Bomb Alley Kid No 20
These doodle bugs as we now call them, are really likly to breakdown peoples spirits because you never know when they might be comming over, as there are no warnings with these things you only hear that crackling engine,so it pays to listen day and night very hard to hear them and hope it dosnt stop anywhere near were you are.
My Dad has some bad news for me and mum,he says that during the night our house has been hit with a bomb,and is in a mess,also he say that Uncle Jacks wife is lucky not to have been killed,because she was staying over night,luckly she slept in the front bedroom, and it was the rear of our house that cought the worst of it,so she is O K but the bed was covered in plaster board and glass, which also hit the bead board so she has been very lucky,I ask how my Rabbits are,but Dad say he is sorry to have to say that they were killed in the blast,and the hutches were blown to pieces, this upsets me and I cry,as I loved my pets,anyway Dad says we will have to come back and rescue as mutch as we can from the house,so its into the horse trap, and Aunty Flow takes us over to what was our house,.when we arrive I cant beleive what I see there is rubble everywhere, and big cracks in the walls, and hardly any roof left,our shelter is O K so we would have been O K had we been sleeping there.Dad says he will burrow one of the works vans so that we can remove as much of the furniture as is O K.Uncle Jack says we can use one of the sheds he has to keep the furniture in,all my toys that were kept in a big chest are all O K so thats good on my part.although I cant see me playing wtih them for sometime now.once we have saved as much as is possible, and taken up to the farm, and stored,My Mum is very upset and cryes all the time, so dad puts his armes around her and says everything will be O K as we are all well, and safe, and everything else can be replaced in the future,the pretty young girl that lived with the old lady accross the road from us was killed,they had run under the stairs as they had no time to get to their shelter,but a piece of shrapnel from the the bomb which damaged our house had passed though the bricks at the front of her house and then through the starcase and decapitated her, and yet the old lady had survived with no injury,I really cant beleive she is dead,she was such a lovely girl,but as my Dad says unfurtunaly that is what war does, and can be very unfair.but then war isnt fair anyway
Now we have no house we have nowhere to stay, but my Aunt Flo says we must come and stay with them at their farm, my Mum dosnt really want to but we havnt anyway to go.so have no option,it also means that I will have to go to a new school,where my cousins go.in Hales Place Nr. Canterbury,I really dont like this as it means I have to leave all my friends back home, and make new ones, but I have to go to school, so Mum has made an appiontment to see the head teacher at this schoo lto find out what class I will be put into,this means I have to do a little test,and will have to start in a lower class than my other school at home in Sturry.which was class 4 now I will be in Class 3. I am not shure that I like this school anyway,but it is a pretty little school if you like that kind of thing so I will start on the monday with Johny and Ceril my cousins who go there,but after a time I begin to settle in, and make new friends,some of the boys and girls come up to the farm and we play in the woods on uncles farm,there is one pretty girl that sends me little love notes,and asking me to meet her I have never had a girl friend as such, so we do meet in the woods, or in the meadow, where we kiss and cuddle,I begine to have feelings for this girl that I never had before with any other girl,but I am now 12 years old,and when Jean Butler and I were playing I was only about 10 or so,My cousins also have girl friends as well,we also try smoking, and buy cigerettes to take to the woods, and smoke we buy these from our pocket money my cousins are usualy sick, but I quite like it, and am enjoying them.and want to appear all grown up like my dad, and his friends,I meet with my girl friend at our usual meeting place in the woods, after school and after tea,but we have been seen by some man who has told my uncle who in turn tells my Dad,this man has also told the girls Dad saying we were up to no good,.and were only partly dressed,there is no way we were like this, but he is lieing,but you cant argue with addults,so we both get a really hard telling off, and are told we must never meet again except at school,I recon he was a nasty man just wanting to get us into trouble,but it did put paid to our lovley little romance..pity because I really did love her in a schoolboy way.
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Bomb Alley Kid 2011
Title plate created by Ronnie B Goodwin
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Bomb Alley No 19
Bomb Alley No 19
My Uncle Richard has at last contacted my Mum and Dad to ask if if will be able to help with the harvesting at his farm, we were going to help before but it got postponed,anyway it will be another week off school,which dosnt matter very much as we seem only to play games anyway in the shelters,so not much to lose.My dad is on duty for that week so we may as well stay with Uncle Ritchard,,so we pack suit cases with clothes that we will need ,Uncle Ritchard is sending his pony and trap over to pick us up,this is something new to me because I have never ridden in a pony and trap before,the pony is named Daisy and is quite small compared to some horses but just right for the trap,the trap has two big wheeles and you enter it by a small door at the back it dosnt have a roof or anything like that so is open to the weather, it has small seats inside like bench seats to sit on,My aunt Flow has come over to sturry to pick us up, as Uncle Ritchard is getting his to big Dray horses ready to harnes up to the hay cart these horses are really big and powerfull,this why they are used to plough the field, and pull the hay carts,once we are all aboard Daisy and her little cart, we set off to go back to to the farm,Daisy trips along with a clip clop,, clip clop and seems to enjoy pulling the little cart at a fair pace.so we are soon at uncles Farm,we are met by my two cousins Johny and Cyril,Johny is the same age as me, born in december, and I was born in January and Cyril is slightly younger by a year or two.when we arrive at the farm we find sandwiches, and tea for us to eat,when we are out in the filelds,so its like a big picknick because there are other farm hands as well who are there to help gather in the hay,once we have worked the morning,we settle down on the hay bales to eat our lunch,they make good seats then.once we finnish our lunch we have to start again because there is a lot to get through before nightfall,we manage to clear one of the field but there is another one to do tommorrow, so My Aunt Flo say we should stay over for the night as planned and we can get a good start in the morning,My Dad is on duty anyway so it will be O K because they get food delivered to them at the station anyway,During the night the sirens sound yet again for another air raid,but it seems this time the bombers seem to concentrate on Canterbury itsself,from my Uncles farm up on the hill above Canterbury we can hear the bombs decending and the explosions from them,we can see that Canterbury seems to be nothing but fire,we think the bombers have mistaken Canterbury City for the Buffs Barracks just outside the city but they are not on target,,because the Barracks are east of the city by about two miles,at last the bombing is over and the planes start to return back towards France and their bases, but in the morning all we can see is smoke and flames still burning in the city. But we have to be out and harvesting the hay so we have brakfast consisting of bacon and eggs with Tomatoes with bread and if you want it milk,but I stick to tea.,I dont like milk eversince my Uncle Jack squirted milk direct from one of his cows into a glass, and told me to taste it,and it,tasted terrible to me so never bother with it again.Uncle Jack said it would be good for me,but I felt sick most of the day,we get milk at school but I give mine to anyone who wants it.Now we meet the other farm members who have come to help get the hay in and they say that many people have been killed and injured from the bombing last night in Canterbury,they say that the people who were in in a big shelter in the top end of the city were killed when a bomb exploded on the shelter with a direct hit.they say the Cathedral wasnt touched.but the bomb that hit the shelter passed between the towers of the Cathedral so said a warden that was on the tower.It will take a while to find all the people that are burried in the rubble and in the shelter that was hit.but work must continue for us, so we start to get on with the harvest.in the early evening we are all finnished so my aunt says she will take us back home in the jogging cart again in the morning.but later on we hear a strange enging niose in the skyand look up to see what it is,it just looks like a small aircraft being shot at by some of our fighters we see that it must have been hit because there is flame and moke comming from the rear of it.and may be this why itsounds like a crackling noise.then the fighters beakaway and the ack ack guns open up on it,you can se the shell burst around it none hit it we begin to say that the pilot deserves to to get away this time as he has been through a lot of flack and machine gun fire he must be a very brave pilot,but then the engine stops and the plane just dives toward the grond,and we hear a dull explosion away in the distance,and guess the pilot must be dead, anyway he was German so not to worry,later we hear that the Germans have a new type of bomb that flys on its own with a jet engine, and when it runs out of fuel it just dives into the ground or City some of our fighters tried to shoot it down over Kent but it is able out run them speed wise.we now know it is what we call a doodle bug..so we wont get an air raid worning so mutch as it flyes faster than the Radar can pick it up { so they say that is.}they cause a large amount of damage as they are full of explosives. and can wipe out large areas at one go,so if you have to hope that you are not near when the engine stops.
My Uncle Richard has at last contacted my Mum and Dad to ask if if will be able to help with the harvesting at his farm, we were going to help before but it got postponed,anyway it will be another week off school,which dosnt matter very much as we seem only to play games anyway in the shelters,so not much to lose.My dad is on duty for that week so we may as well stay with Uncle Ritchard,,so we pack suit cases with clothes that we will need ,Uncle Ritchard is sending his pony and trap over to pick us up,this is something new to me because I have never ridden in a pony and trap before,the pony is named Daisy and is quite small compared to some horses but just right for the trap,the trap has two big wheeles and you enter it by a small door at the back it dosnt have a roof or anything like that so is open to the weather, it has small seats inside like bench seats to sit on,My aunt Flow has come over to sturry to pick us up, as Uncle Ritchard is getting his to big Dray horses ready to harnes up to the hay cart these horses are really big and powerfull,this why they are used to plough the field, and pull the hay carts,once we are all aboard Daisy and her little cart, we set off to go back to to the farm,Daisy trips along with a clip clop,, clip clop and seems to enjoy pulling the little cart at a fair pace.so we are soon at uncles Farm,we are met by my two cousins Johny and Cyril,Johny is the same age as me, born in december, and I was born in January and Cyril is slightly younger by a year or two.when we arrive at the farm we find sandwiches, and tea for us to eat,when we are out in the filelds,so its like a big picknick because there are other farm hands as well who are there to help gather in the hay,once we have worked the morning,we settle down on the hay bales to eat our lunch,they make good seats then.once we finnish our lunch we have to start again because there is a lot to get through before nightfall,we manage to clear one of the field but there is another one to do tommorrow, so My Aunt Flo say we should stay over for the night as planned and we can get a good start in the morning,My Dad is on duty anyway so it will be O K because they get food delivered to them at the station anyway,During the night the sirens sound yet again for another air raid,but it seems this time the bombers seem to concentrate on Canterbury itsself,from my Uncles farm up on the hill above Canterbury we can hear the bombs decending and the explosions from them,we can see that Canterbury seems to be nothing but fire,we think the bombers have mistaken Canterbury City for the Buffs Barracks just outside the city but they are not on target,,because the Barracks are east of the city by about two miles,at last the bombing is over and the planes start to return back towards France and their bases, but in the morning all we can see is smoke and flames still burning in the city. But we have to be out and harvesting the hay so we have brakfast consisting of bacon and eggs with Tomatoes with bread and if you want it milk,but I stick to tea.,I dont like milk eversince my Uncle Jack squirted milk direct from one of his cows into a glass, and told me to taste it,and it,tasted terrible to me so never bother with it again.Uncle Jack said it would be good for me,but I felt sick most of the day,we get milk at school but I give mine to anyone who wants it.Now we meet the other farm members who have come to help get the hay in and they say that many people have been killed and injured from the bombing last night in Canterbury,they say that the people who were in in a big shelter in the top end of the city were killed when a bomb exploded on the shelter with a direct hit.they say the Cathedral wasnt touched.but the bomb that hit the shelter passed between the towers of the Cathedral so said a warden that was on the tower.It will take a while to find all the people that are burried in the rubble and in the shelter that was hit.but work must continue for us, so we start to get on with the harvest.in the early evening we are all finnished so my aunt says she will take us back home in the jogging cart again in the morning.but later on we hear a strange enging niose in the skyand look up to see what it is,it just looks like a small aircraft being shot at by some of our fighters we see that it must have been hit because there is flame and moke comming from the rear of it.and may be this why itsounds like a crackling noise.then the fighters beakaway and the ack ack guns open up on it,you can se the shell burst around it none hit it we begin to say that the pilot deserves to to get away this time as he has been through a lot of flack and machine gun fire he must be a very brave pilot,but then the engine stops and the plane just dives toward the grond,and we hear a dull explosion away in the distance,and guess the pilot must be dead, anyway he was German so not to worry,later we hear that the Germans have a new type of bomb that flys on its own with a jet engine, and when it runs out of fuel it just dives into the ground or City some of our fighters tried to shoot it down over Kent but it is able out run them speed wise.we now know it is what we call a doodle bug..so we wont get an air raid worning so mutch as it flyes faster than the Radar can pick it up { so they say that is.}they cause a large amount of damage as they are full of explosives. and can wipe out large areas at one go,so if you have to hope that you are not near when the engine stops.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Bomb Alley 18
Bomb alley kid No 18
On the news to-day they are saying that we have landed troops on the French Beaches, and so far have made good progress against the
German Forces,also in the news papers they show a map of France and draw a line on the map to show how much we have advanced inland,so people are now hoping that this time we shall win against the Germans,and the war will soon come to an end., but listning to the radio it seems things are not going that well, and the Germans seem to be holding us back,and we are taking heavy casualties,we hear from the local people that many are comming in through Dover and Folkestone sea ports.but according to the news we are still doing well,my Dad hears from a lot of the locals that there is a downward trend to the war against the German troops.and the maps in the papers tend to bear this out with the line now being pushed back.toward the coast again.this is really serious as it shows that we are not containing the Germans in France,.and we are being pushed back to-wards the beaches at Dunkirk my Dad says that when he is down at Dover and Folkestone, he can see great clouds of smoke over on the French coast and even hear Gun fire in the distance,also you see a lot of German planes diving down.Next day when Dad comes home from work dilivering down in Dover and Deal,there are many boats going over to France to try and help get our troops off the beaches in Dunkirk every available boat is being used, even some rowing boats,and the old feries boats,he says its really a terrible situation for us to be in,our Navy is also doing its best to ward off the german fighters and bombers who are pounding our troops with bombs and bullets,unfortunatly the Navy cant get close enough inshore to allow soldires to swim to them,but the small boats can help to get the troops to the Navy Boats that is for those who can be helped, there are even pleasure boats ferrying soldires home from over there,.and one pleasure boat has come all the way from Scotland, and is called the Waverley { this boat is still running to-day in Scotland },but it appears that we are taking heavy losses over on the Beaches in France.those who are wounded are brought back and are being looked after at the big house across from my house,until they can be taken to the hospital,most of the men { or boys } as thats all they seem to be, one day we see a young soldier sitting on the grass outside the big house his hands over his face,and is crying out loud, and sobbing,we approach him and can also see he is shaking as well,we ask one of the soldiers that we know why he is like that he tells us he is frightend as he has seen such terrible things over there on the beaches.and he is suffering from what they call shell shock,we ask the if we might go and try to talk to him,and our friend say we could try if we like,but he will be difficult to approach, so our friend takes us over to see him,and tells to him that he has some friends to see him { meaning us . } and tells us to let him make the first move if he does, and not to mention anything about the war at all,.so we are left to sit beside him and just wait for him to make the first contact,all we say is hello,I think he must be about the same age as my friend Raymond who was in the R A F. about 17 or 18. years old.he eventualy does say hello and wipes some tears away,I have nevr seen a man cry at all let alone a soldier,we stay for awhile but he dosnt say anything more,so we tell him we will come and see him to-morrow.after school.
We do manage to get to school in the morning but again the old siren goes yet again so its into the old shelter at school untill the siren sounds the all clear then we are allowed to leave and go home.so after tea we go over to see if we can see the soldier that we were with yesterday,and yes he is sitting on the steps of the house,he seems a little better this time, and even says hello to us, we say he looks a lot better, and he says he is going home on sick leave .for two weeks,so thats good news for him,one of the other soldiers say they have never been so scared in their lives,as the bombs and bullets were comming down like rain over there, and thought they were all going die as many of the others were killed on the beaches and in the sea.this is not good news for Britain as it looks like the Germans are winning again
and could follow across the chanel but,for some reason they dont, some people say it is because the Chanel sea at this time is too rough or they may be building up for a big push to invade us,so for now we are O K..I hope, Dad and Mum say not to worry we will be O K
On the news to-day they are saying that we have landed troops on the French Beaches, and so far have made good progress against the
German Forces,also in the news papers they show a map of France and draw a line on the map to show how much we have advanced inland,so people are now hoping that this time we shall win against the Germans,and the war will soon come to an end., but listning to the radio it seems things are not going that well, and the Germans seem to be holding us back,and we are taking heavy casualties,we hear from the local people that many are comming in through Dover and Folkestone sea ports.but according to the news we are still doing well,my Dad hears from a lot of the locals that there is a downward trend to the war against the German troops.and the maps in the papers tend to bear this out with the line now being pushed back.toward the coast again.this is really serious as it shows that we are not containing the Germans in France,.and we are being pushed back to-wards the beaches at Dunkirk my Dad says that when he is down at Dover and Folkestone, he can see great clouds of smoke over on the French coast and even hear Gun fire in the distance,also you see a lot of German planes diving down.Next day when Dad comes home from work dilivering down in Dover and Deal,there are many boats going over to France to try and help get our troops off the beaches in Dunkirk every available boat is being used, even some rowing boats,and the old feries boats,he says its really a terrible situation for us to be in,our Navy is also doing its best to ward off the german fighters and bombers who are pounding our troops with bombs and bullets,unfortunatly the Navy cant get close enough inshore to allow soldires to swim to them,but the small boats can help to get the troops to the Navy Boats that is for those who can be helped, there are even pleasure boats ferrying soldires home from over there,.and one pleasure boat has come all the way from Scotland, and is called the Waverley { this boat is still running to-day in Scotland },but it appears that we are taking heavy losses over on the Beaches in France.those who are wounded are brought back and are being looked after at the big house across from my house,until they can be taken to the hospital,most of the men { or boys } as thats all they seem to be, one day we see a young soldier sitting on the grass outside the big house his hands over his face,and is crying out loud, and sobbing,we approach him and can also see he is shaking as well,we ask one of the soldiers that we know why he is like that he tells us he is frightend as he has seen such terrible things over there on the beaches.and he is suffering from what they call shell shock,we ask the if we might go and try to talk to him,and our friend say we could try if we like,but he will be difficult to approach, so our friend takes us over to see him,and tells to him that he has some friends to see him { meaning us . } and tells us to let him make the first move if he does, and not to mention anything about the war at all,.so we are left to sit beside him and just wait for him to make the first contact,all we say is hello,I think he must be about the same age as my friend Raymond who was in the R A F. about 17 or 18. years old.he eventualy does say hello and wipes some tears away,I have nevr seen a man cry at all let alone a soldier,we stay for awhile but he dosnt say anything more,so we tell him we will come and see him to-morrow.after school.
We do manage to get to school in the morning but again the old siren goes yet again so its into the old shelter at school untill the siren sounds the all clear then we are allowed to leave and go home.so after tea we go over to see if we can see the soldier that we were with yesterday,and yes he is sitting on the steps of the house,he seems a little better this time, and even says hello to us, we say he looks a lot better, and he says he is going home on sick leave .for two weeks,so thats good news for him,one of the other soldiers say they have never been so scared in their lives,as the bombs and bullets were comming down like rain over there, and thought they were all going die as many of the others were killed on the beaches and in the sea.this is not good news for Britain as it looks like the Germans are winning again
and could follow across the chanel but,for some reason they dont, some people say it is because the Chanel sea at this time is too rough or they may be building up for a big push to invade us,so for now we are O K..I hope, Dad and Mum say not to worry we will be O K
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Bomb Aleey No 17
Bomb Alley Kid No 17
One day my dad comes home from work,he tells us that the Germans are fireing big shells accrooss the chanel ,and they are landing in and around Dover one of the troubles with these are there are no warnings just a sudden explosion.so peop[le are a bit on edge,as they dont know when the next one will be or where,we hear that one landed quite close to Canterbury,they say about six miles away.but I dont know where.but this means it must have travelled about thirty miles accross the channel to reach that far,I know if you stand on the top cliffs at Dover you can see the French coast outline,which we know is only twentyone miles away.One evening when I come home from school,Mrs Rose is in my house { she is the mother of Raymond } and she is crying her heart out,Mum say I should go out to play with some of my pals,and will call me to come in later,I wonder what the trouble is or what can be wrong,but I go and call on Derek and Roger and Jean and Pam butler and we play at soldiers untill much later when my Mum calls me in for tea,then I ask her why Mrs Rose was so upset and crying its then that Mum tells me that Ramond has been killed,apparently his squadron where taking off on a night raid to Germany,when they had flown up into an American Squadron overhead, and had collided with these other bombers, and had blown up with of some other bombers, American and British all being killed,as they were all loaded with bombs,I am really sad on hearing this as I really looked on Ramond as a big brother,and rember him saying he coulnt wait to go on a sortie,but he never even made it out of England or had the chance to go on a raid,or fire his guns in anger at the Germans,This actualy upsets me as well, because I rember him in his uniform, and how pleased he was to get his wings, this also makes me cry, and is not a very good day for anyone who knew him.I am beginning to realise that war is not as exciting as I thought it was,what with the children being killed in Sturry who were friends, and now Raymond,I cant get it into my head that I will never see him again.or anyone of my school friends that were killed in the bombing of Sturry.
One day my dad comes home from work,he tells us that the Germans are fireing big shells accrooss the chanel ,and they are landing in and around Dover one of the troubles with these are there are no warnings just a sudden explosion.so peop[le are a bit on edge,as they dont know when the next one will be or where,we hear that one landed quite close to Canterbury,they say about six miles away.but I dont know where.but this means it must have travelled about thirty miles accross the channel to reach that far,I know if you stand on the top cliffs at Dover you can see the French coast outline,which we know is only twentyone miles away.One evening when I come home from school,Mrs Rose is in my house { she is the mother of Raymond } and she is crying her heart out,Mum say I should go out to play with some of my pals,and will call me to come in later,I wonder what the trouble is or what can be wrong,but I go and call on Derek and Roger and Jean and Pam butler and we play at soldiers untill much later when my Mum calls me in for tea,then I ask her why Mrs Rose was so upset and crying its then that Mum tells me that Ramond has been killed,apparently his squadron where taking off on a night raid to Germany,when they had flown up into an American Squadron overhead, and had collided with these other bombers, and had blown up with of some other bombers, American and British all being killed,as they were all loaded with bombs,I am really sad on hearing this as I really looked on Ramond as a big brother,and rember him saying he coulnt wait to go on a sortie,but he never even made it out of England or had the chance to go on a raid,or fire his guns in anger at the Germans,This actualy upsets me as well, because I rember him in his uniform, and how pleased he was to get his wings, this also makes me cry, and is not a very good day for anyone who knew him.I am beginning to realise that war is not as exciting as I thought it was,what with the children being killed in Sturry who were friends, and now Raymond,I cant get it into my head that I will never see him again.or anyone of my school friends that were killed in the bombing of Sturry.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
BombAlley Kid No 16
Bamb Alley Kid No 16
Next day while we are waiting for my uncle to collect us from home, we hear a terrible screaming sound of an aircraft diving,for a minute we think its a dive bomber because there is one almighty bang, and our house shakes, when we run outside to see what has happened we can see a cloud of smoke riseing from up the road,so me my mum, and some of my pals run out to the road and can see a fire burning away up near the Convent on the road to Margate and Ramsgate.also we can hear lots of smal cracks going off these are bullets exploding, what we now know is that a plane has crashed in the field,the soldiers have already arived at the site,and warn us to keep our distance,as the cracks that we hear are bullets going off in the fire,one soldier has already been hit in his leg we are told, I wonder what kind of plane it was, and are told it was a spitfire,and had just dived straight down into the ground after being shot down by a messersmitt,people say he had hit the ground so fast that the sound of his engine could still be heard after he hit the ground and blown up.once the fire has been put out we can see a big hole like a bomb creater where it went in,later on in the afternoon they start to dig out whatever they can find,and people are collecting bits to hand back to the soldiers,one little pld lady that I am near asks one of the soldiers if she can keep a small piece of what she thinks is a part of the uniform of the pilot,but the soldier says no after looking at it, because it is a piece of skin,and look like a bit of ear.I guess there isnt very much of him left after that explosion,and impact. We retrn to our house later and find that my Uncle had not come to collect us anyway,so me and my mates go to play after dinner in the field. .Next day we go up to see the hole that the plane made and find the soldiers are digging bits and pieces out from the site,I guess they are looking for what ever might be left of the pilot, they seem to have dug down about ten or fifteen feet but looks like all they can find is twisted metal,this bit of ground is an old roman field, and they say that there are roman soldiers burried there,if this is true the he has crashed in a old roman Cementry, how queer that is, as it will be his last resting place.The hole where he crashed has never been filled in,and in the summer months a lot of wild daisies grow all around the edge of the pit as if its a proper grave.{ weird. } and this goes on every year.The bodies from the German plane that we saw crash near broad Oak are burried in the cemetry oppisite my home,and I ask my Mum why they are burried far away in the top right hand corner of the cemetery out of the way,with small little crosses of wood.,and Mum say this is unconsecrated ground,and not blessed by a minster or priest, I ask why, and mums says its becouse they are heathen people. and not Christians,this to my way of thinking is not a very Christian attitude,because after all they are people and rembering the German Pilot that came down in Uncle Jacks field he was quite a nice man. and someone must love these men. even if they are German.I even ask the Vicar, and he said because they were evil souls they cannot be burried in concentrated gound which has been blessed by a minister.or priest, as they are not christian.this makes me wonder rabout the saying by Christ when he was hanging on the cross, as the Bible tells us that he was said to have said,{ father forgive them as they know not what they do } so can we not say the same about these pilots..this makes me wonder about some of things in the Bible that we are ask to believe.
Next day while we are waiting for my uncle to collect us from home, we hear a terrible screaming sound of an aircraft diving,for a minute we think its a dive bomber because there is one almighty bang, and our house shakes, when we run outside to see what has happened we can see a cloud of smoke riseing from up the road,so me my mum, and some of my pals run out to the road and can see a fire burning away up near the Convent on the road to Margate and Ramsgate.also we can hear lots of smal cracks going off these are bullets exploding, what we now know is that a plane has crashed in the field,the soldiers have already arived at the site,and warn us to keep our distance,as the cracks that we hear are bullets going off in the fire,one soldier has already been hit in his leg we are told, I wonder what kind of plane it was, and are told it was a spitfire,and had just dived straight down into the ground after being shot down by a messersmitt,people say he had hit the ground so fast that the sound of his engine could still be heard after he hit the ground and blown up.once the fire has been put out we can see a big hole like a bomb creater where it went in,later on in the afternoon they start to dig out whatever they can find,and people are collecting bits to hand back to the soldiers,one little pld lady that I am near asks one of the soldiers if she can keep a small piece of what she thinks is a part of the uniform of the pilot,but the soldier says no after looking at it, because it is a piece of skin,and look like a bit of ear.I guess there isnt very much of him left after that explosion,and impact. We retrn to our house later and find that my Uncle had not come to collect us anyway,so me and my mates go to play after dinner in the field. .Next day we go up to see the hole that the plane made and find the soldiers are digging bits and pieces out from the site,I guess they are looking for what ever might be left of the pilot, they seem to have dug down about ten or fifteen feet but looks like all they can find is twisted metal,this bit of ground is an old roman field, and they say that there are roman soldiers burried there,if this is true the he has crashed in a old roman Cementry, how queer that is, as it will be his last resting place.The hole where he crashed has never been filled in,and in the summer months a lot of wild daisies grow all around the edge of the pit as if its a proper grave.{ weird. } and this goes on every year.The bodies from the German plane that we saw crash near broad Oak are burried in the cemetry oppisite my home,and I ask my Mum why they are burried far away in the top right hand corner of the cemetery out of the way,with small little crosses of wood.,and Mum say this is unconsecrated ground,and not blessed by a minster or priest, I ask why, and mums says its becouse they are heathen people. and not Christians,this to my way of thinking is not a very Christian attitude,because after all they are people and rembering the German Pilot that came down in Uncle Jacks field he was quite a nice man. and someone must love these men. even if they are German.I even ask the Vicar, and he said because they were evil souls they cannot be burried in concentrated gound which has been blessed by a minister.or priest, as they are not christian.this makes me wonder rabout the saying by Christ when he was hanging on the cross, as the Bible tells us that he was said to have said,{ father forgive them as they know not what they do } so can we not say the same about these pilots..this makes me wonder about some of things in the Bible that we are ask to believe.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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.
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.
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