Not everyone has the terrifying experience of living through a world war, with an enemy intent on destroying their way of life. In this short autobiography, covering my early years from ages 3 to 8, I have dug deep into my memories to share my wartime hopes and fears.

Perhaps my greatest fears occurred during the London Blitz (1940 to 1941), as we spent countless nights and some days taking cover in an Anderson shelter while the Luftwaffe relentlessly rained bombs down upon us. Later, I experienced a mix of fear, excitement, and adventure when the first of Hitler’s Vengeance weapons, the V1 flying bomb, appeared. Walking down the street after an air raid and seeing that a house or a pub had vanished filled me with anxiety for the future.

The second Vengeance weapon, the V2, a giant rocket filled with high explosives, was even more destructive but less terrifying than the V1, as you never saw or heard it coming; it traveled at three times the speed of sound. Tragically, one of these rockets struck my young playmate’s home, killing her and her entire family. If the third weapon, the V3, had not been destroyed by the RAF near the end of hostilities, the course of the war might have been very different.

Why not read more about life during the war for those, like me, who lived each day in fear for their lives?