- Contributed by听
- peppers
- People in story:听
- peppers
- Location of story:听
- Purfleet, Essex
- Article ID:听
- A2001934
- Contributed on:听
- 09 November 2003
The staccato roar of the ram-jet engine was my first warning that the small plane I could see coming from the South over Kent towards me was something different from normal!
It flew at about 500feet and could be seen in detail as it flew over my head. It was a fearsome sight, but it disappeared Northwards quite quickly. It's target could not have been London - that was to the West of Purfleet.
Subsequent appearances in the same direction were fired at by the Bofors gun unit stationed four hundred yards away. but with little effect until, on one occasion, a shell went through the fuselage, which must have caused havoc with the flight-controlling giros, because the doodlebug dived down left to explode near a prisoner-of-war camp at Purfleet rifle range.
These V1 weapons were supposed to continue flying until the preset giros forced them to dive to the ground at their targets, but most of them went silent as the ram-jet stopped and then glided for miles so that we underneath could take shelter and hope for the best!
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