Lucy Glaser Merritt - July 8, 1991
The Blitz
Do you remember any of the air raids?
Oh sure! I was in London during part of the Blitz. I remember the first time, first bomb fell, we were playing cards and the whole building shook. And everybody else went under the table and I was so scared I kept arranging my cards. I didn't...did nothing. And then when we, I got up we saw that the house across the street had been hit. That's why our building shook. And I saw a lot of minor casualties. People being shrapneled and that sort of thing.
So this was a nightly occurrence.
That went on nightly. That went on every night. My mother went to the uh, uh, underground, the subway. She had a seat there. ??? I don't know, they had some kind of system. I didn't go. I felt it was going to get you one way or the other. I just stayed home in bed. But it went on nightly and it went on during the day too. But very heavy at night. And they had these flares where they lit up the whole area. So it was practically like day you know, they could see you. Well, one very strange thing that I saw is they were-a German flyer. Of course the uniform was very familiar to me. And he had to bail out and a mob attacked him. And it was a very strange feeling to see that I was not, I did not feel a feeling of satisfaction. I felt awful. You know, that they would attack this man who had been bombing us. It's understandable, their reaction. But still, it was ghastly. Yes, the air raids I remember them very clearly. In the first one I got so scared I couldn't do anything. And from then on you more or less ignore it. The children were touchy. They would scream when they heard the, the siren or... And you could tell by the sound of the bomb, when it got louder it would come closer. So you sort of listen to see if it was coming your way or not.
And you always stayed in your, in your flat.
Yeah. I felt there was no guarantee that you couldn't be hit somewhere else.
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