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WW2 Experiences

I started at Ealing Modern School in London at just the time Hitler decided to launch night raids on London. It was fortunate that at that time there were not many day raids except that in the depths of the winter of 1940/41 it got dark early and the raids started before school ended. In fact on one occasion, I remember being marooned at school until my parents came to fetch me at about 6 o'clock. The air raid shelters at the school were reinforced classrooms in which we were able to continue lessons in comfort, provided the noise from outside was not too loud. Needless to say school work suffered for at least the 3-4 months the night raids continued. Once Hitler lost the Battle of Britain in August 1940 and then the night raids, London had a reasonably peaceful time, with only sporadic raids to disturb either schooling or sleep. A period of about 4-5 months. At home we had an Anderson Shelter dug in to the garden in which the whole family slept night after night during the night raids. My brother and I slept on two bunks and my parents and a friend of the family slept below. On some nights we had to go to the shelter early in the evening and had supper out there and then played cards or read. I remember my Father used to read to us and we digested most of Dickens novels in the shelter. So educationally this period was not a complete disaster.
Between the winter of 1941 and the commencement of the V1 and V2 guided weapons attacks in June 1944 there were only sporadic bombing raids on London, so my schooling proceeded relatively normally. As the war progressed personal injury danger reduced considerably, until after the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, when the Germans started sending the Flying Bombs, known as Doodlebugs or Buzzbombs (V1). The very name given them by the Brits indicates that they just thought that they were no more than a nuisance. They were very small pilot-less ramjet driven aircraft with a speed of around 400 mph and carrying a 850kg explosive load. They flew at 4000 feet high in a gyroscopically controlled straight line until the fuel ran out and they fell to the ground and exploded. Initially they were launched from France until it was over-run by the advancing Allies and latterly from Belgium and Holland. It was said that some were launched from aircraft as well. They caused a great deal of damage and numerous deaths and injures. Whilst the engine was running, that was very noisy and could be heard over considerable distances you were safe but when the engine stopped you had very little time to take cover.
However, they were very dangerous as there was no ground penetration so that the blast spread sideways above the ground. Providing you were flat on the ground you would probably avoid injury, even if quite close to the explosion. The target for them was East and Central London and although less than 10 percent got through to London there were many casualties and considerable random damage. Many fell into the sea and others in the fields of Kent. Many were shot down by Anti-aircraft guns some by Fighters and some caught by Barrage balloons.
In September 1944 we started getting rocket bombs (V2) that contained a tonne of explosive and were launched from Holland. Being supersonic you didn’t hear them coming, just the instantaneous explosion. Nobody took much notice, if it had your name on it — you got it. There was little directional control and they mostly fell in the London area. The loudest rocket explosion that I heard, fell on the Great West road (Firestone Tyres?) near what is now Heathrow Airport. I was at school, which was only a mile or so away from the impact and it was very loud and frightening. It was a good talking point in the lesson to avoid anymore work! My Father told us a story that cycling to work very early one morning, he saw a bright light in the southern sky, moving upwards which after a few minutes moved briefly to the horizontal before fading out altogether. About 5 minutes later he heard a big explosion, the noise appearing to come from somewhere towards east London. He believed that he had seen a rocket launched from Holland.

V1 or Doodle Bug in flight

Written by John Noyes

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