I don't remember much about that meeting, but I do remember him saying that they were stationed on hills by the coast, close to Bexhill. It was a boring job waiting for an enemy aircraft to come their way, so they occupied their time cleaning and maintaining the weapon, and for practice they had a go at shooting sea-gulls (whilst they were in flight). He said that they were a difficult target to hit. However, when they were called to fire the gun in action on the only occasion that an enemy plane did come within range, and flew right over them, the gun ceased, and refused to fire. He brought home some spent cartridge cases. My mother polished them up and they fitted exactly into a pair of brass candlestick holders. When she died, my mother bequeathed the candlesticks to her youngest sister, who had always admired them (and still has them!). She had not realised though, that the top parts were machine-gun shell cartridges, until she got them home and examined them more closely.
My father later came home on embarkation leave, but he took ill with the flu or something like it, and he was transferred to the small Military Hospital at Churchill House, Kippington Road, Sevenoaks. Whilst he was there, Winston Churchill made a tour of the Hospital, and my father was able to speak to him.
Interestingly, the comedian, the late 'Spike' Milligan also started off his career in the heavy artillery in Bexhill at a gun emplacement on Gally Hill.
Higher authorities decided that my father was too old (as he was over 40) to take part in the more aggressive 'commando' type role, and he finished up at one of the 'jammiest' postings possible. My Mother was fairly frantic with worry, because she didn't know to which war theatre my father was to be sent. It wasn't until we received the first censored mail that we discovered that he was in Nassau, Bahamas, on the other side of the Atlantic . He was there working in the stores of an R.A.F. Base. He described frozen food to us that he had become acquainted with for the first time (we weren't aware of it at all). He also made a tour of the Southern States. Being in uniform gave him a free ticket to lots of things, and he enjoyed great hospitality there. We received some 'food parcels' from him, which contained: 'candies', chocolate, and chewing gum - all pretty new stuff to us. It also made us very popular with other children when we shared this bounty around.
My father really enjoyed a great life, playing golf, and swimming. He joked that he was wounded on the beaches - he had got sunburnt!
He played at the same golf club as the Duke of Windsor, and he returned home, among his souvenirs he had brought home a photograph of the Duchess, which carried her signature: "Wallis Windsor".
To get to the Bahamas, I believe he went out via America first, travelling on one Cunard's luxury passenger liners, and he returned on another. I believe they were the Mauritania, and the Acquitania, but I'm not certain in which order he traveled on them.
My Father (we never called him 'Dad') was abroad for two years. When he came home, my mother suggested that we (my brother and I) went (walk) to the railway station at Otford to meet him. I remember that my brother, and I, debated as to whether or not we would we could remember what he looked like, and whether or not we would recognise him. However when we did see him; I did, just about recognise him. My brother wasn't so sure at the time. But, it took some time to get used to him again.
I can't remember what happened after that, how much longer he stayed in the forces, or any details of his demob. The company that he worked before he was called up, not only kept his job open for him, but, I believe they paid a wage to my mother all the time he was away serving in the armed forces. She, or we, as a family, were rather lucky!
Incidentally we, like everybody else, would not have known where he was going be posted, that was a secret. When we did receive mail, it was always censored, but we did get to find out where he was eventually.
UNEXPLODED BOMB - FLANESWOOD (AND IN WOODS)
My mother (we never called her 'Mum' or 'Mummy'), in her younger days, and before she was married, had worked (was in service) in the household of a Mrs Webb at 'Flaneswood' a large house standing in many acres of ground, near Stone Street and Seal Chart. In fact my parents were married at St. Lawrence, the local Church (Where they are both now laid to rest). My mother and Mrs Webb had maintained contact, and she and I had walked there from our home in Kemsing one day to visit Mrs Webb for afternoon tea. Mrs Webb told my mother how upset she was, because a young officer had been killed when he was working on an unexploded bomb in the grounds of her estate, and it had exploded.
I can't be absolutely sure that this was on the same day, but it could have been. As an aside to this story, we had walked up Childsbridge Lane, and as it joined Church Lane, there was a house opposite. I happened to notice what I had thought was a wisp of smoke drifting out of the top of a partially open upstairs casement window. I told my mother what I had seen, but I was over- ruled,she declared that I as was imagining things, and we pressed on regardless. However, on our return through Seal, what should we come across, but the fire-brigade in action, in Church Road, outside the very house where I had seen the smoke issuing from. Huh, I had been right, there was a fire. I wanted to tell bystanders and the firemen that I had seen the smoke, but my mother grabbed my hand, and hurried me on our way.
Mrs Webb came to visit us sometimes in her large Rover (I was impressed), and she had a chauffeur called (I think) Mr Thoms. I remember that she had very limited petrol, and so she did not come very often.
MORE UNEXPLODED BOMBS
My mother and I were walking somewhere South of Carter's Hill, possibly at the junction of Mill Lane and Underriver House Road, when we went over a gate into a copse (probably of coppiced Chestnut trees). I think she wanted to pick some wild flowers, anemones or bluebells. We came out onto the road via different five-bar gate. We had to climb over the gate to get out of the wood. There was a notice attached to this particular gate, which could only be read from outside in the road. In large letters on a white board these words were printed :-
Fortunately they didn't! ... at least, not whilst we were there.
Bomb Disposal teams were recognisable, because they travelled around in vehicles with red mudguards, and they carried the words: "Bomb Disposal" on them. The Military Police (army) also had red areas painted on the vehicles. On the mudguards etc.
As I have already stated there were very few motor vehicles about, some were used by essential services such as a Mid-wife (when she wasn't on a bicycle).
Here is one example: the car of a Mid-wife based in Tenterden. The interesting thing that stands out for me, are the white tipped mudguards (to show up in the dark of the blackout), and the one masked headlight, and one blinkered headlight.
[this picture was kindly supplied by Brian Mock].
GERMAN P.O.W.s (Prisoners of War).
There were many German P.O.W.s housed in camps around Sevenoaks. One 'prison' camp was at Wrotham Road, Borough Green. (which later became a school). Lots of prisoners used to roam free around Sevenoaks, and I can remember that many of them used to congregate by the tea-bar that was then in the Woolworth Store in the High Street. They used to chat-up the girls who worked there. They wore special uniforms sometimes dyed a sort of purple colour, with usually a different coloured diamond patch on their backs.
Once, in the High Street I plucked up enough courage to sneak up behind some German P.O.W.s by Blighs Hotel, and I shouted: "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" Well of course they did, and they tried to speak to me in German, but that was about all the German I knew, and I ran off. They chased me briefly, but I think in fun. Many of them were sent out each day to work on local farms.
WORKING ON THE FARM - P.O.W.s & LANDGIRLS
At school I was friendly with a Jim Fife whose parents had a farm of about 450 acres at West Yaldham, between Heverham and Wrotham. I used to cycle there at weekends and every day during the school holidays, travelling through Heverham, and on through St. Clere's Park. For a while, a truck-load of German P.O.W.s arrived every day to help on the farm; there were no guards to look after them. Surrounding farms also had P.O.W.s. We boys got on particularly well with some of the younger ones. We had fun feeding the thrasher with sheaves of corn, and loading the heavier bales of straw onto a wagon. There were so many prisoners, that there were more than enough spare hands for us to have a bit of fun. We played football with anything that resembled a ball, and we had apple fights with (fallen apples), throwing them at each other, and so on. One prisoner I remember well, and with whom I became particularly friendly. His name was Heinz, my mother gave me a packet of cigarettes to give him as a present for his 18th. Birthday. He made me a ship-in-a-bottle. It was in an old 'Camp-coffee' bottle (the only coffee we could get). It had a primitive coastline inside, which he made out of putty. I can remember I used to like the smell of linseed oil, which you got when you unscrewed the top. I very much regret that my mother disposed of it after a while. The prisoners had no tools, and I think he told me that he had used a canteen knife to cut the bits of wood. I was very fond of it.
One day, Heinz showed me some pictures of his family. I was shocked to see his father in German Army Uniform. To me this was a symbol depicted in films and general propaganda that we had been taught to hate. My friendship with him immediately cooled, but only on my part I'm afraid. Because each of us had only a limited knowledge of each other's language, I was unable to explain, and I didn't want to explain what had caused me to be upset. I have since often regretted my attitude, because he was a nice friendly lad, and I can now speak enough German to explain, and apologise - if I knew where to contact him.
The older prisoners were not so friendly. They must have been very worried about what was going on at home, their family, their future, etc. We heard reports that a few had committed suicide by hanging themselves from the branches of trees on the next farm, of Lower St. Clere (Aitkin's Farm).
Some of the older German soldiers made traditional German corn wreaths to celebrate the harvest, they were hung up on the beams in the superb, and huge, old thatched barn. They remained there for some time. Mr Fife was a tenant farmer, and he lost his tenancy in favour of Brigadier Norman's son. Tragically, after Mr Fife vacated the farm in the late 1950s, the new tenant demolished that lovely barn. An ugly modern, shiny black, silo storage-tower was put up in its place.
T hough there were Land-girls on the farm, I don't remember them being there at the same time as the German P.O.W.s. There was one tractor driver called Henry Henry, who lived in the lodge bungalow at the avenue to East (?) Yaldham Manor. During the war there were two tractors on the farm, a small Ford, and a Case. They ran on paraffin. I well remember the distinctive smell from the exhaust. There were five shire horses in the stables. When we were gathering in the harvest they would pull a laden wagon up to the farm with two horses. When we arrived, the front horse was detached, it was my pleasure to ride on the youngest, and my favourite horse: called 'Major', taking him back to the field to help with another load. The empty wagon was then brought back using just the one horse.
One day, when we were cutting corn, and I was then riding beside Henry on the Fordson tractor, a rabbit bolted out in front of us. Henry jumped off the moving tractor, and yelling for all he was worth, to try and petrify the rabbit, and at the same time he threw his cap at it. It was the first, and only time, that I ever saw Henry without his cap on. The terrified rabbit took refuge under the nearest corn sheaf. Henry dived on the sheaf like a rugby player scoring a try, but the rabbit was too quick for him, and scampered away to live another day.
While all this was going on I was still stranded on board the moving tractor, which was towing the still working, reaper- and-binder. However, Henry quickly sprinted back and clambered on board his tractor to regain control. Two land-girls that were working with us at that time had a good laugh about it.
When the corn was cut, excitement used to build up as the machine worked its way to the middle of the field, and the island of uncut corn got smaller and smaller. As the last bit was cut the remaining rabbits would bolt as their cover was removed. We would surround the area in the anticipation of diving on an escaping rabbit. We didn't catch many that way.
One day, when another field was being cut, a group of 'gentlemen' turned up with shot- guns. As the eleventh hour approached, they positioned themselves strategically all round the remaining island of corn still to be cut. We did the same, as we were used to doing. When the rabbits bolted, zig-zagging, and darting all over the place, the shooters opened fire in all directions. One, or two, people got peppered with shot-gun pellets - it was highly dangerous! The farmer, Mr Fife, quickly put a stop to that! And there was no more shooting at the final cut after that!
When the corn was cut with a reaper-and-binder, we gathered the sheaves to make stooks, to stand in the field until they were dry enough for thrashing, or for loading onto a wagon for storing and in a stack. There was a lot of work to do. The sheaves were full of thistles (there were no sprays to kill weeds in those days), and our arms got badly scratched. The farmer's son, and two of the workers sons often helped (Ronnie and Lennie Rye). We also helped with gathering up sheep, and rounding up cattle, and any odd jobs around the farm that we could manage. It was hard work, but I loved it.
It was fairly standard practice for local women and children to help on the land, especially during the school holidays. Farming was very labour intensive in those days.
When all was safely gathered in, Mr. Fife gave me a Ten-Shilling note (currently 50p.)! It was totally unexpected, I had been enjoying myself. Nobody had ever given me such a lot of money before, but he insisted that I take it.
I believe that one of the farm workers was killed in an accident when he was ploughing. There was a large hollow in the large field on the Down's side of Kemsing Road, and East of the junction with Exedown Road. I believe the tractor overturned on the slope.
Flax was grown on some of the fields, both at Kemsing, and Heverham, as part of the war effort. When the Flax was reaped, and bundled into sheaves, a large lorry came to collect it. It was stacked too high. As the lorry negotiated the narrow track that ran beside East Yaldham Manor Farm buildings (also farmed by Mr Fife) the truck tipped to one side, against a tree, and it was stuck there. Much of the load had to be carefully unpacked to get the vehicle back on all its wheels again, and then once it was upright, reloaded. This caused a lot of extra work, but we all lent a hand to get it done.
D-DAY APPROACHES
As the build up to D-Day approached (although personally, I didn't realise that, that was what was going on, at the time), Kent became one big army camp and depot. Vehicles and equipment were tucked away in all sorts of woods and copses. Any road, which was of a reasonable width, was used as a vehicle park. Our lane had been widened at the beginning of the war, and a Bedford army truck was parked outside every house in the road. The soldiers slept in the back of their trucks. It was the same along the West End (towards Kemsing) and Dynes Road. Military traffic was on the move everywhere.
Army trucks like this one (a Bedford) were parked in our road outside every house.
CYCLING TO SCHOOL
Cycling to school I would go via a path known as the Ash-Platts, and when I emerged at the A25, it could take me a long time to get across the road to get into Seal Hollow Road. Long streams of jeeps, trucks, half-tracks, tanks, despatch-riders, etc. would pass in an uninterrupted flow. There were no traffic-lights there then to hold up the traffic for a moment, and let me get across the road.
May 1944, army-lorries parked outside ever house in Childsbridge Lane.
I can remember similar convoys of military vehicles streaming up Dartford Road, by the Vine, into and through Sevenoaks. DUKW.s (Amphibious trucks), Half-track trucks, Bren-Gun-Carriers, Jeeps, trucks, Scout-cars, etc., the build up of equipment for 'D-Day' was enormous.
We started to notice that the vehicles now carried large white 5 pointed stars, which were for recognition purposes. Aircraft that flew low enough for us to be able see (as many did) we saw had three thick white bands on each wing, and on the fuselage. All this was a new departure to us.
In Knole Park there was a huge store of military vehicles stored under the chestnut trees - rows, and rows of them. Most were parked along side the Broad Walk, and the Chest-nut Walk, at the southern end of the park. Some could be seen from the peripheral roads (St. Julian's Road, etc.), which ran around the Park. They were largely maintained by ATS. girls who were housed at a large property called Beechmont, in Gracious Lane. This was hit by a V1. flying bomb, on July the 12th. 1944, and although most of the girls had left for work, 2 were killed, and 44 injured. The vehicles were never used, and remained there until some time after the war, when they were sold off by public auction, where they stood, in the park. At the end of the auction streams of rusty army vehicles were driven away, some on trailers, some being towed, some on the backs of trucks, etc.. After that, many local farmers were to be seen driving around in ex- U.S. Army Jeeps, and such like. Our local builder (Johmnsons?), who was based in Childsbridge Lane, Seal, bought an American truck, which he used for some years.
We saw American made Bowl-scrapers for the first time, which carved out passing places for these often large vehicles, in and along, our country lanes. I remember there were some lay-bys created by them along the Pilgrim's Way.
Once there was a convoy of army motorcycle-and-sidecar outfits, fitted with machine guns, waiting along the Pilgrim's Way. We boys talked to them and they said that they were Scotch-Canadians.
Just down the road from us, on the corner of Childsbridge Lane, and Dynes Road, I wandered past boxes of ammunition, and hand-grenades, which were casually stacked on the grass verge. One day, I found a snub-nosed bullet lying in the road - it was a live round. I had it in my pocket for a while, then I thought that I had better show it to a soldier. He took it from me, went and fetched a hammer, then laid the bullet on the kerb - facing into the field, then, much to my surprise, he hit it with the hammer. Of course it went off with a bang, which made me jump. The bullet presumably disappeared safely into the field. I thought it was a waste of a good bullet. <
I found a snub-nosed bullet lying in the road - it was a live round. I had it in my pocket for a while
There was some sort of fete held on Kemsing school playing fields. The army personnel, who were stationed all about us, supported it. Part of the 'Attraction' was a raised boxing ring. It was my first introduction to boxing (I wont call it a sport). We watched a bout for a while, and I got more and more concerned, one soldier was really taking some punishment, and his face was bleeding. I was horrified. I've never watched a 'game' of boxing since.
I also remember seeing large formations of aircraft flying eastward (towards France), wearing the 'new' white identification stripe livery. On two occasions these included large formations of Dakotas (C47 Douglas) towing gliders. I can't put a date to these sightings. Judging by the direction they were heading they could have been heading for Arnhem (Holland), or they could have been part of the deception plan called 'Glimmer' which had headed for Boulogne as a diversion.
LARGE HOUSES COMANDEERED
Large houses were likely to be commandeered by the military. Several were in Kemsing including the Box House, Crowdleham, and Beechmont, in Sevenoaks, were some examples. Part of St. Clere was used too, to house evacuees down from London.
BOMBING
There was bombing that we knew about, and bombing that we just heard about. A lot of bombs fell landed in woods or fields and did no real, or serious, damage. At night the raids sounded a lot worse that they effectively were - that was until the V1.s started. Up until then, the damage inflicted in and around Kemsing, was comparatively light, especially when one considered the number of bombs that had fallen in the area.
This aerial photograph which shows the two railway lines heading north from Sevenoaks; at the centre of -the right-hand-side of this photo is Otford-Junction, with the Maidstone line coming in from the east (right); a solitary Heinkel bomber can be made out flying low over the junction. This picture was taken only two days after the hit-and-run attack on St. Leonards Avenue in Otford. [it was supplied by Ed Thompson]
Some item of ordnance hit the road between Welstead's Garage and St. Edith's Road, and although the road itself was patched, the damaged kerb was not replaced until about 1992. Which I considered was rather a pity because it was just about the only evidence that still existed that a war had taken place there at all. Many incendiaries also fell on the village. Martins Stores had a shed at the back where they kept emergency rations, and that was hit, and it burnt out. St. Edith's hall had a small fire that had to be put out. And, the kitchen of the Wheatsheaf Public House was set on fire.
Some bombs fell in a field by Honeypot Lane, near Kemsing Railway Station. I heard tell that some horses were killed. A small cluster of free-standing beech trees were damaged by the bomb(s), and a large branch which had been broken off lay on the ground in the field for years after the war.
A map shows where 500lbs were recorded as having fallen in the Kemsing, Otford, area.
Of course the allied forces were bombing too. I remember particularly, aircraft assembling high in the sky on a bright sunny morning for the 'thousand bomber raids' over Germany. The sky was packed with aircraft glinting in the sun, many creating white contrails in an azure sky. There were far too many to even think about trying to count them. It was an impressive and amazing sight, the like of which will never be seen again. The fact that they were glinting in the sun, suggests to me that they were American. Probably Flying Fortresses, which were not camouflaged, AND the Americans tended to make daylight raids with heavy fighter escorts, and the British used aircraft such as Lancasters, which were camouflaged, and which flew at night, without fighter escort.
RETURNING BOMBER
One late afternoon, or evening, I saw a lone Avro Lancaster (4 engined) bomber struggling home flying low over our homes. At least one engine had stopped (with one propeller stationary), and there were holes in the wings, through which I could see daylight. I watched it carry on in the direction of Biggin Hill. I presumed, and hoped, that it made i back to base. I somehow, in mt mind, I related it to a shabby old black crow. Bomber squadrons were normally based in the East Anglia area.
LONDON
We did go to London, and we traveled by train (incidentally, train windows were fitted with pull-down black-out curtains - the problem being, that, when you traveled at night, one never knew where you were. You couldn't see out of the windows without letting the blind up, and breaking the 'blackout' restrictions). My mother had a sister who lived in London, which was probably the reason we would have gone there. We did not feel at all safe in London in the earlier stages of the war, we felt a lot safer in the countryside.
I can remember seeing French, and Polish servicemen on the train, and it may well have been when returning from such a trip to London, that we would have seen the Italian POW.s who waved to us (which I referred to previously).
On one trip later to London, during the war, we saw a 'celebrity' Lancaster bomber on display near at a bomb-site the, then famous, Gamages store in High Holborn. We could go inside the bomber, which we did. It was, to me, surprisingly small inside, and the rear gunner's position looked as if it was decidedly cramped. I have a vague recollection of also seeing a British Long-Tom bomb, which was on display on a bombed site, in Oxford Street, on the same day.
We saw a strange site of London Transport double - decker buses going a bout which were towing trailers on which were gas-generators, which produced their own fuel from coal. In those days every bus had a conductor on board, who sold tickets, and looked after the passengers.
I found this VERY interesting. Wonderful record of local history. Thank you
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