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Memories of a V-1 or commonly known ‘Doodle bug’ landing in the village of Park Gate on the south coast of England. It was May 1944 and I was eight years old living in a terraced cottage on Botley Road, one hundred yards from the explosion. Unlike previous nights when air raid sirens sounded and mother would move us to the shelter in the garden, this was different. At the time there were convoys of Canadian soldiers living along side our houses in trucks and tanks waiting orders for the Normandy invasion. Remembering my father’s words, there was a strange droning noise in the sky followed by a few seconds of silence then a massive flash and bang. (He believed this to be the first V-1 landing in Britain) The missile had dropped on open land between houses creating a large crater and setting army vehicles containing ammunition on fire. Bravely, two soldiers driving vehicles away to a safe location in Duncan Road were badly burned. Amazingly, nobody was killed and injuries to people nearby were slight, however, one elderly neighbour in the road, Mrs Bowman was blinded in one eye from flying glass. The vibration was so intense it caused windows to be broken in my grandmother’s house one mile away at St Cuthbert’s Lane, and mother and father who slept in the front bedroom overlooking the road had splintered glass penetrated in their headboard. As young kids we did not understand fully the danger ahead for the young soldiers waiting to cross the channel into France. The world soon learned the terrible news when the time came. One minute they were with us as family and friends the next they had gone. How we missed their company, accents, baseball practice in the street and gum. This years D-Day celebrations in France reminded me once again of those happy but worrying days for families, and the huge sacrifices made by the young Canadian and Allied service men and women. My sister Beryl and brother John now living at Locksheath enjoy the reunions and annual get-togethers held in the village, joined in the past by some of those Canadian heroes who earlier graced our streets and to whom we are all so thankful.

Ronald Lodge, Newport, Monmouthshire
Formally of 5, Fair View Terrace, Park Gate

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