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After the retreat from Dunkerque, the fear of invasion was very real and my father's home town of Maidstone in Kent was surrounded by a tank ditch and defences. On the main roads into the town, concrete road barriers were put into place and manned at night by the 11th Battalion Kent Home Guard. My father (Tony Rayner) was one of those who regularly did duty at the Weavering Street barrier on the A20 road to Ashford on Friday nights. Two sentries were posted on each side of the barrier, through which there was room for one vehicle at a time to pass.

On the night in question, two veterans of the 1914/18 conflict were on the Ashford side and the two teenage boys - my father and his great friend Alan Chamberlain (alas no longer with us) on the Maidstone side. All of them were capable of fairly accurate shooting should the need arise! All traffic was stopped and those in the vehicles questionned and their identity cards or similar documents examined. Anyone failing to be co-operative was detained in their hut and the Sergeant of the Special Constabulary called from his house some 50 yards away.

At somewhere about 3am an obviously powerful car approached from Maidstone and Alan and Dad prepared to do their duty! Alan waved the red torch in the approved manner and Dad covered him with fixed bayonet and finger on the trigger, thumb on the safety catch of his P14 rifle and ready to make enquiries.

To their trepidation the car continued to approach at a speed far to fast to allow it to pass through the chicane of the barrier. They shouted a warning to their colleagues on the Ashford side and the sounds of safety catches "off" and the rifle bolts slamming a round from each of four magazines were heard above the engine noise - they had all loaded and were prepared to fire if the car failed to stop! Thankfully the driver stopped, thinking that the way through the barrier was perhaps to tight for what was, Dad recalls, a large open topped tourer of the pre-war Bentley variety!!

Breathing some sighs of relief, Alan and Dad approached the driver, a Wing Commander RAF, who was given some pretty sharp advice by the youngsters! He took it pretty well but was not so helpful when Dad asked for the identity card of the lady sitting beside him! There was no need for that "She is my wife". However, the lads had their teeth into this case and insisted! Not surprising perhaps, the lady's name was not the same as that of the "Wingco"!

Now it was the turn of a uniformed figure in the back seat. Dad had vaguely noticed that he was in army officer's uniform and a closer look as he asked for his papers showed he was wearing the scarlet cap band and collar tabs of a staff officer. He was co-operative and smilingly handed over a yellow card with a red diagonal stripe across it. Fortunately, Dad had seen an illustration of this pass at Battalion HQ a short while before! It bore a photo' of a smiling face with horn-rimmed spectacles which was familiar in War time and bore the legend and signature of: His Royal Highness, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands"!! Dad handed back the pass, thanked the Prince, stamped the rifle butt on the road in salute and the party drove off with the Prince giving the lads a salute and a breezy "Goodnight to you all!"

Many times Dad has wondered if Prince Bernhard ever realised how near he and his party came to being on the receiving end of four rounds of rifle fire that night!! There is no doubt they would have fired on the car had the driver not decided to be sensible and stop. Only a few weeks earlier at another barrier on the other side of the town a car refused to stop and the driver was shot by the Home Guards on duty there.

In another incident at Weavering Street, they stopped a car and when they insisted on seeing what was under a blanket in the back, found the driver had a quantity of guns and ammunition concealed there. They held him in the hut, sent for the police Sergeant, and escorted him and the prisoner to the local police station. They were never told what the chap was up to or what happened to him!

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