in my left eye, but they operated and
saved the sight in my right eye after the war.
'By Ellen
Searle.
WW2 People's
War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by
members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can
be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar'
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