No, you didn't read the title wrong. Let me explain.
I have what most people would say is an unhealthy obsession with all things World War 2, yes i know; another passion of mine and all started when i was very young sitting with my grandad watching the legend that is John Mills in The Colditz story. The true story of the allied escape from Colditz castle deep in the heart of Saxony, Germany. An apparantly unescapeable POW camp.
From this moment on i was hooked, if it was a true story and WW2, i watched it or read it, and still do today. I have managed to amass around 60 dvd's and maybe the same amount of Books over the last 10 years and never tire of watching or reading them. i am always on the lookout for new material and beginning to get fed up looking.Each and every book or movie that i own are Historically factual or based on real events and they never cease to amaze me.
Amaze me? what i really mean is, The men or women that these books or movies portray are amazing, bare with me, i am struggling to find the right words.....unbelievable, nope, astonishing. They all laid the precious gift of life on the line for the sake of world freedom. They didn't think twice about flying, Sailing or running into battle all guns blazing so that the world could be free from the tyranny that was the Hitler regime.
Some of these men and women even lied about their age to join up to their chosen service. That in my eyes is the one reason why i'll never forget them, and why we should continue to educate future generations about the sacrifice that previous genrations made for them.
sorry, getting passionate again.
Anyway, this brings me to the title of this blog.....As i mentioned earlier i am running out of fresh material and suddenly realised that i have a living relative, whom i am very close to, and over the age of 80, who could feed my curiosity to what it was like living at a time of war. My Aunt.
Now, i have never spoken to her about it before and decided to visit and just ask. My mum always said, if you don't ask you don't get. nothing ventured nothing gained.
My Aunt was born in 1929 to a farmhand on a farm in Pearsons Green, Kent. She has lived in Pearsons Green all her life and to this day only lives 1 mile from her birthplace. When the war broke out in 1939 she was 10 and had just left school to start her service. Service was compulsory in those days and she had to go to the local country estate house and was given the task of learning how to pepare and cook food for the household. Tough job for a 10 year old, but she accepted it and just got on with it, and to this day she is the best cook ever and still makes everything from scratch and with fresh ingredients.
The photo below shows you the area that she was born and worked and now resides, i am sure you'll agree that in 82 years, she hasn't moved far!
The next photo shows you where the village is, in comparison to London and the coast...right smack in the middle and directly in the flight path of the German bombers on route for London
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To top it off, within 30 miles in all directions there where many fighter bases. Manston, Rochester, West Malling, Biggin Hill, Gravesend, Kenley and Croydon. All major Bases that formed the southern protection ring for London. All this meant that in the summer of 1940 at the age of 11 my aunt was witness to some horrific sites in the skies directly above her home.
As you can see in photo 1, it is mostly farmland, and during the war it was field after field of hops, which for those that know; during July,August and September they grow to a height of about 12 feet and could provide perfect cover and camouflage for Anti-Aircraft Batteries. Which is just what the Ministry of defence decided to do in the summer of 1940 in the hopfield right opposite my Aunties family home. Marked in Photo 1 with a red cross.
Now, i have seen AA batteries in museum and they look pretty inocuous, but apparently if you are within 100ft of them when they are firing, you know about it! My Grandfather built an anderson shelter in the garden of the family home, that apparently is still there today. It was used an incredible amount from the summer of 1940 til the end of the war, and as far as i can tell, they were fine unless you received a direct hit. Being in the country there was a very slim chance that you would be bombed, but living where my Auntie did, you where directly under the bombers flight paths and they would quite often jettison bombs if they were on the run from the RAF in their Spitfires or Hurricanes, which mostly landed harmlessly in the fields around them, but there was always the fear that one day they wouldnt be so lucky.
She told me a funny story about the AA guns, that actually shocked me at first. Apparently there was a daylight raid heading toward the frontline RAF fighter bases and the German fighter ME109's used to 'hedgehop' (that is fly at around 100M above the ground as soon as they crossed the channel to avoid radar.) (Radar was primitive in 1940 but effective and was a major factor in the success of defeating the Luftwaffe.). Hedgehopping was effective and it made the ME109's hard to spot from above and the AA guns couldn't lower thier sights enough to fire effectively at the incoming swarms, on this occassion the Me109 flew behind the house and the AA gun let rip with both barrells directly at the house, which removed all of the chimney and missed the German fighter. As you can imagine this was incredibly frightening as the family were sitting down for sunday dinner when the air raid warning sirens went off and as they all headed for the shelter the chimney came down around them.
The German Fighter pilots could be 'bastards' according to my Aunt, as they hedgehopped there way back to France they used to shoot on anything that moved...horses, tractors, people working in the fields complete indiscriminate killing of innocent people. My grandfather was called to the next door farm cos all the cows were shot to pieces. How you deal with this day after day is beyond me.
Once the Battle of Britian was over in September the fear of Doodlebugs (V1 Rockets) came next. My auntie has recollections of them flying low overhead and she remembers that she was told by my grandfather if you can hear them, you would be fine as they were fuelled to go to London, but if they stopped making a noise then head for the shelter. She also said she witnessed many Spitfire and Hurricane pilots flying alongside the V1's and tipping their wings up to flip the doodlebug over so it didnt reach it's intended target and crash into the fields.
She recalls, one incident where she was cycling to work with a neighbour and they had to dive into a ditch for cover because a doodlebug's engine stopped and headed directly down at them and missed them by about 300ft! Pretty frightening don't you think? especially for a 10-11 year old.
At this point in the conversation, my Aunt turned to me and said, "can we stop now?" of course i obliged, but asked why? What came next shocked me. She then proceeded to tell me that she has never told anybody these stories before even here own children, my cousins. My mother, her Sister is 14 years her junior so didn't experience the war, even she doesnt know.
I feel priviliged that she felt she could share these stories with me, but i felt i was intruding in a part of her life that been locked away for nearly over 70 years. I did ask why she hadn't spoken about it, and this was her answer.
"Cos i'm still having nightmares"
Makes you think doesn't it?
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