THESE pictures, all taken for the Southend Standard during the Second World War, were recently discovered in the Echo archive.

The exact locations and other information had been inked out by the censor.

Echo: Lucky escape – Mr R Harris threw himself across his wife and daughter to protect them during a
bombing raid. A piece of shrapnel came through the bedroom wall, but the family were uninjured

Echo: Safe haven – neighbours Mr and Mrs George Brown and Mr J Martin, from Benfleet, shared the Anderson bomb shelter they built

Echo: Crater – Southend residents survey a big hole in their garden made by a German bomb

Echo: Digging in – in July 1940, a German invasion seemed imminent, so Southend residents dig trenches

Echo: Job centre – with so many men called to fight, jobs were plentiful in local factories and available via Southend Labour Exchange

Echo: Collateral damage – a family’s rabbit hutch and washing suffered when a V1 doodlebug bomb landed on the town in 1944