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DERBY DAY DISASTER

I was working a night shift at VENNER TIME SWITCHES LTD in New Malden, Surrey and the date was, I believe, 13th June 1944.

On the roof the Spotters were active and for the benefit of anyone who does not know what or who a Spotter was I will explain.

When we first started to get air raids in August 1940 the whole work force went to the shelters from the time the air raid warning started till the all clear was sounded.

When the first bombs dropped near us on 16th August 1940 we were in the shelters for the best part of the afternoon or at least from memory in seemed to be a very long time.

That meant a huge loss of production and it was agreed that if there were men on the roof checking out the skies all around we could carry on working after the siren had sounded the alert.

If a plane approached our area the Spotters would sound a series of short sharp blasts from a klaxon (or similar device) and everybody went to their allotted shelter as quickly as possible.

The arrangement did not always work, for one day staff were machine gunned from the air as we left the building to get our shelters a short distance away and several of us quickly returned to the main building for protection, nobody was hurt.

I would agree that this was a very rare occasion when things did not go well.

One of my work colleagues used to visit the Spotters on the roof from time to time — I had been up to see where the sandbagged site was too.
It was reached by climbing four flights of stairs on an external staircase made of metal (a fire escape route) and then climbing up a metal ladder attached to the wall of the building.
Going up was not too bad but coming down scared the life out of me for when you looked over the parapet at the top and saw how far down the ground was it made me decide not to go up again.

My colleague told me, on the morning of the 13th or 14th June 1944 that a plane had been brought down in our area, and later told me that four planes had been brought down — it seemed very unusual and I had certain doubts about this claim.

No announcement had been made that V1’s were exploding in Southern England until, I believe the 16th June 1944 and The Evening Standard headline for the evening read as follows
PITLOTLESS PLANES NOW RAID BRITAIN

The following day Saturday 17th June 1944 was Derby Day and I had left work at about 7am and was home soon after 7.30am and had my breakfast and went to bed soon after.
I had asked my mother if she would arrange for someone to wake me so that I could join the family for dinner at 1pm.
At about 1pm I was duly awakened but quickly fell off to sleep again and awoke again some time later to hear the sound of a V1 (Flying Bomb) approaching and suddenly the engine cut out and a few seconds later came the sound of the explosion.

It had fallen on a road not far away — Tolworth Park Road, I quickly got dressed and ate my meal in a rather subdued atmosphere.
Twelve people were killed in this incident and details can be seen in Mark Davison’s book titled
SURBITON BOMBED

His telephone number is 01737 221215

A total of twentytwo V1’s came down in Surbiton. And one of them came down on Derby Road, Tolworth, SURBITON, Surrey a few months later.
DERBY DAY DISASTER

I was working a night shift at VENNER TIME SWITCHES LTD in New Malden, Surrey and the date was, I believe, 13th June 1944.

On the roof the Spotters were active and for the benefit of anyone who does not know what or who a Spotter was I will explain.

When we first started to get air raids in August 1940 the whole work force went to the shelters from the time the air raid warning started till the all clear was sounded.

When the first bombs dropped near us on 16th August 1940 we were in the shelters for the best part of the afternoon or at least from memory in seemed to be a very long time.

That meant a huge loss of production and it was agreed that if there were men on the roof checking out the skies all around we could carry on working after the siren had sounded the alert.

If a plane approached our area the Spotters would sound a series of short sharp blasts from a klaxon (or similar device) and everybody went to their allotted shelter as quickly as possible.

The arrangement did not always work, for one day staff were machine gunned from the air as we left the building to get our shelters a short distance away and several of us quickly returned to the main building for protection, nobody was hurt.

I would agree that this was a very rare occasion when things did not go well.

One of my work colleagues used to visit the Spotters on the roof from time to time — I had been up to see where the sandbagged site was too.
It was reached by climbing four flights of stairs on an external staircase made of metal (a fire escape route) and then climbing up a metal ladder attached to the wall of the building.
Going up was not too bad but coming down scared the life out of me for when you looked over the parapet at the top and saw how far down the ground was it made me decide not to go up again.

My colleague told me, on the morning of the 13th or 14th June 1944 that a plane had been brought down in our area, and later told me that four planes had been brought down — it seemed very unusual and I had certain doubts about this claim.

No announcement had been made that V1’s were exploding in Southern England until, I believe the 16th June 1944 and The Evening Standard headline for the evening read as follows
PITLOTLESS PLANES NOW RAID BRITAIN

The following day Saturday 17th June 1944 was Derby Day and I had left work at about 7am and was home soon after 7.30am and had my breakfast and went to bed soon after.
I had asked my mother if she would arrange for someone to wake me so that I could join the family for dinner at 1pm.
At about 1pm I was duly awakened but quickly fell off to sleep again and awoke again some time later to hear the sound of a V1 (Flying Bomb) approaching and suddenly the engine cut out and a few seconds later came the sound of the explosion.

It had fallen on a road not far away — Tolworth Park Road, I quickly got dressed and ate my meal in a rather subdued atmosphere.
Twelve people were killed in this incident and details can be seen in Mark Davison’s book titled
SURBITON BOMBED

A total of twentytwo V1’s came down in Surbiton. And one of them came down on Derby Road, Tolworth, SURBITON, Surrey a few months later.

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