Home Front Girls

side reckoned there was only an elderly couple that lived here and we’ve got them both out. Not that it will do them much good,’ he answered sadly.
    Lucy knew she would never forget the sight of those broken bodies for as long as she drew breath.
    They all trooped over to what had once been Miss Timms’s treasured vegetable patch and looked around them. Half of the house was still standing, giving it a grotesque appearance, and even as they watched, an oak dressing-table slithered over the edge of the floor in what must have been Miss Timms’s room to land in a shattered heap on the rubble below.
    ‘Where would the cellar door be?’ the young soldier asked Lucy now and she chewed perplexedly on her lip as she tried to remember. She had only visited the house a few times.
    Then she pointed towards the area where the kitchen had been. ‘On the left-hand side over there, I think,’ she told them.
    They instantly lifted their spades and began to dig. It was mid-afternoon by now and the light was fast fading. Added to that, it was bitterly cold. The men had worked non-stop all through the long night, and now they were so tired that they barely knew what they were doing.
    Feeling useless, Lucy suddenly joined in, flinging bricks and rubble aside with her bare hands, but after an hour the young soldier she had spoken to informed her wearily, ‘Sorry, miss, but I think we’ll have to stop now. There’s been no sound of anyone still alive and my men are about dead on their feet. I’m going to get them back to the barracks for a rest and we’ll start again in the morning.’
    ‘But you can’t just leave them trapped down there!’ Lucy cried, horrified. And then she began to shout: ‘ Dotty! DOTTY, can you hear me?’ Over and over she shouted until her voice became hoarse as the soldiers leaned heavily on their spades watching her. Lucy’s hands were cut and bleeding by now and she was openly crying, the tears leaving grimy tracks down her cheeks. But the only sound they heard was the collapsing of the damaged houses around them.
    The soldiers turned to leave and it was then that it came to them, dully at first but then a little louder.
    ‘ Help! HELP!’
    Lucy’s face lit up as she threw herself at the rubble with renewed vigour. ‘You see?’ she breathed triumphantly. ‘They are alive down there!’
    The young soldier gave an order to his men and within seconds they were digging again. Lucy smiled gratefully at them and side by side they worked on. It was almost dark when at last they reached the cellar door, and the sight of it seemed to spur everyone on. Finally, they managed to drag it open.
    ‘Thankfully, the steps are clear,’ the young soldier told them as he shone a torch down into the gloomy room below. ‘Come on, chaps.’ Then to Lucy, ‘It might be best if you stayed here, miss. We don’t want you trapped down there an’ all if any more of the roof collapses.’
    Lucy’s hands clenched into fists of frustration as she watched two of the men tentatively moving down the dark staircase, testing each step as they went to make sure that it would hold their weight. Time stretched on and at one point Lucy would have gone down to join them, but another soldier gently held her back, telling her, ‘They know what they’re doing, miss.’
    Lucy sincerely hoped so and stood there on tenterhooks as the sound of rubble being carefully moved carried up the steps to them. It seemed that only part of the cellar roof had collapsed, but they all knew that the rest could go at any time and then the two young soldiers would be trapped down there too. But then at last when Lucy was sobbing with emotion, a shout came to them.
    ‘We’ve found them! Radio through for an ambulance – we’re fetching them out now.’
    A young private hurried away to do as he was told as Lucy chewed on her knuckles. And then minutes later there was a sign of activity at the bottom of the steps and the two men appeared carrying a limp form between them. It was impossible to tell if it was Dotty or Miss Timms for now as the body was thickly coated in dust, but as they inched cautiously further up the stairs Lucy cried out with relief when she recognised Dotty’s haircut.
    The men emerged at last and gently laid the figure down whilst another soldier leaned over her and began to wipe the dirt from around her mouth. Then suddenly Dotty’s eyes flew open, the whites of them glaring in the dim light.
    ‘M-my mum!’ she