Bomb Alley Kid No 15.

                                                              Bomb Alley kid No 15
 

I am quite supprised that he is a man just like my dadand he seems quite  a nice man, but he appeares to be a little worried when the soldiers start to arive,they have come over from the searchlight company over near the woods.the soldiers throw a ring around the plane,and one of the soldiers climbs  into the cockpit,and the german pilot says to the sargent incharge to tell the man in the cockpit not to touch any of the buttons
because the guns on the plane are fully loaded,and have not been fired,you can see this is true as the covers over the  the guns are still intact,but the sargent seems to  ignore his advice,when suddenly there is a burst of cannon  shot from the plane,we all jump away with fright but luckly no one was in the line of fire from the cannon which fires through the nose cap of the propeller,had it been the wing guns  it would have killed anyone standing in front luckly there were only one or two soldiers in front forming the circle around the plane,and I guess the bullet from the cannon went between them without touching any of them,the German just looked at the seargent as if to say you fool what did I say to you I deresay he also thought I have left one idiot Hitler only to find another fool here in England.perhaps he wondered if all of us  were just as stupid,I must say it made some of us ashamed to be English.He was then taken off in one of the army lorries which had arrived at the field,we are told to leave by the  sargent, so after all that excitement we have to return to the work of collecting the hay,but there is still a dog fight going on above us with the fighters.We have to work untill it is too dark to see very well,but will return to-morrow to carry on with collecting the hay, but once again the
sirens go to say there is another raid imminent,but we  just  have to carry on getting the hay in,whilst we are workin we do hear the sound of heavy aircraft approaching, we look up to see Many German bombers comming over,and we can see the  German fighters weaving in and out between the bombers to proctect them,the grown ups wonder if we should take some kind of cover untill they pass over, but there seems to be many many bombers,mostly Junkers it  seems that there are hundreds of them,as they seem to fill the sky,then we  see other fighters come and these seem to be mostly Hurricans and Spitfires who sweep out from the sun at the back of the Germans, and they start to weave in and out after the Messersmits ,we watch as this fight goes on,and see one or two bombers with smoke comming from them,so they must have been hit.
the German fighters realise they are under attack,so they break away to intecept our chaps,our figher planes are out numbered,I must admit I have not seen so many german planes at one time.we can see little puffs of smoke from ack ack guns  shells exploding among the bombers,some are hit some seem to get through O K.  

Bomb alley kid No 14

                                                             Bomb Alley Kid  14

To day is the funeral of one of our school friends killed in the Sturry Bombing,He is to be buried in the little church in Fordwich,so we will walk down to the church for the service, and internment,on our way we have to go through Sturry or what is left of it,I have seen bomb creaters before but they are usualy small maybe 12 -15 ft accross compared. b ut the ones in Sturry must be at least 40 to 50 ft diameterand are now full of water so they look like ponds,there ar many opiples of bricks and wood which used to be houses and shops of the villiage,where once we bought our groceries,  after the service in Fordwich and come home my Mum say that my Uncle Jack is commimg back to help with the farm,he has been driving buses in london during the war,and has married a girl from the west end of London,and thinks it better  and safer to bring her home to help with the farm. her name is Jean and she will live with us I must admit she is really very pretty,she also wears high heel shoes, and nylon stockings,probbaly bought on the black markett as no one we know can get nylon stockings .and  fancy clothes,my Mum says she is really not  a girl to take up farming,, or settle down to country life.
         My Dad has to be on duty most night now with the other men,untill late of night their building where they keep the fire engine  is at  the moment a makeshift mortuary Dad says its weird knowing there are still some of the bodies in the other little room  next to theirs,but there is  a
funnyside to this, as the electric meter is in this room where the bodies are,and during the evening the lights go out,this is because you have to put money into it every so often to keep it going,and the meter is down the other end of the room,so someone will have to pass down betwen the bodies to reach it, and they only have a torch to find the way to the meter between the corpses,this makes it rather ghostly, so they decide to  cut cards to see who goes.to the meter and put the money in it but eventualy the bodies are moved out to be burried and layed to rest.poor souls
 .      Gradualy things are getting back to normal,we can now  get back to going to school as we could not  go owing to all the disruption caused by the bombing.I have been to Canterbury with my Mum a few times on the bus and looked around Barrets the the big  toy shop in Canterbury  near the Westgate Towers,and sometimes Mum buys me a Dinky Toy.one day when we get home Raymond is home on leave,  he look great in his R A F uniformand he has half wings over his top pocket this shows he is a Navigater come Airgunner,this is different for a pilot as he has complete wings over his pocket.Rayomnd say he cant wait to have a go at the German bombers, and fighters should he get the chance, I wish I could join up as well, and fly the big bombers or fighters that we see going over to bomb Germany,Raymond says he will get me a set of wings so that my Mum can sew them onto my jacket, this would be great.
        Uncle Jack has ask Mum and Dad if we can come up to the farm to-morrow, and help to harvest the hay,and corn so next day we cycle up to give a hand,this is good fun, as sometimes I am aloud to drive the tractor that tows the trailer on which we put the hay.I am too small to be able to reach the top of the hay on the trailer with the pitchfork also it pretty heavy to lift for me.altough there ar still a few dog fights going on during the day we have to keep working as the harvest must be brough in and stored in his barn,so we are able to watch the fights in the air between  the German s and our men.One aferrnoon while we are still working up at the farm we are stopped to have something to eat and drink we hear and see a Messersmit we notice that he is getting lower and lower and not going very fast also there is a Spitfire flying very low  as if he is landing on the Messersmit to our amazement the German isnt firing any of his guns,and really he could shoot at us as we would be easy targets out in the field,we can see that he will crash in the next field if he dosnt pull up quick,but he dosnt and does what we call a belly flop landing in the next field to ours,all the men, and us begin to run to see what  has happened to him,by the time we reach him he is getting out of the planes cockpit meanwhile the Spitfire has returned and does his victory roll then come back yet again, and waves to the German pilot,who waves back to him this is something  most unusual.I have never been so close to a plane that is still in the air, and the noise is terrific at that low hight.meanwhile the German Pilot put up his hands  in the serender attitude,He look really grand in his uniform which is a greyish in coulour but blueish,with a peak cap,when one of the men approach him he speaks in perfect English and say he has come to serender to the English as he is finnished with the silly man called Hitler,he thn goes into his cockpit and takes out a siutcase that will do him while he is a prisoner in England,He also cuts with a penknife  the swastiker from the tailplane,and gives it to one of the men,also he hands over his luger pistol to one of the others,warning them that it is loaded and to be carefull.wiith it.I am supprised that he is Just like my Dad not in looks, but is a normal man, and seems very nice.not a monster like I thought all Germans were.

Bomb Alley No 12 & 13.

                                                              Bomb alley No 12


We now have another new thing in one of the field,this is a barrage balloon which they raise and lower,these are suposed to prevent, low flying aircraft, but all they seem to do is present targets for the Messersmits who shoot them down,Dad says in Dover they  have a saying we  put them up you shoot them down,The army have now put  a searchlight in one of my grans fields near to the wood, and the searchlight crew have a brengun  for protection not that its that good as when we are up to collect eggs, and to clean out the chickens houses A German fighter dives down the searchlight beam,and opens fire which puts out the light.that was exciting,and something to be seen,its funny how we seem to forget how dangerous things are, and seem to except life to be like this.luckly no soldiers were hurt because they ran into their bunkers.We boys now have another interest, and this is to go out into the field,down by the railway, and dig out the incendiary  bomb finns that stick up in the mud or soft ground.we  then swap these for old bullet shells or pieces of shrapnel from the bombs, these are put into a bag and saved for a man to collect as these bits are melted down and made into other things for the war effort,some times we find an incendiary bomb that has not gone off,so we unscrew the bottom and take out the powder,and set it alight.if Mum or Dad knew this they would probbaly have a fit.then if you pollish the aluminium case of the bomb it shines really nice.I keep mine in the coal shed attached to our house,on a shelf.

                                                                       bomb alley No 13


          To day is the day of the birthday party down in Sturry,but as some of us are not aloud to go we can only wish her a happy birthday and hope they have a good party that night and all goes well..After the school bell goes we collect our schoolbags and make our way home for tea.after tea we are going over to the big house to see the soldiers, and clean some badges for them,then perhaps we will have a game on the truck,we all hope we shall have a quiet night as we havnt had much sleep of late,Mum and Dad recon we can sleep in the house to-night so that will make a change to sleep in my own bed instead of the one in the shelter,so after cleaning some badges, and playing on the cart that Dad made, its time for bed,anyway its dark now at nigh, so you cant really play outside.We have just finnished tea, when the siren go off again so it looks like another night in the shelter yet again.so its collect the gasmasks, and bedding,and make our way down to the shelter,after awile we can hear the guns again and planes flying over head on their way to London yet again.so we know they will be comming back in about a couple of hours time,so we play cards and do jigsaws, anything to pass the night away.To- day is the18 November1941,and it must have been around eight oclock when we hear a very very low aircraft, and we think it may be crashing, then we hear gunfire which is drowned out by one massive explosion followed by another,we wait to hear anymore because usualy they drop six bombsor  which is called a stick of bombs, but no more come,except for things  falling on the shelters outer door.Dad says he thinks its bricks and things comming down, and that those bombs must have been very close,he hopes it isnt Mr and Mrs Butlers house accross the field.from us, then we can hear something like rain comming down on the shelter door.so Dad lifts the shelter door, to have a look,when he looks down at us again his face is coverd in black spots of soot,he thinks it is further down the road, as he could see fire glowing from that direction,then the air raid warden come to our shelter and tell Dad they need the fire engine, and water tank, and any one who can help,as its Sturry that has been hit by two massive bombs,so Dad has to leave, and just tells us to stay in the shelter for the rest of the night.and he will see us in the morning. now the Greman Bombers are comming back from raiding London,so we are worried that they will see the fires,in the villiage and drop any bombs they have left,I am glad that it was not Derek and Allen house, and that its O K  ,My Dad didnt come home in the morning and we hope he is O K,then  a warden comes and tells us that we cannot go to school to- day,because  of all the work that is going on in Sturry,with fire engines, and ambulances, and military vehicles everything is needed to help in the villiage,and  the roads are closed,eventualy my Dad comes home for a short brake,and a rest,he say its terrible, most of Sturry has been raised to the ground and there are very few  houses still standing,all night he and the others have been helping to recover boddies from the rubble,and are trying to find others who may be burried,alive so he must go back to help,after eating something,Mum say he should rest.but Dad says  he must get back to help find people, everyone is needed. After he has worked for two days in the villiage,he says that they think it was two land mine bombs, which usualy are dropped by parachute, and are exploded above ground on their way down.these boms are really big so this would account for the devistation.one had apperantly dropped on the Canterbury side of the villiage, and the other had dropped on the eastside. so the combined  blast of these two bombs had done damage covering a quarter of a mile and had left two very very large bomb craters,each side of the villiage.My Mum asks dad about the birthday party,he says this was one of the terrible things they had to cope with,as some of the boys and girls, and their parents had all been killed,so far they had removed twelve boddies from that area,and are still searching,not knowing how many were there at the party  was hard to do.but dont know if they were all to do with the party,and could be from other houses.Dad say thank God me and some of my pals  didnt go, but terrble for those children who did, and their  parents,.there will be a few less playmates in school when we eventualy go back.as yet we have no idia when this might be.When most of the boddies have been recovered, Dad says that there is not enough room in the little Mortuary to place them,so some of the dead have bean taken to the little fire station in Westbere,which is really the villiage hall, and where they keep the fire car and trailer,I overheard Dad telling my Mum that  one of the awfull thing that he had to do in some cases was to break arms and legs in some cases to be able to remove the boddies from the wreckage, and some were children.this upset many of the workers, and also my Dad.

Bomb Alley Kid No 11

         bomb alley kid No 11

At school next day it was all the talk among the boys and girls,also it was one of the girls  or boys I dont rember who but we were ask if  we would like to come to her birthday party on the Saturday evening,but because me, and some of the other boys and girls lived some way away our parents said it was too risky to let us go,especialy in an evening as we would have to walk home about a mile to get home,One of my school pals called Len,lived down in a villiage called Fordwich,  so I presume he wont be allowed to go either, because his home in Fordwich  is about  one and a half miles away,so no one who lived that distance away would not be going but a few of our class friend who lived in or around Sturry would be going,one of  the boys who lived in Fordwich I beleive was allowed to go,I think he was older than us anyway.
              Once again that night the siren go off again warning of another raid. so again  Mum Dad and me have to move out of our nice cosy beds in the house, and back into the old  shelter down the garden, later that night we her the drone of the  bombers again going to bomb London,so we know that it will be sometime  before they return having been turned back because of the guns at Blackheath, if they are hit or damaged they will return, and drop their bombs  on their way back to Gremany,which means that Kent will get another load of bombs  dropped on it which were meant for London,Mostly they fall in fields around our part,and to-night will be no exception,shure enoughwe hear the bombers  approaching so out come the boufourt  guns on the lorries,and we can hear them fireing away in our road, they sound like  bombs but if you watch them you can see the tracers shells shoot up into the sky sometimes its hard to tell bombs from guns,but there is one bang that is too close for comfort and then another so Dad closes the shelter door,and we hear things  hiting on the shelter door. then we hear a tapping on our shelter door,so dad opens it up when he does this it looks like daylight because all the marshes are on fire,which has been caused by incendery  bombs, and the man who knocked on our shelter door is one of Dads firemen, and they need to use the fire engine that Dad drives to help put out the fires,so Dad has to go, but his face is covered in black soot when he looks back into our shelter,Dad has to go so he leaves me and Mum in the safty of the shelter and goes off with the other man to get their fire engine and trailer.not that they can do very much because there is only a lane down to the marshes, and I dont see the car getting very far on this.When Dad returns home later the next day after fighting the fire all night he is tired out and coverd in mud and wet through,he says that some men have come in from Fordwich but he says how they crossed the River Stour he has no idia.but they have. We dont have a bathroom in our house so Mum has to boil the water in a big copper bowl,on the gas cooker, and get  the big galvanised bath tub which we bathe in when we get a chance.while Dad has a bit of a rest,once Dad has rested, and had his bath he goes for a sleep although we have fire places in every, room we have on big fireplace in the kitchen and  that has to be cleaned with blacklead like a pollish only for fireplaces,then you have to clean out all the ashes from the previous fire before we can light another,but if we can keep the fire going we can usualy just top it up with coal and keep it going all next day.Dad has to go to his work somethime the next day to deliver flour around the villiages in and around Kent.Dereks Dad has also to go to work to deliver the vegtables, and such to grocershops..

Bomb Alley No 10

                                                                              Bomb alley kid No 10

One of my pals  Roger goodman had been over at the soldiers,when the siren sounded, and was  going to go home,he  had seen the aircraft so he had taken shelter behind one of the big trees around the  big house before crossing the road  to get to his home, and he said he had seen the bomb hit the pavement, and bounce before exploding with a big flash of light and a bang,at this point I looked down the lane to see my Mum being supported by my Dad comming up from their allotment down at the railway,and we all think that she has been hurt or hit by a bullet,Dad says she is O K and is just in shock because the bullets from the planes had spayed over the top of them,but my Mum had started to run,and Dad had to push her down onto the  ground and hold her there,because he said if the pilots had seen two figures runing away they would have done their best to shoot them up, he said the worst thing anyone  can do is get up and run,because you are an easy target.I was relieved that my Mum was O K,But the next thing is to go to the house that was blown up,now this house was made  from wood and  brick so it had folded up like a pack of cards but no one had been seriously hurt,but there was a funnyside to this because when my Dad said to the man he could take off his tin helmet he said  no,as he could feel the hot blood running down his head and shoulders and face and said  he thought his helmet was keeping his brain in.his skull, as he had been hit on the head with something heavy and large, granted his helmet had a dent in it but what he thought was blood was  hot water from the water tank in the roof of his house so it had a happy ending in this case.The women stayed behind to help  clear up the mess,and help the women whose house it was to find clothes and toys from the rubble.the men cleared as much rubble as they could but by this time the soldiers from the the big house had also arrived, and ready to help.They said they think  that the planes had seen a train that had just left Sturry station.so this would be why they had opened fire on the railway,and the bomb was meant for the army convoy that had just passed on  the road to Magate  they said that they had tried to assemble their bren guns,but by the time they got to their trenches to do this it was all over.so other than the house everything was O K and no one was really hurt.Dad and the other farthers are on duty to-night,so we decide to sleep in the shelter to-night.                         
                                                                    

B A page 9

          Part 9
        

As the months go by things get a little more nasty,because now if a German shoots down a British plane, and British pilot is able to bale out of his plane  the Germans are now shooting up the pilot whilst he is comming down on his shute,so now a British plane will circle around him to keep the Germans off,but of course this means there are less of our planes  in the sky,for a few minuts,also it means that the plane protecting the pilot on the parachute is easy prey for a German fighter,My pals and myself look for cartridge cases from the bullets, and  my Dad makes lighters  out of them,we also collect the glass from any crashed planes or bombers,if we can and make rings and things from them.thats if we can get the bits of glass,there are a few wrecked planes that come down, and some of these are  parked at a garage down by the station in Sturry they have a few Spitfires and messersmitts parked there these planes are not too badly damaged,and will be collected  by I suppose a scrap lorry to be used as spare parts for other planes.you can see the bullet holes in them,sometime you can see the blood of whoever was shot up in them and if we ask, some of the soldiers who gaurd them will let us get into the cockpit,this is all very exciting because you can imagion what its like to be a pilot in one of them and see all the instruments and dials.