BLOWN UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 9

BLOWN UP.

HOW IT FEELS.

CANTEEN WORKER'S STORY. "I heard one bomb explode and in a split second somehow or other I had] the presence of mind to slide under-1 neath tlio table, hold my head and roll myself into a ball," says a British canteen worker, describing how it feels to be bombed. "Then the second bomb hit the canteen. I felt myself blown up in the air, first one way, then tlie other. "Everything started rolling, including myself and the floor underneath me, which began to crumble to pieces. I started spinning downwards, and I remember feeling giddy and fit to split. "I must have been 'out' for two or three seconds only, because the next thing I knew I was not falling any more, and I Avas practically upsidedown, buried under bricks, wood, tiles, cement, and so on, curled up still with my hands over my head. I had three thoughts in quick succession: — "However is it that I've been through all this and can still think, and as far aa I can tell I'm still whole?

"There may be more bombs or machine-guns, so I'll stay here covered up. "£To! There's bound to be fire. A Lucky Thought. "How fortunate the last came to my mind. It startled me into action and I began to dig myself out, heaving the stuff off me until I climbed above the debris.

"When I turned round a huge fire was raging thirty or forty feet high. Within three minutes the area where I had been was all part of the holocaust. "I've never seen such fire. I could do nothing. I had to turn away from it all.

"I was filthy from head to foot with dust and bits of cement in my hair, eyes, mouth. I flt sore everywhere, swellings coming up, thigh badly hurt, but I felt strangely calm and was able to get home unaided.''