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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Graham Lewis for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mrs Kathleen Weeks and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Weeks fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I first saw 'doodlebugs' (the V1 rockets) come across the Channel to England when we were on holiday at Three Oaks, near Hastings in East Sussex. I was six years of age and living with my family. I had earlier been evacuated to Weston-Super-Mare.

Behind our house in an area of about three acres was an army unit in a tented camp.

When the observers at the coast saw a 'doodlebug' coming they sent up a warning flare. The defending British fighter aircraft used to fly close alongside the incoming 'doodlebugs', place a wing under one of its wings and tip it up to try to redirect it out to sea.

To get to school I had to walk about two-and-a-half miles across fields. We always carried our gas masks. If we heard a 'doodlebug' approaching we had to jump down into a ditch. The autumn term then did not start until the third week of September because the children were needed to help with the hop picking.

In 1947, two years after the end of the war we moved into a standard prefabricated house in the town of Battle. It had a fridge, cooker, water heater and a coal fire. Though the ‘prefabs’, as they were called, were supposed to deal with the immediate post-war housing shortage and to remain in use only for about ten years, I stayed there for 21 years. In those days there was much more community spirit.

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