大象传媒

My Uncle Horace Richardson was my mother's brother, he had been a boy sailor when the Great War started in 1914. He won a medal for bravery and was mentioned in Dispatches. This was a great honour for any service man.

In 1939 when the war started he worked for Vickers-Armstrong at Crayford making parts for heavy artillery and other weapons. The Vickers factory was a massive place with hundreds of people working there. On the roof, a few anti-aircraft guns had been set up, and Uncle Horace was trained as one of the gunners. If there was an air raid when he was at work, he and the other crew members would leave there jobs and go up to man the guns.

He was at home one night, very tired after working long and late hours. He lived at Barnehurst in Kent in nice bungalow, quite close to the Dartford to London railway line, with his wife Chris. They lived next door to Aunt Chris' parents, Mr and Mrs Newman.

At about 9.30pm one night, they went to bed to be ready for starting work early the next day. At 10.30 the air raid warning sounded and Aunt Chris got up giving Horace a shake. He said he was not getting up for anyone because he was just too tired. After a while the German Bombers were heard coming closer and they began dropping their bombs. Four came down, one after the other. One landed on the side of the railway track, the next one went through the front door of their bungalow and the fourth bomb landed on the roof above poor Uncle Horace's bedroom. The bungalow was blown to bits in the black of the night. In the daylight next morning all that was left of the bungalow was a pile of bricks and dust.

My Mum and I went to see it that morning. Aunt Chris and her Mum and Dad were quite safe having been in the shelter. Poor Uncle Horace was nowhere to be found. There were rescue workers frantically clearing and digging at the dedris in the area they thought Uncle Horace would be. Fortunately the bungalow had a large cellar and everything had collapsed into it with the force of the explosions.

In the afternoon they saw a foot stricking out of the rubble. The workers quickly cleared the bricks and dust and there was Uncle Horace still in bed but now down in the cellar. They dug him out, he was unconscious but still alive. He was rushed to hospital but soon recovered from the few cuts and bruises he had received. However, most awful of all, he was now blind.

A few months later poor Uncle Horace was still blind and unable to work. He and Chris were now living next door with her parents in their bugalow, patched up after only being damaged by the bombs. Aunt Chris was getting the table ready for dinner; Uncle Horace was already sitting at the table when he suddenly said "What was that? I saw something go past my face". While laying the table Aunt Chris had passed a white plate in front of him, and without saying a word she passed it in front of him again and he said "There it is again!" Faintly and slowly his eyesight was coming back. After a few weeks of medical care he could see out of one eye, and later he could see perfectly well out of this good eye but he never did regain the sight in the other.

He returned to Vickers doing his old job and also rejoined the gun crews.

One night while he was working an all night shift, the air raid warning sounded and he rushed up to the roof to man his gun. He could hear the bombers coming but he was the only man to have reached his particular gun. Nevertheless, he loaded it and trained it round to the oncoming stream of bombers. As the first one came into range he fired and his shell hit it fair and square. The bomber was brought down by this lucky hit but I do not recall where it landed. Uncle Horace was awarded a medal for his actions and it was presented to him by the King at Buckingham Palace.

Every Saturday evening on the Radio at that time there was a programme called "In Town Tonight", and on it they would have various people who had done something special or brave. On one Saturday that invited Uncle Horace to tell his story. It was thrilling to hear my Uncle on the Radio and to hear the incident recounted.

Uncle Horace had his revenge on the Germans. His bungalow was rebuilt after the war and it is still there today with a cellar.

Douglas Cooper of Dartford

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.