Those bomb raids were extremely horrific, and it was really a terrible time in the East End of London.
When they got married they moved to the other side of London. Sid’s work was to play on tours all over the country, and they did a year of touring in the middle of the war. While they were on tour Dot became pregnant. Sid realized that they had to stay put, so Dot went to live with his mother, while he finished his contract and he then found a job in London.
Dessa bombräder var verkligen fruktansvärda, och för dom som bodde i East End i London var det en hemsk tid. Så när Sid och Dot gifte sig flyttade de till andra sidan av London. Sids arbete var att spela på turnéer över hela landet, och de for ut på en ett år lång turné mitt under brinnande krig. Medan de var på denna turné blev Dot gravid. Sid förstod att de måste att de måste stadga sig, så Dot flyttade hem till Sids mamma medan Sid fullföljde sitt kontrakt och sedan hittade ett jobb i London.
They found themselves back on the East side of London again. Now it was not the bombs that was the worst, it was the V-1 and the V-2, flying bombs without a pilot that the Germans had invented. You could here them coming, it was like a whistling sound in the air, and then you were just sitting there waiting to hear the blast. These flying bombs were timed to a certain numbers of hours and minutes before the engine cut out, and they just fell down. They were not aimed to any specific target, that was the cruellest thing about them. Pilots in bombers did at least try to make a specific target, but these flying things could just drop anywhere! They were the early stages of rocket development.
Så var dom åter tillbaka till East End igen. Nu var det inte bombningarna som var värst utan V1-och V2-orna. Flygande bomber utan pilot som tyskarna uppfann. Man kunde höra dem komma, det hördes ett visselliknande ljud när de kom, och sedan satt man bara och väntade var de skulle falla ner. Dessa flygande bomber var programmerade att flyga ett visst antal timmar och minuter innan motorerna stannade, och sedan föll de rakt ned. De var inte riktade mot något speciellt mål, det var det grymmaste med dem. Piloter i bombplan har ju i alla fall ett specifikt mål, men dessa flygande saker kunde falla ner var som helst! De var föregångare till dagens missiler.
Sid worked all through the war, he never went in as a soldier, he was not in the lists, but he had to do some entertaining for the troops. He had a twitching of his shoulder since he was a kid and that could be dangerous both for him and people around him, when he was going to fire a gun. So Sid stayed as an civilian.
Sid arbetade hela kriget, han ryckte aldrig in som soldat, han fanns inte i inkallningslistorna, men han måste fullfölja viss underhållning bland trupperna. Han hade ryckningar i ena axeln sedan han var barn och det som bli farligt både för honom och andra när han skulle skjuta. Så Sid förblev civilist.
The children came and Dot had to be evacuated away when she was first pregnant, to a few miles outside London, to get away from the bombs. Sid was still touring at the time, they were doing a tour in London. Dot had four days in labour with her first baby, she had a really tough time. Sid worried himself sick, and when his mother phoned up to hear how Dot went on, they told her that she was in a bad way, it was 50-50 if she would make it or not. That was too much for Sid, it made him really ill and he was flat on his back.
But Dot came through and after the four days Martin came.
Sid and Dot with newborn Martin / Sid och Dot med nyfödde Martin