Sent by:Henry Avery
Sent to:Edith Avery
Sent from:East London
Date of letter:8 September 1940
"Searchlights sweep about overhead and there is some gunfire. The streets are deserted and as we get down eastwards and cross Whitechapel Road into Sidney St we can see several big fires going."
Henry, Edith’s father, kept a diary of his experiences as a London Fire Brigade volunteer, from 1940 onwards, titled Blitz Nights.
It is written in an excercise book, in pencil. In 2020 I copied it out in it’s entirety on to my PC, as the handwriting was very faded. I had it printed out and bound. I added a few photos of my grandfather, one of which shows him with other volunteers in their uniforms.
Transcript:
Blitz Nights
At eleven o'clock on Sunday Sept, 8th, I report for duty at X Sub Stn on 38 ground having finished my week's annual leave. I am ordered to drive No.3 Trailer Pump. The crew are Johnny Hooker in charge, Bill Holt (both Royal Fusiliers in the last war). Bill Tilbury one of our cooks, Harold Lee also a cook and myself. Nothing happens during the day but as usual at dusk we get an Air Raid warning.
Somewhere between 10.30pm and 11 o'clock the bells go down and No's 2 and 3 T.P.s are ordered out. No 3 is to report to .34 Stn which is in Cable St, Shadwell. We turn into Haggerston Road, heading for Hackney Rd. There is a fair amount of light from the moon which is about in the first quarter and we get going as fast as the old taxi will pull.
Searchlights sweep about overhead and there is some gunfire. The streets are deserted and as we get down eastwards and cross Whitechapel Road into Sidney St we can see several big fires going. Sidney St of the famous seige of some thirty years ago has a rope with a red lamp across which means it has been bombed and either is blocked with debris or possibly there is an unexpected bomb there.
I take a turning to the left and again right which brings me into Commercial Rd where we turn left again. We keep on some way trying to find a street which will lead us down to 34. After asking a policeman we turn back on his advice some distance till we come to the street we believe he has told us to take, here we find some Wardens and a couple of soldiers. One of the Wardens jumps on the side to pilot us to 34. We turn again on his directions when he tells us to keep well over as there are some unexploded bombs in the road. We've already come to the spot where the bombs are supposed to be!
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