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I was a plotter of aircraft attached to the 513 Search Light Battery. We were in action on the South coast from Hastings to Eastbourne, and we had lookouts watching for crippled planes — some in dreadful condition — trying to get across the Channel.

I was with the Search Light Battery, and I was on open lines to all the Search Light Units — my job was to give bearings to Search Lights to dip at angle all together, showing a hole to drop into, if lucky. Many plane crews came to thank us.

I was on duty when the first V2’s — Doodlebugs — came over. We couldn’t plot them; we didn’t know what they were, and they came at terrific speed.

I was on an open line to one of our soldiers in France, and he would tell me how many planes were leaving — every night he sent the message through me. With us being on the South coast, it wasn’t long before we could hear their engines, once we had spoken.

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