Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Seven

Interview with Joyce Exton Wallace. Seven

Joyce Exton Wallace recalls the bombing of her sister's house with whom Joyce and her baby, Robert, were living. Half of the house was destroyed and 11 month old Carol was killed. Joyce, Robert and her sister escaped by climbing down the rubble of the house next door which had collapsed.

00:02:32 audio recording

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AExtonWallaceJ[Date]-07

I was living with my sister and her husband at the time. They’d got a, it was a big house, fourteen rooms but they divided it into two flats top and bottom and my sister had the top half and I went to live with her because my husband had been killed over Germany before my son was born and I was living with them. And then on the 8th of December we had a V-2 rocket in the back garden and I’d got my son with me of course and it blew the house completely in half. Unfortunately, little baby Carol was in the back half and she was killed. The only one in the whole of the big expensive V-2 rocket it killed an eleven month old baby. But when we got, finally we got out I managed to get Robert from the other room. He was in the front room. I managed to get around to doing that. I can’t remember how I got him out but I’d got him with me and I thought well sitting up here, my sister’s husband was down below trying to tell the rescue workers what to do and I was up with my sister and Robert and myself trying to think how do I get down from here? And the house next door which had jutted out collapsed slowly and slid down and I was able to edge my sister along and we slid down with the rescue workers holding, helping us and we got off of the ground that way. We got in to the hospital, got into the ambulance and well I mean I’ve laughed about it since but I didn’t laugh at the time because I couldn’t see the funny side of it but as we were sat there the postman came around the corner with a handful of letters and he just pushed his hand up to head like this, scratched his head and where am I going to put the letters, you know. it was really funny that. I’ve forgotten half the story.