Lowestoft Bombing , 13-01-1942

My mother, Catherine Bloomfield, would relay the tale of being caught in the bombing raid in Lowestoft, Suffolk. She had taken her younger sister and daughter to the Odeon Cinema in London Road North when the four bombs were dropped.

She said she threw herself over the two girls who would have been around 8 years old. Consequently, she suffered injuries to her head, shoulder and foot. The physical scars stayed with her all her life... especially the foot which continuously caused her problems with swelling.

My father Ronald Bloomfield and grandfather George Mattey were going to meet them and were shocked to see the state of the theatre. They both feared their relatives were dead. But luckily they were not.

Some years later, whilst visiting Lowestoft, Mum visited the museum in Nicholas Everitt Park. There was an exhibition on about WW2. She had never seen any photographs of the bombing and was not only visibly shocked but emotionally upset. She said she didn't know how she got out alive!