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War was declared at 11am on Sunday 3rd September 1939.
An air raid warning was heard just a few minutes after the declaration.It was a false alarm,but there were many more alerts before peace was declared.
Members of the Hastings T.A. were all called to their units.Members of the forces who had served their time with the colours,but were on the Reseve were recalled to their units.
Young men from colleges and universities who had volunteered to join the R.A.F. were brought to the town and billeted in houses,hotels and boarding schools. They could be seen each day on the sea front parade being put through their initial P.E. training by well known national sportsmen and boxers.

Early in the war Hastings was considered a 'safe' area. Evacuees from London were brought here and billeted with residents.It must have been difficult for both the host families and the children to understand each other. I've heard of one elderley couple who had small children billeted in their home.The lady cooked roast beef and all the trimmings on the Sunday for lunch, as a treat, but the Children cried and refused to eat it saying "We always have faggots on sundays!"

All street lights were turned off. Headlights on vehicles were restricted to a small hole. Most windows were criss-crossed with sticky paper tape to avoid splintering glass. Blackout curtains were put to all windows and the wardens checked to see that no shafts of light could be seen outside. Gas masks were issued to the whole population and were supposed to be carried at all times. These were distibuted from St.Leonards Bathing Pool and I spent several days packing and distributing them.
By June 1940 the town had suffered a series of bombing raids, so it was decided that instead of the town being a reception area for evacuees, our own population should be evacuated. Some school children and mothers went to bedford and others to Wiltshire. People who had relatives in quieter parts of the country made their own arrangements.

British Restaurants were opened to serve meals to people who remained to live and work in the town. These were manned by volunteers such as the W.V.S. and Salvation Army etc.

As time went on the town began to look a lot more gloomy.The whole of the sea front parade was covered in rolls of barbed wire. Both the Hastings and the St.Leonards Piers had sections dismantled to stop any chance of their use if there was an invasion.

All minor roads onto the seafront had brick walls built across just leaving room for pedestrians in the daytime. After dark, barricades were put in place and a sentry was on duty. Visitors to the area were strctly scrutinised. People working in certain essential employment were issued with a permit from the police.

In Sept. 1940 I was sheltering with a group of fellow workers in a building which sufferd a direct hit. You could smell the explosives, leaking gas and hear water dripping everywhere. I can still recall the acrid smell of the bomb.My Father, who owned a taxi firm, was on duty at the time at the local A.R.P. post. He was the first to come down through the ceiling where the we were sheltering. I have often said that I was never so pleased to see him in all my life.We were very lucky as nobody in our group was injured. When we heard on the wireless that evening that our airmen had shot down a very large number of the enemy we were pleased. It seems that the enemy had been driven back before they got to London so they dropped their bombs on the coast before their return home. There was damage and loss of life in that local attack.

We seemed to have two fighter planes in our area, local people nick-named them as Gert and Daisy after the well known radio duo Elsie and Doris Waters. we used to listen to the radio a lot for our entertainment. We sometimes heard 'Lord Haw Haw'(William Joyce) he tried to frighten us. It was amusing to hear him talk about the raids on our town, especially when he talked about Hastings Harbour at WESTFIELD!!!

Servicemen were all drafted into the area from all parts of the British Isles. We had a large number of Canadians here and the surrounding area at one time. It was very sad to know that so many young men did not return from the raid on Dieppe.

We heard the roar of the first pilotless planes (doodlebugs)during the night. It was a strange and frightening noise like a large motor bicycle going overhead. we all went into the street to see what it was. It was in a way amusing to hear one very staid spinster remark "It's Jerry coming over with his Arse on fire!!" For the next two months the town was under the lanes for the flying bombs or doodle bugs as they were aptly named. Troops were brought in to shoot them down before they reached London. As a result one was hit and came to rest inside the parish church on Marina (St.Leonards). Had it been twelve hours later,the church would have been full of troops on church parade.

For months before the D-Day landings troops were brought into the town and the surrounding countryside. They were all along the coast and for several miles inland.The whole place had an air of expectation. In the early hours of 6 June we saw all the boats and various crafts going quietly down the channel to start the D-Day Invasion

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