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Air Raids.
While spared the intensity of the air attacks which were hitting Portsmouth and other strategic locations, the residents of Headley nevertheless became all too familiar with the sound of sirens. Joyce Dickie recalls an occasion when it went just as she was due back at work in Bordon. 鈥淲hen the siren went you were supposed to stay put, but on this occasion it was such a long time before we got the all-clear, I said to myself: 鈥業 can鈥檛 wait here any longer 鈥� there鈥檚 no sign of anything, so I鈥檒l go鈥�. Well, I鈥檇 just got to Lindford when the planes came over. I was stopped there and had to get down in the pit with the men at the garage. Then it seemed to be alright, so they let me get on my bike and off I went 鈥� and I was almost at the cross roads, where the Military Police had an office, when they came over again. The police stopped me 鈥� they wouldn鈥檛 let me go any farther and made me go in with them. I ended up under the billiard table with these men all round me. A bomb fell right on the cross-roads 鈥� the people had been evacuated, but an old lady was worried because her little bird was in there and had gone back to get it, and she was killed 鈥� the little bird in his cage was alright.鈥�
Tom Grisdale, who was in the Home Guard at the time, remembers the same event: 鈥淚 was out at five o鈥檆lock in the evening, on my field down Liphook Road, and we saw the bombs leave the plane. Me and Derek jumped on our bikes and went down. They dropped all by the Fire Station cross roads 鈥� and I think the only person that was killed was the turncock鈥檚 wife 鈥� she came out and went down the shelter, then remembered she鈥檇 left the canary, ran back to get it, and she just got caught in the middle of it.鈥�
He also remembers Canadian soldiers sharing his dug-out in Mill Lane, opposite Churchfields, during air-raids: 鈥淲e used to get down there at about 6 o鈥檆lock in the evening, and regularly this used to be when, as it got dark, the siren would go 鈥� and they鈥檇 all come out from Bordon and spend the night with us.鈥� Betty Parker remembers Canadians from Bordon sheltering in Headley too: 鈥淭hey slept in the woods by Bront鈥� Cottage up Barley Mow Hill 鈥� you鈥檇 see them come up every night with their packs on their backs and their blankets 鈥� they鈥檇 sleep there, and you鈥檇 see them going back in the morning.鈥�
Katie Warner recalls: 鈥淭here were air-raid shelters in the school gardens which had been built there for the school children 鈥� I used to go in with them and the teachers 鈥� as an extra helper with the little ones, the 5 and 6 year-olds 鈥� when there was a warning.鈥�
Jim Clark says: 鈥淔or us, ten and eleven year-olds, an air-raid was just one big adventure 鈥� we didn鈥檛 realise the fact that the Germans were across the channel 鈥� we didn鈥檛 think about that. I remember a German plane coming across here, and they opened at it with the Bren guns on tripods.鈥�
On 10th February 1943, according to Marcel Fortier of the Foot Guards, 鈥渢he nearby town of Bordon was heavily strafed, near misses landing in HQ Squadron area and in No. 1 Squadron Tank Park (probably in Lindford), while hits were made on the walls of the Sergeants鈥� Mess鈥�; and both the 1st Hussars and the Sherbrookes recall that on 8th March 1943 a German raider dropped bombs in the Haslemere area. In a footnote to the latter incident, we are told that one of the pilots shot down had studied English in Haslemere before the war 鈥� and the local population did not appreciate his return visit.
Another more mysterious visitor from the sky was reported by Jim Clark. One night he and two other village lads saw quite clearly a lone parachutist dropping across the full moon, to land, he would reckon, on Ludshott Common. He reported this to the authorities, and was visited the next day by plain clothes security men in the traditional trench coats, but never heard any more of it.
However, it was not all one-way traffic up in the air. John Whitton says: 鈥淲e seemed to be on a direct path between an airfield and targets on the continent, as light bombers frequently flew low overhead in formation. They looked very serious.鈥� Al Trotter of the Saskatchewan Horse remembers that in the summer of 1943: 鈥淓very evening the RAF bombers would pass over Headley on the way to Germany and occupied countries and return the next morning. The count was not always the same next morning.鈥� Jim Clark recalls seeing the Americans, when they started the daylight bombing: 鈥淭hey used to meet almost over here 鈥� they came from two directions just as we were walking to school, and they used to fire these red flares 鈥� I don鈥檛 know what that was for, but I remember the sky being full of Fortresses.鈥� Tom Webb of the Garrys saw what was rumoured to be an early experimental jet that went overhead pouring black smoke, and aeroplanes 鈥榮ans propellers鈥� from Farnborough were also sighted here by Harvey Theobald.

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