大象传媒

This story has been submitted on behalf of the author by a People's War volunteer story gatherer. The author has been made aware of the site's House Rules.

The story has been submitted in conjunction with the Jersey War Tunnels Museum.

--------------------------------------------

I was only two years old when the war broke out. I lived at number 18 West Grove with my parents, Dad (William), Mum (Mignonette), and later on my adopted sister (Pat).

The main targets for the German bombers appeared to be the Vickers aircraft company in nearby Weybridge, the main Southern Region Railway (only 50 yards from the end of our garden) and various local factories engaged in the war effort.

Dad told me that the Vickers factory was easy to spot from the air, as it was located in the centre of the then complete Brooklands racetrack.

Efforts were made to disguise it apparently by planting trees and constructing extra buildings.

It was during one air raid that my dad (who was a special constable) noted that one incendiary bomb had failed to ignite. He took into the local police station were it was stripped down (!) and found that while the firing pin, charge, etc, were present, the main explosive charge had been replaced by sand!

Obviously the replacement of the normal explosive charge was the reason the bomb had failed to ignite and the thought at the time was that perhaps it had been carried out by workers in the German munitions factory (e.g. captured resistance fighters) sympathetic to the Allied cause.

The bomb, complete with fins, (which fell in Mayfield Road, Walton) remained in my family until recent years when I decided to donate it to the Museum in Weybridge, Surrey where it was put on display until recently. We also donated a wooden figure carved by a German prisoner of war

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.