- Contributed by听
- delboy
- People in story:听
- Derek Reynolds
- Location of story:听
- Tooting, South London
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A1096779
- Contributed on:听
- 02 July 2003
This is a WWII story, not of bravery or battle, but of an unbelievable happening during the height of the V1 flying bomb or 'Doodle Bug' attacks on London.
One bright sunny day in July 1944 I was about to leave the fire station where I had been on shift when looking up saw, to my unbelievable horror, the nose of a dreaded V1 was very slowly coming into view just above the fire hall. This V1 was no more than 100 feet up and, what was most unusual about this bomb, it was gliding without engine power.
I, of course, expected the bomb to land on the road almost where I stood. I had fallen to the pavement trying to make myself as small as possible and I think I was trying to dig a hole in in the concrete, but the bomb made its slow and rocky way, skimming the roofs of houses opposite, finally running out of air and landing with a crash on a small house about 100 yards away.
One good thing about this was that as the bomb was so low and had glided some three miles after it's engine had cut out, it did not have the force that usually accompanied these bombs meaning that the area of devastation was greatly reduced and so it destroyed only one house and even left the house opposite the crash with it's windows intact.
漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.