Today, Remembrance Day 2023, I share this picture of the entrance to a WWII air raid shelter.
In 1941, this was the site of Parnall's Aircraft Factory, (Yate, UK), which manufactured and tested Lancaster bomber gun turrets. Today it's the Whirlpool factory, thank you to them for the tour.
My father was working at Parnall's on February 27, 1941, when the factory was bombed by a single Heinkel He III bomber, in an unusual daylight raid. My father survived by diving under his lathe, there was no time to run to the shelters since the sirens blew almost at the instant the bombs dropped.
He was 15 years old; 53 coworkers died in the raid. Sadly timely and universal, this blue door reminds me that no child should experience war, or fight, or die, in one.
Photo: Author taking notes at the factory site. (Hair braided for safety). Photo courtesy Rich McDonough.
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