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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Kate Box from Newlands Primary School and has been added to the website on behalf of Edna Harwood with her permission and she fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

Name: Edna Harwood

Edna was born in 1937 in the seaside village of Birchington and has lived there all her life, apart from short spells during the war.

Secret Signal Box

One of my earliest memories was wartime in the seaside village of Birchington
when I was a child of about 4 years. My father worked at the local railway station, and we were fortunate to live in the Station House, as the station master was away. I remember the awful sounds of the sirens most nights and having to scramble for shelter. We had an Anderson shelter but my mother hated using it, so each time we hurried to the signal box on the other side of the railway track. I remember scrambling out of the house, across the yard with my father, with him calling frantically to my mother who was always last to leave. There was one very important item she always had to take: a bag with all her documents, identity card, ration books, birth certificates etc. The signal box was about14ft x 9ft and we would spend our time huddled there with others from the village. My father was in the Home Guard and for reasons best known to him he felt the signal box was the safest place to be with his rifle at hand.

During another evening as the siren was wailing ‘nature called’ and my father took me to the outside toilet. I remember the sound of the gunfire overhead, a ‘dog fight’ was taking place. Shrapnel was flying everywhere pinging off the surrounding buildings. I remember feeling very scared as the noise continued for about 20 minutes. At last we were safe and free to escape.

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