Debate: The first blitz

I helped my mother, Kathleen Potter, to document her childhood memories. She was born in April 1915 and mentioned that her first memories of living in Bush Hill Park, Enfield, were of  "Mum putting me under the stairs. I think it must have been when a Zeppelin came down at Potters Bar."
That memory fits with the programme's reporting of the improvised reactions of the time. I did a bit of homework and discovered that in September 1916 there was a Zeppelin raid very close to Bush Hill Park. Nearby Ponders End was bombed before the Zeppelin was shot down at Cuffley. Mum would have been only 17 months old at that time, but shoving a toddler under the stairs could easily have resulted in a strong childhood memory for her. I don't think any later raids involved bombs being dropped near Enfield.

When I started my first job in the 1970's my Uncle Eddie wrote to me describing his first day at work in 1915 as a 14year old boy at Parrogon Station in Hull, a day when the Zepplins were busy bombing Hull. A letter I still treasure.