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Living in Maidstone on Wheeler Street during the war, I remember a certain special day very well indeed.

I was out playing in the garden when there was this great rumbling noise that just built and built. I was only a child during the war and so it had never meant that much to me, but for the first time I was really really frightened of the planes, there was just so many filling the sky in wave after wave. I remember thinking ‘we’re really going to get it this time’. I ran inside the house to my mother, who told me that I didn’t have to be scared, the planes were ours! In my panic I hadn’t noticed all the planes were heading the wrong way, towards the coast rather than coming from it. We went outside and watched together, I’ve never seen so many planes. The Germans came across in large groups sometimes, that was true, but that day it was like every aeroplane in the world was flying by, the sky just seemed full and the noise was tremendous. I don’t know how long we stood there watching, but we found out later that they were the bombers flying over the channel to soften up the German defences before D-Day. It was all kept a big secret, but we’d been witness to the start of that great undertaking.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by James Barton from Westree Learning Centre and has been added to the website on behalf of Raymond Allan Wright with his/her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

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