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However, everybody was expected to keep watch - especially during air raids - for any parachute troops landing. If and when an invasion was imminent or began, the church bells of southern England would be rung. All exciting stuff for boys of my age group, who, with fathers gone to war, were now 'men' about the house.

As such it was important to keep abreast of the News - both in newspapers or, better still, the radio. (There was no TV in those days). My brother Bob was particularly good at interpreting important news, for unlike me, he was an avid reader of newspaper stories. Reading came naturally to Bob, and at his 14 years not only would he absorb military and naval manuals, he was also very adept at self taught morse code and flag signalling semaphore. He used to get me at it too of course, but compared to him I was as dim as a dud or dying battery. And not content with tapping dots and dashes with pebbles and torch-light flashing, Bob even made a tapping device to light up and sound like the professional rig.
This ability easily qualified him for the Navy in due course - his ambition.

With so many good fields and wild countryside in and around Chaldon it wasn't difficult to imagine that the Germans might find the area ideal for an airborne landing zone; not only for the storm trooping para men, but troop gliders too. These had proved successful in Belgium and the enemy were said to have plenty available, while the half thousand Junkers 52 transports used for towing and dropping parachutists keen to show their metal, were ready and waiting. The first periods expected for invading were given as around mid to late August. Failing that, September would still be suitable.
Sky watching was already a favourite pastime with me, for not only did I know more about aeroplanes than Bob, but could also identify every make and type - including German. Aircraft recognition was an important art and I was better than most servicemen. Consequently I was always on the lookout for the something different. In fact - I'd have liked to see a Junkers 52 transport, or even a Junkers 87 dive bomber: but these never came as far as Surrey; they were too slow and too vulnerable.
Seeing a Junkers 52 though would have meant the 'invasion' had already begun, and for sure when they were not dropping paratroops they'd be landing heavy equipment or towing the ten-seater gliders. Having flown my lead nosed cataputl gliders regularly round about I felt qualified in understanding the needs of this form of assault, and since the gliders were expendable, as could be some transports, then with dash and 'flair' there would be few obstacles to prevent a determined operation succeeding. Chaldon I knew would be 'soft' on gliders as well as paratroops, and to provemy understandings a Hurricane made a perfect belly landing in a Willey farm field one afternoon. Having had it pass clean overy my head with a dud sounding engine I knew roughly where to find it after a ten minute trot. A policeman had already beaten me to the scene to guard it, but he allowed me to browse it over. Its only damage were the splintered tips of the wooden propeller, while the simple skid marks of the neat landing were all of a hundred yards long. Weighing up the field I could plainly visualise it could acommodate twenty such landings without any overlapping wings or collisions. A 'gift' to a company of German glider troops, who, on clearing a few, would allow space for several transports to land under covering fire. (This is exactly how the German airborne toops established themselves on the island of Crete in May 1941. Here was no 'soft' grass to cushion landings though, so the gliders made casualties as they met stony ground or the many hard stone walls).

During daylight hours we at Chaldon didn't worry about possible paratroop and glider landings for the sky was rearly without Spitfires and Hurricanes tooing and froing or rising from Kenly by the squadron to engage the German formations crossing the coast somewhere or bombing more southern airfields. But in darkness we took the matter more seriously. Bombers after all going northwards could in fact be releasing gliders; or what we took to be bombers could in fact be transports towing gliders. Either could be dropping the paratroops to mark some landing zones and defend landing aircraft bringing the specialist support equipment and light guns needed to form a perimeter by daylight. The well trained German troops would soon be masters of the situation still being reinforced before our Spitfires and Hurricanes could begin their work; they needed daylight; and we had no fighters nor night defence against bombers worth speaking of in 1940, so a stream of transports flying from French airfields could expect little opposition. And following behind he Heinkels fitted with their radio navigation 'Knickerbien' beams there was little fear of getting lost. If we could send Lysanders to land spied and their tools into France at night, then the enemy could do the same here - but on a bigger scale.

Being made aware of this possible form of German infiltration behind their seaborne invasion forces meant that some night during heavy air activity we felt chary of using our Anderson garden shelter. They were good shelter against bombs but wouldn't be much use if cut-throat paratroops were roaming undetected in the district. It only needed a few saboteur para men to create 'havoc' among civilians, non combatant troops, and even some of the guard duty Candadian lads were known to be having the jitters during the quiet dark hours. When it's totally dark and quiet your imagination can make fearful noises out of the slightest of sounds.

With August having passed, with the sky given over to only the Battle of Britain combat planes and a couple of invasion scares during daytime when the church bells were prematurely rung because a few downed pilots were seen parachuting to safety, we entered the September phase of 'invasion' scares. But the Germans had nowhere near mustered the sky over Britain, so we were taking the threat a little less seriously. By the middle of the month though - following some very great aerial conflicts involving thousands of planes - we were again standing by for the enemy troops to strike regardless of air superiority. The days were getting a bit shorter and it made sense for the enemy to launch his attack now.

As if to enhance this line of thinking the night bombing was increasing almost nightly and thus making the darkness more active than the daytime. Very noisy it was too, and again we were keeping sharp eye and our ears open for the different sounding plane or soft swishing noise of glider wings. For a few more days it was a daunting prospect as those supposedly in the know warned of the imminent possibility and what that might entail. We had all by now seen the mass exodus of French and Belgian refugees as they fled their homes ahead of German tanks and soldiers; the carnage and destruction shown on the cinema screens. Yes, it was daunting; to have to pack bags and old prams and start heading off to who knew where; tramping and walking all day; then perhaps sleep out in a field,in the rain; or doss down in a cow barn; with chickens; a horse - or the cows!! and what would we do when we got there? How would we know when to stop getting there? No, we could do without the invasion. But that Haw Haw mouthpiece of the Germans was still 'braying' on his daily basis that they were coming; soon, or tomorrow. Our night bombers were knocking out many of the barges and boats, it was said, and causing them to postpone the operation.
Towards the end of the month we had a welcome reprieve when an autumn storm got going. It wasn't very noticeable in Surrey, but in the Channel it was rough enough for the Germans to disperse many boats and lose a lot more sunk. It was our saviour, for the invasion ports stayed denuded of the landing craft boats.

Hitler was still threatening in October but few were taking him seriously now. Winter months were nearly here; more winds and storms; no army would invade in such conditions. The big air raids of September faded to smaller formations too as Autumn restricted operations. There was still plenty of air activity though as the enemy kept the RAF on its toes and increased the number of Heinkels bombing at night. The Luftwaffe had lost the B of B but would increasingly step up the after dark attacks till it became know as the 'blitz'. This great spectacle of bombs and shells that set London alight was very visible to us in Chaldon. It was a fireworks display of magnitude and went on for night aftr night for two months! And since most of the London bombers overflew Chaldon - our bungalow - then it was really noisy at times. However, very little fell on the village and I knew of no casualties.

At least we had lost the dreaded invasion threat, while I had to wait till after war years to see a Junker 52. For those not familiar with such aircraft, I'll say that they were the German equivalent of our American built Dakota - the famous plane that 'won' the WAR. Both types were real workhorses of great value, and completely indispensible. Some are still flying pleasure flights in 2003!! and I made ten parachute jumps from Dakotas in 1945 at Ringway and Netheravon then 18 years old and newly in the Para Regt: I'd become a soldier 'type' we had expected at Chaldon in 1940.

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