Title
Mrs Daisy Ward remembers when Queniborough village was bombed
Subject
WW2
Description
Mrs Daisy Ward recalls when her home in Queniborough village (Leicestershire county) was bombed during the Leicester Blitz of 1940
Creator
EMOHA70/430
Source
EMOHA
Publisher
EMOHA
Date
21 June 1988
Rights
You may use item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Oral history
Duration
1 minute 5 seconds
Transcription
[Interviewee: Mrs Daisy Ward]
We were bombed out in my old house. Queniborough had bad bombing, half of my house was demolished down there.
[Interviewer: V. Faragher]
Really?
[Interviewee: Mrs Daisy Ward]
Yeah. You could not hear a thing. You could not hear a plane. But, we knew, we could feel it. And I sat like this on my little single bed, and all at once I heard this plane coming, and I thought at the time that the plane had hit the end of the house, but he dropped 9 bombs right across Queniborough Village, incendiaries, the lot. Everything just fell in. All the fractions fell all around me. But they did not hit me, if they had done, then I should not be talking to you now. I thought to myself, I shouted my mum and dad and there was no answer. Well, you can imagine how I felt, because everything was just all around me. I was just buried. But somehow, I thought I am going to get out of this, even if it is the last thing that I do, which I did. I scrambled out.
[Interviewer: V. Faragher]
And was this deliberate bombing or were they just dropping them on the way home?
[Interviewee: Mrs Daisy Ward]
Well, the thing was the all clear had gone. There were only weeny weeny lights. It was an old airman saying where there is light, there is life. And of course he was loaded, wasn’t he. He dropped 4 incendiaries and 9 bombs right across the village. We were the second one and the last one finished upon the church. If he would have had another one, he would have destroyed Queniborough Church. I had an old friend over for tea a fortnight ago and we got all of the old photos out. We laughed; we cried.
[Interviewee and interviewer together]
Joint muffled laughter.
We were bombed out in my old house. Queniborough had bad bombing, half of my house was demolished down there.
[Interviewer: V. Faragher]
Really?
[Interviewee: Mrs Daisy Ward]
Yeah. You could not hear a thing. You could not hear a plane. But, we knew, we could feel it. And I sat like this on my little single bed, and all at once I heard this plane coming, and I thought at the time that the plane had hit the end of the house, but he dropped 9 bombs right across Queniborough Village, incendiaries, the lot. Everything just fell in. All the fractions fell all around me. But they did not hit me, if they had done, then I should not be talking to you now. I thought to myself, I shouted my mum and dad and there was no answer. Well, you can imagine how I felt, because everything was just all around me. I was just buried. But somehow, I thought I am going to get out of this, even if it is the last thing that I do, which I did. I scrambled out.
[Interviewer: V. Faragher]
And was this deliberate bombing or were they just dropping them on the way home?
[Interviewee: Mrs Daisy Ward]
Well, the thing was the all clear had gone. There were only weeny weeny lights. It was an old airman saying where there is light, there is life. And of course he was loaded, wasn’t he. He dropped 4 incendiaries and 9 bombs right across the village. We were the second one and the last one finished upon the church. If he would have had another one, he would have destroyed Queniborough Church. I had an old friend over for tea a fortnight ago and we got all of the old photos out. We laughed; we cried.
[Interviewee and interviewer together]
Joint muffled laughter.
Interviewer
V Faragher
Interviewee
Mrs Daisy Ward
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