大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War website by Philip Schofield on behalf of KCC Education and Libraries on behalf of Alan Cocks and has been added to the site with his permission. the author understands the site's terms and conditions".

Between 1943-1945 I was a student and was a street warden and member of the Ealing/ Brentford Home Guard Company.

On one occasion, I was standing in the middle of Brentford Square ("The Butts")in the middle of the night, just me and my rifle. Overhead I heard the sound of a V1 and then the noise cut out, which was the cue for the flying bomb to begin to fall. I heard the bomb dropping and it fell a few hundred yards from me, into a timber yard on the banks of the Thames. The yard exploded with and enormous shower of burning timber being cast into the air. I threw myself flat on the ground. I belive there must have been casualties nearby.

On a lighter note, I was in the signals section of the Home Guard Company, which involved sending messages by Morse Code, Aldiss lamp and by flags.

One Sunday morning we were practising signalling, me and the sergeant being on one side of the River Brent and the corporal on the other bank. It was getting near lunch time and the sergeant read out the message sent by the corporal, " I think it is time we adjourned to the Rose and Crown". Unfortunately, the Company commander had crept up to observe us and read the corporal's message too.

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