Doodlebugs & Mustangs
Published: 22/08/2024
August 4th 1914
110 years ago Britain declares war on Germany
"They didn't want to talk about it back then, they didn't want to remember" - Don.
After feeding the birds and filling up his compost bucket, Don and Marketing and Community Engagement Coordinator, Lucy, sit down for a cup of tea.
They enter a conversation about planes, Don proudly shows off his photo of the Tiger Moth he flew.
Then Lucy ask's Don if his grandfather ever told him stories of WW1, Don replied:
"He fought but I don't know what he did. The funny thing about it, they never discussed the war. They'd forgotten it or didn't want to remember what it was like. All the mud and coal, digging for protection against the Germans. It must've been very terrible. It's a part of their life they didn't want to remember".
Don recalls his memory of WW2:
"I remember hearing the Doodlebugs arrive, then it would go silent and we would have 7 seconds to hide. But it caused a lot of damage from the aircraft that was patrolling the coast, they would fly alongside them and put their wing under their wing so it turned them over and knock them off course. It would to go to Kent or somewhere else rather than London.
The spitfires would fly low and fast to catch them up but had to be careful to not damage their wings. It would be just enough to tip them.
When they came over and didn't deviate, they would come over your head, I looked at my watch, I had 7 seconds, it drove off into the distance and WHAM, up they went.
The rockets would fire them, the sound you could hear, if they landed on a hill, it would blow half the hill out. There was no defence against them, you didn't know when they were coming.
You had 7 seconds to hide or do something about it.
Junker Ju 88
"When I was evacuated more in-land. There was a Junker 88 being chased by a Spitfire. The Junkers were trying to get away and were throwing everything out including their rubbish and bombs. I was at a country school.
They machine gunned our school roof as they went over, you could hear the bullets on the tiles. They shot down the plane and it came down, the remains ended up at the end of the field. The Germans were buried at the local church by the school. We were supposed to be in a safe area.
There were terrible times in the Second World War. Our officers would have a revolver, some of the chaps were told to advance to the German fortifications, across the field or wherever they were. They had to scramble out to go and attack the Germans in their own trenches. If they didn't go out of our own trenches, there would be a British officer with a gun, and they would shoot them if they didn't go over the top.
They kept it quiet a bit but that's what happened.
I was too young to be called up to fight. By the time I was old enough the war was over with really.
I joined the ATC - the Air Training Core, in 1945, I was 18. I worked in a hanger with the Mustangs, I didn't get to fly one but I did get to sit in it."
