大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Kathryn Haslam of CSV Media on behalf of Beryl Philpot and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The Philpot family bungalow was in South Willesborough and Archibald was employed in the railway works at Ashford as a fitter although by trade he was a locomotive erector. The latter was a reserved occupation with an extensive training period so despite his wish to go into the RAF to work on aircraft he was not allowed to. He was also in the Home Guard on spotter duty mainly at the railway works.

One day Archibald was at work and Winifred and Beryl were at home (Beryl was about 4). The year was 1942 or 1943. They were standing between the bungalow and the shelter facing the Mrs Goacher who lived three doors away and they were talking over the garden fence.

Suddenly ,Winifred said "what is it?" and the neighbour said "it looks like a plane all alight." It was a brilliant sunny day with brilliant blue sky and Beryl looked up and caught sight of it.

There was a black shape like a plane against the blue with a big red glow at the back of it. The contrast was what impressed Beryl. She has no recollection of any noise.
The plane was going in the direction of Biggin Hill to the west.

The strength of the colours had a really powerful impact on Beryl that has lived with her ever since. The contrast with the blandness of war was extreme - normally it was white pork and potatoes on white crockery on a white tablecloth and dull coloured clothes.

Neither Winifred nor the neighbour knew what they had seen until Archibald returned from Home Guard duty that evening and told them it was a V1 (Doodlebug). No one knew what Doodlebugs were at this time as they were totally new so this could have been one of the very first.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.