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This is a collection of WW2 memories submitted to Kingsbury History Society by members of the public who wish to remain anonymous. They all relate to the either the village of Kingsbury or the surrounding area and are part of the Society's archives.

AIRCRAFT
There was a spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich and planes were a frequent sight in the skies around Kingsbury. The Tiger Moth, training bi-planes from Castle Bromwich Aerodrome used to train at low-level down the Tame Valley between Tamworth and Hams Hall and quite a few crashed landed in the fields because of the air turbulence experienced there. One landed alongside the canal between Fazeley and Bodymoor Heath but no one was hurt. The plane was dismantled and carried back along the canal side but not before the local children had a practice in it first!

Another crashed under the electric wires at the end of the ‘planks’ on the Bodymoor side of the stream called Lea’s Pit. One of the pilots sustained a badly cut neck and Dr Thompson [the village doctor]stitched him up at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon as the children watched after school.

A Spitfire from Castle Bromwich crash landed at about seven o'clock in the morning on the bank of 'Wathes’ field' about the position of the road off Hillside and parallel with the main road. It belly flopped with its wheels up and one village boy remembers looking into the cockpit with his friends before going to school. The soldier on guard let them look.

A yellow Airspeed Oxford, a twin engined monoplane, landed in the Range Road near Wathes’ Orchard and it could be seen from the Working Mens Club. It was unguarded and one boy sat in it with his friends and pretended to fly it. It was good fun! Another Spitfire landed on the bank below ‘Millionaire’s Row'. On another occasion a German bomber flew over Kingsbury with an engine on fire. It was being pursued by two British planes firing at it. The pilot parachuted into Kingsbury Wood and the plane crashed near Bentley. He was caught in a tree but wounded with a broken leg so he fired his gun to gain attention.

A Heinchel Spotter plane flew down the Tamworth Road during the early part of the war and no one tried to intercept it. ‘Narnook’ Smith from the Home Guard shot his last bullet at it in defiance! Another lady remembered a German bomber following the bus all the way from Birmingham to Kingsbury. She thought it was probably trying to find the routes.

Many bombs were jettisoned in the fields across Bodymoor Heath and one night a resident of Ralph Crescent decided to stop in bed saying, ‘to hell with Shickelgruber’, meaning Hitler! A landmine dropped at Bodymoor Heath and the shock waves fetched down the ceiling just over his bed! He never stopped in bed after that experience. Landmines always came down on parachutes and one of his sons frequently went to retrieve the cords.

Many planes flying over the village were fitted with identifying stripes ready for the D-day landings. They always flew in from the north for a raid. The lights from Kingsbury and Dexter Collieries caused a problem in that Kingsbury Pit became a sitting target for the German bombers. Bombs were dropped between Piccadilly and Dosthill on August 21st 1940 but no damage was done. Dexter was shut down during raids because it was electrified and half the workforce transferred to Kingsbury.

THE HOMEFRONT
A curfew was rung at 8pm every evening until the outbreak of WW2. The children always took their gas masks to school and when the air-raid siren went, they assembled on the school garden next to the Royal Oak pub car park with them. The siren was at the top of Church Lane roughly where the church notice board now stands. It was sandbagged for protection. Originally air raids were signalled by the school bell. An ARP station was in the Working Mens’ Club and the Vicarage and Mount cellars were designated for air-raid shelters by the school although probably never used. Some houses had Anderson shelters and the owner of ‘Cornerways’ built his own brick shelter.

The church kept buckets of water and sand near the door in case of an incendiary attack. Tanks were a regular site through the village and were based at Minworth. They practised at the Rifle Range which, had been opened by the Marquis of Hertford, Lord Lt of Warwickshire in 1910. It was nicknamed the ‘Birmingham Bisley’ and was used as a summer camp by the regiments from Whittington Barracks. Throughout the war, soldiers were frequently seen in the village and some were even billeted in the upper storey of Kingsbury Hall.

Rationing didn’t affect the village too much in that people still ate well though lesser amounts. Bananas and biscuits were rationed by ‘Dusky’ Hollis, the greengrocer, to families with children. Many families kept fowl and pigs, grew vegetables and fruit which they bottled. Later in the war, the school tennis courts were requisitioned for allotments.

Evacuees were brought to Kingsbury from Coventry, Nechells in Birmingham and Bethnal Green in London. Some children came with their teachers and all were sent to live with village families. After the war, some of the children remained to become integrated into village life and marry locals.

THE NIGHT THE BOMB FELL ON KINGSBURY
On the evening of June 4th 1941, a bomb fell on the Tamworth Road. It came from a northwest projectory at an angle of about 30 to 40 degrees; crossing Ralph Crescent and making a juddering noise it came down. It passed right over the top of Ralph Crescent before it hit the Tamworth Road roughly where the grass verge is today. It left a 15 to 20ft crater about 7 feet deep and was one of several jettisoned by a German pilot probably trying to hit the decoy or dummy aerodrome that had been constructed alongside the railway near Moor Barn and the Rifle Range. The aerodrome's purpose was to lure the enemy away from Hams Hall Power Station. It sent lights into the night sky although one eyewitness claims that it was not lit up that night. Another bomb was later found during the construction of the M42 motorway. Interestingly, a good’s train passed through Kingsbury just before the bombing. Was the pilot trying to hit it?

The bomb that fell that night caused considerable damage. At least two detached houses and five semi-detached houses were severely damaged enough to be either rebuilt or partially rebuilt and 160 people left homeless. Many more houses received blast damage to windows, doors and roofs that meant temporary re-housing for the occupants while repairs took place. The occupiers of one house in the Tamworth Road were under the stairs when it fell and all the doors and windows came in on top of each other. The family kept their supplies under the stairs but not one bag of sugar was damaged! The family was split up for weeks while repairs took place.

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