大象传媒

On Sunday September 29 1940, I saw a German Downier 17 bomber overhead when I was in the garden by the greenhouse, and as I looked up, I saw eight bombs drop out of it. I ran indoors, and we all got in the cupboard under the stairs. There were eight terrific bangs, and the ground shook and the windows and doors rattled. Then we went inside. There was a lot of smoke and a terrible smell, so we all put our gas masks on. We found out that the smell was from Pullen's Garage and Drabbles Chemist, which were burning. One bomb fell in the middle of the main road, which made a large crater, and broke the water mains, sewage pipes, electric cables, gas pipes and of course the traffic had to be diverted. Other bombs fell on Fowler's Dairy, Birkett's the Ironmongers, and in Cockleshell Walk where Denis Skinner was an eighteen year old member of the Home Guard.

It killed him. He had been on duty the previous night, and said he would stay at home and go to bed, when his parents went out to tea. There is a memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Dover Street, to those killed in this raid.

I later joined the army cadets, and trained with the Home Guard myself. In October 1940 the tugboat "Sirdar" struck a landmine in the Swale area, and sunk with the loss of a crew of three. It belonged to the paper mills.

During the Battle of Britain, a German ME109 crashed behind Bobbing churchyard, and the pilot was buried just over the fence in the churchyard. There were anti aircraft guns in place on Chetney Marsh, and when they fired, everyone shouted "Good old Chetney!"

During the war, the church bells couldn't be rung because they were used as a warning. My grandparents lived in Hythe. One night, my grandparents heard a bell tolling -- they looked out, next door the chaps (in the Home Guard) went off on their bikes -- had the Germans landed? Next day, they said it was a false alarm, and a rumour started going around that the Germans were coming in their aircraft, shutting off their engines and ringing a bell to cause havoc. This proved to be a tall story and the truth eventually came out -- the culprit was a navigation buoy -- a navigation aid -- the wind set it off! The authorities had to issue a notice to mariners that the bell would be muffled during the duration of hostilities. A little oversight like this can cause havoc!

My father had bought a boat, called a "Boiley" boat, which was moored at Kingston upon Thames. I remember watching doodlebugs flying overhead, and exploding a few miles away.

One day at home, my father had returned from the boat at Kingston, and told us that "the boat has been particularly damaged by a doodlebug, which had fallen in the Thames."

My father sold the boat for 拢100, and later had a caravan (converted coach) which I remember as being bought at a circus. I remember being at the caravan with my parents, watching a plane which appeared to be stationery in a gap in the clouds. As a child, I thought "how strange."

It proved to be a German spyplane!

Other things I remember seeing include an American bomber plane returning with a damaged tailfin, and planes towing gliders flying towards Europe. I remember German bombers caught in searchlights and trying to escape from the lights ... and dogfights between English and German fighter planes. At Swalecliffe (where I was camping with my parents)I remember seeing spitfire practice, shooting into the water.

THESE MEMORIES HAVE BEEN TRANSCRIBED ONTO THE SITE BY JOHN YOUNG OF 大象传媒 SOUTH EAST TODAY. THEY WERE WRITTEN BY KEITH CHISMAN, WHO UNDERSTANDS THE SITE'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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