The Sounds of Enemy Bombers

When I used to come home on leave, my parents were living in Croydon, Surrey, which is just on the borders of London. You could hear these planes coming over and each plane, German plane, had a distinct sound. You’d hear “Mmm...Mmm...Mmm...Mmm” and they would sound the sirens then you’d run for shelter.And I can remember being on leave and this was in Balham, South West 12 London, and everybody there in London would run for the underground train shelter. There was 219 people gassed and drowned in the Balham underground station because a bomb had gone right through the centre of the street where the gas mains were and the underground tracks and tunnels were flooded. And they had to close it off, I think it was from Kennington, from Balham to Kennington which was right in London. They had to close the underground off.