The explosion rocked the ground and sent shock waves through them all. The wind of it blasted through the trees, shedding them of leaves and breaking branches, the sound reverberating endlessly in their heads as more explosions followed and lethal debris was flung into the air to rain down all around them.

Peggy shielded Daisy with her body and tried to burrow deeper into the hedge as the child screamed in terror and those around her scrambled to find better shelter.

The terrible explosions finally stopped. The deadly rain of rubble and uprooted trees petered out. And in the terrible silence that followed, Peggy dared to look out from her hiding place.

A great pall of black smoke was rising beyond Havelock Gardens and spreading like a giant mushroom into the clear blue sky. ‘Oh, dear God,’ Peggy breathed. ‘That’s Havelock Road.’

She grabbed Ron’s jacket sleeve. ‘It exploded in Havelock Road,’ she yelled, her head still ringing and her ears numbed from the explosion. ‘I’ve got to find Doris.’

‘You’ll be doing no such thing,’ he said, releasing her grip on him and helping her out of the ditch as Andy and Peter raced across the field on the motorbike to get the services out. ‘The fire brigade will be here in a minute. Harvey and I will go to see if Doris is all right.’

Peggy tried to soothe Daisy, but she was too distraught herself, so Pauline took charge of the child with great calm and soon had her tears dried and her fears allayed by a chocolate biscuit.

Cordelia was trembling with fear and cold, the muddy water from the ditch dripping from her lightweight coat as Frank gently sat her in one of the deckchairs and wrapped her in a picnic blanket. Charlotte and Kitty were soaked to their thighs, and clearly shaken, but their experiences of flying with the ATA stood them in good stead, and they calmly went to help the mothers of the little ones who’d so recently been playing happily on the swings.

Peggy took it all in as if she was watching it happen from a great distance. ‘I must go and see what’s happened,’ she said fretfully. ‘I can’t just stand about here when my sister could be …’ Unable to complete the sentence, she broke free from Frank’s staying hand and began to run.

The urgent clanging of the fire engines’ bells got louder as they approached from Camden Road. A convoy of Civil Defence trucks followed with an ambulance not far behind it. People were pouring out of the houses and shops to stand and stare, while nurses ran from the hospital and members of the Home Guard collected nearby.

Peggy took it all in as she chased after Ron and Robert, who were now running towards that awful cloud of black smoke.