After Des
Sheen’s second bale-out on 5 September, he was initially taken to a ‘wizard
hospital’, a private mansion which had been converted, and which already housed
two others from 72 Squadron. As London was blitzed, Des, in his hospital bed, had
been witness to:
‘lots of
scrapping lately and to see the size of the Jerry formations from the ground
even has been unbelievable...hundreds in each. Have also seen quite a few go
down as some of the fighters were right over our head and one Jerry jettisoned
his bombs which fell about 50 yards from our hospital Up till when we left they
were still unexploded’.
Despite the
aerial shows, he had a ‘grand time’ for a few days but on 9 September were
moved to an ‘awful’ hospital just outside London
where he had even more of a grandstand view of the blitz:
‘We get it every
night now too and last night heard nothing but machines, bombers and AA fire
all night. I think the invasion is about to start but luckily after an
incredible spell of too perfect weather clouds and rain have started to appear.’
It is
interesting to speculate if Desmond’s experiences of air raids while he was
hospitalised inspired his father to develop in 1942 a new, inexpensive type of
air raid shelter, especially designed to provide safer and more comfortable
protection for hospital patients. He considered it ‘ridiculous to think of
putting people who are seriously ill in open trenches’.
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