THE evening of September 5, 1940, is one Eve Douglas will always remember. Not only was it her 14th birthday, but as an awestruck teenager she watched a German Heinkel HE111P bomber shot down in flames over Sunderland.

Little could she have known then that, 62 years on, she would get an unwelcome reminder of that night, when she was woken by police at 3am to tell her she had to evacuate her home.

Eve, of Hendon, Sunderland, was one of 100 residents who were moved from sheltered housing to a day care centre - joining about 3,000 other residents moved out of an exclusion zone around the Deerness Park Medical Centre, in Suffolk Road, Sunderland.

Last night, speaking in the safety of the Nookside Day Centre, in nearby Grindon, Eve, now 67, described how memories came flooding back when she heard that a bomb had been found.

She said: "I didn't realise at first that it could have had anything to do with that night. It seems Heinkel has got its revenge.

"I remember the night it was shot down clearly, because it was my birthday.

"I was living in Ryhope at the time and knew there was going to be a raid, because I could hear the ack-ack battery in Grangetown warming up.

"Then I saw the bomber caught up in the searchlights and saw it hit and going down in flames.

"It was a quiet night and I could hear the cheers of the men manning the gun when they hit it."

The Northern Echo of September 7 reported how the plane was met by a "terrific barrage" of anti-aircraft fire.

According to our reporter, a shell appeared to score a direct hit. The plane broke up and came down burning in one of the most densely populated parts of the town.

The major portion of the machine struck the roof of a house and then fell on to the air raid shelter where Rachel Stormont, 46, was killed, and her husband and 15-year-old daughter injured.

Bombs from the crashed plane littered the surrounding streets, one of which exploded in Ward Street.

Sunderland was one of the main targets of the German bombing raids, because of the importance of the Wear shipyards to the war effort.

Many residents will have no memories of the bombing. But the discovery of the 1,000lb bomb gave them a small taste of what people must have endured.

In scenes reminiscent of the Blitz, thousands were evacuated, many spending a sleepless night at Southmoor and Thornhill schools.

Among them was Angela Murphy, 41, who, along with 12 family members, found herself walking the streets in the early hours looking for shelter.

She said: "We heard a rumour at 6pm that a bomb had been found. But it wasn't until about 1am that police came and told us it was best if we all left.

"Our whole family, including a two week-old baby, went to Southmoor School, only to be told there was no room left for us.

"We then had to walk a further 40 minutes to Thornhill."

Mrs Murphy also had childhood memories of Suffolk Street.

She said: "Before the medical centre was built, there used to be a row of terraced houses with one house missing.

"We were always knew that either a bomber had come down there or it had been hit by a bomb.

"But what is really frightening is that we used to light bonfires in that gap.

"And to think there was a bomb underneath there all this time.