大象传媒

Most people were taken aback by the arrival of German flying bombs over Southern England so soon after D Day in June 1944. That great overlord operation had really enhanced our feelings of 'winning' the WAR, and it never occurred to us that Germany was capable at this late time of launching an offensive against this country of any kind. The Germans were in retreat on all fronts and their Luftwaffe was in decline due to overwhelming allied air superiority. Thousand bomber raids too were reducing German cities and industry to ruin and rubble, and our naval forces had all but eliminated the German fleet and U boats.

The day following the first agitated talk and fears of this new German flying weapon, one flew clean over my head.
I was just turned 17 years old and a waiter working at a posh Reigate hotel, and that morning while discussing the new menace in the hotel car park I heard the peculiar jet-like noise approaching from the Redhill direction. Having never heard such sounds before we naturally turned to see what was coming, and there, quite low at three hundred feet came the flying bomb, or 'doodle bug' as they became known.
I was absolutely amazed by what I was seeing for not only was its fiery jet pipe a noisy blasting staccato sound, but it flew onwards in a dead straight line to luckily clear Reigate town before exploding on Reigate Heath. It had flown from exactly East to West!
Now that immediately struck me as odd for I was very 'air' minded and capable with aeroplane modelling. My conclusion was that this 'doodle bug' was off course, or, gone astray. The flying-bombs were in fact pilotless planes full of fuel and explosives. When the fuel ran out, flight was terminated with a 'bang'.

The German flying bomb V weapon was a very clever contraption-cum-flying-machine of elementary design. It didn't need to be anything more than a rudimentary shape and wing surfaces - no fancy shape, or trimmings, other than minimal elevator and rudder for its gyroscope instruments to control. If the instruments got upset or damaged, then of course the 'bug' aircraft would lose its pilot. Too much damage and it would quickly crash. (hard luck to those caught beneath).
So the 'doodle bug' that overflew our hotel had probably become gyroscopically unstable in its compass link or rudder trim. The gyroscope was obviously linked to an altimeter as well as the compass, and between them they controlled the elevator and rudder trim. The principle was somewhat similar to a torpedo.

Soon after the 'event' of that June morning the Germans began mastering their new war 'toy' and they started to fly up from the south in good numbers. These also increased throughout July and August, till their French coastal launch sites were either over-run by our invading troops or driven northwards - towards the Somme and Boulogne.

The flying bomb - while being a deadly indiscriminate tool for making war - did have its fascinating side. (It was of course the forerunner of today's Cruise missiles). It was fast at 400mph, had a range of 100 miles (+), and could fly as straight as an arrow. Launched from ramps along the French coast (east of our Normandy D Day landing beaches!!! (Wrong place?? for we had been aware of this V weapon threat for a year!), they could reach the London area in 15 or 17 minutes; the amount of fuel carried roughly governed the range; therefore they could all more or less fall in the London suburbs - the intended target.

Flying mainly at 1,500 feet to beat the gunfire, many 'bugs' were directed to overfly Redhill, then Merstham, Coulsdon and Purley to get at Croydon and West London. They were at their most spectacular at night for the fiery tail streaming behind the bomb's jet pipe was longer than the craft itself; you saw the flame during daylight of course but it was more pronounced at night. The intervals of flight varied from two minutes to half or one hour, according to conditions at the launch sites for they obviously got bombed.

To watch these evening and night flying-bombs I secretly slid aside a roof tile in some close by loft space. I would hear their buzzing approach (buzz bomb was alternative to doodle bug) towards Redhill, then watch their 'flame' progress towards the Capital. Of course many were shot down by anti-aircraft fire or Spitfire and Tempest fighter planes - but they had to be quick about it for after crossing our coastline the 'bugs' would be reaching London within 7 or 8 minutes. There was also the barrage balloon cable curtain strung in front of the North Downs east of Reigate/Redhill as last resort defence, and this was intended to snare the 'bugs' not the fighters. A great danger to the fighters was having a shot at 'bug' explode in your flightpath! It happened.

Then came the late evening - about 10.30 - when a 'bug' with a bee in is bonnet or, axe to grind (?) - drifted off the Redhill London route well before reaching Merstham, to then circle to the west, beyond, then towards Reigate Hill, then southwards to complete a circle that included almost overflying the hotel.
Seeing it from my 'astro-bug-watch' position was very worrying for at one point it was aiming towards the hotel. I also knew the two minute circuit it was making was using the fuel intended for reaching London; it was getting due to run out. When the flame went out it was time to duck - so watch you better had. You learned never to take your eye off a buzz bomb. And if they were terrifying in daylight - when you could see them - then at night it could mean your demise.
However, this particular customer, having pushed on towards Redhill from our Reigate direction, it then continued swinging back towards its intended London direction, but on a line that would take it more east of Merstham. Its height was not over a thousand feet, and at about this point in my watching it went out of view due to obscurring trees. Now, when I last saw it, it was flying the circle line that would take it east of Merstham, and half a minute later I heard a distant bang. So it had finally run out of fuel, and I naturally wondered who'd collected it.
Now the reason for the performance of that doodle bug was due to a de-stabilized control system; some slight gunfire damage or balloon cable collision; not enough to make it crash, but just sufficient to alter a flying surface - to cause a slight drag to its left wing. To me it wasn't hard to understand; I'd made plenty of uncontrolled balsa wood aeroplanes to know about such aerodynamic effects.

Now believe this: a week later I was talking to my father who was then living a mile from my hotel staff room. He told me of having a late evening walk at Chaldon - (my boyhood village and where he and Grandad built bungalows and houses in the 1930's - our homes - and where he'd gone to see his mother: Gran) - that very night the rogue doodle bug vanished eastwards of Merstham. Dad was passing the Chaldon Village Hall when a 'buzz bomb' came towards him from the Merstham direction. It wasn't very high - but then Chaldon is 600 feet above sea level - and even as he noted this, the flame cut out and he knew he was for it!!
He just had time to press himself into the bank outside the hall, when the bomb exploded in the grass behind the hall, shattering the rear part and showering Dad with broken wood and asbestos tiles. It was his closest shave, but he wasn't hurt more than a bruise or two. Had the 'bug' travelled another four seconds it could have wiped out his bungalow built in Mount Avenue. Dad then maintained that 'bug' had his name on it. What else could he think?

Chaldon is three miles beyond Merstham and the bomb was going in that direction when I last saw it! It ran out of fuel well short of London due to its excursion. It was also the only one to fall at Chaldon: only damaged machines fell in the country short of London.
So it was the same flying bomb I'd watched. It missed me, then found my father. The half minute or so time lapse before hearing the bomb explode puts it spot on for Chaldon too. Seven 'crow' miles from my Reigate hotel room.

The WAR made some very strange stories to tell of, but sadly many people died or were killed before their telling.
Following the V1 Doodle bugs came Germany's staggering V2 Rockets fired at London from Holland. These would create 'havoc' and make more 'strange but true' stories of fate or fortune.

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