´óÏó´«Ã½

In 1943 the use of Doodlebugs was at its peak so we decided to move from London to Bennenden for 6 weeks. By working on a farm there picking hops we thought we would be able to have a break from all the bombs that had been falling in London.

When we got there though one of the first things we saw was the wreckage of a Doodlebug at the bottom of one of the fields! It was apparent that our plan to have a break from the bombs wasn’t going to be totally successful! Another day while we were there we heard a Doodlebug coming over, and rather than doing what we should have done and found some shelter all the children there, including myself, ran to watch! What we saw I’ll never forget, a Spitfire pilot chasing down a Doddlebug. He used his own wings to tip the wings of the bomb until it flipped over and came crashing down to the ground. This was apparently a common tactic, the pilots would climb high up above the bomb, then dive down before tipping the wings. They had to do this because otherwise they weren’t fast enough to catch the bomb, but diving down gave them the extra speed they needed.

Seeing this manoeuvre actually in action was very exciting for us all, and we cheered when the bomb finally plummeted to the ground. We were all very excited and proud of the pilot for performing such a risky manoeuvre. They were all so determined and brave bringing those things down. Later in the war we would see Meteor planes that were much quicker, and they would simply catch up with the bombs and shoot them down. But I’ll never forget watching those Spitfire and Hurricane pilots with awe, we were all so proud.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by James Barton and has been added to the website on behalf of Ronald Deamer with his/her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

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