‘On Wednesday 13th September, we went to a local air raid shelter at St Leonard’s Court, in East Sheen. We first went to Mortlake to watch a short film about a 103 year old man called Leslie who had experienced the war with his wife and baby daughter. Leslie sadly passed shortly after the film was made.’ Dior—Y6

‘After the film was finished, we saw a PowerPoint where we saw where the bombs were hit and we learned that they wanted to destroy Hammersmith Bridge (but missed) and a Vauxhall car company which was making airplane parts (but missed, they hit a graveyard).  They followed the shine of the moon on the River Thames to locate houses in the dark.’ Matthew—Y6

‘The Germans used a plane called Luftwaffe (Luft means Air and Waffe means Power). It stands for Air Power. In 1940 The Blitz started. The reason why Hitler bombed England was because he wanted to rule England so he bombed food shelters and airports but he failed in the end.’ Yanna—Y6

‘The air raid shelter was used to hide the residents of St Leonard’s Court from the bombs that came from the German planes. There were 83 flats and 48 bunk beds in the entire air raid shelter.’ Joseph—Y6

‘When we arrived at the air raid shelter, we headed straight down the stairs and   into the female day room. The walls were painted with lime-wash. At the back, we found two chemical toilets and an escape hatch. In the male night room, there were 24 bunk beds and there was a piece of a cloth which had been there for 80 years.’ Vinnie—Y6

‘Outside it looks like very beautiful, it had like grass and bushes. The 4 hatches were closed because children tried to get in. The hatches were used for escaping in case of a fire or emergency.’  Alex I—Y6

‘When the class went to the air raid shelter yesterday, it felt like I was walking into history.’ Georgia—Y6