| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
eandehistory
30 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Mar 2005 : 03:32:34 AM
|
First Air raid siren 11.15am 3rd September 1939. Danetree Rd school shut whilst air raid shelters were erected. 28-9-40, heavy raid with local bombs. The worst time for bombings was between August and De-cember 1940. During daytime raids, when the school children were in the shelters they were given bits of cloth to fray, possibly as a therapeutic measure. Window were covered with a criss-cross of sticky paper to prevent flying glass.
First Doodle bug of the war around 11pm on a Thursday (? Check date should be 15 June '44) hit Riverholme Drive. As many as half the houses were destroyed. One report came back that the road was full of lavatory pans. In houses in Belfield ceilings came down and windows were blown out. In Station Avenue, doors were blown open, and there was damage as far away as Cherry Way. On that night the air raid sirens kept sound-ing all night and throughout the next day.
The flying bombs came over all day from the south east, perhaps 3 or four at a time, many landed in Ruxley lane. Ruxley lane got hit by a lot of flying bombs and a Warwick twin engined bomber crashed at the top of the road just after the war around 1945/6. It came from the east clipped the top of the garage, took out a lamp post and hit the house opposite. (This story confirmed in local press recently)
A bomb destroyed a row of 8 houses in Station Avenue yet the windows in the maisonette's opposite were not damaged. This bomb may have been one of a string that landed in Northcroft Road allotments, another landed on the road near the maisonettes, damaging all the services so they had no water or gas or electricity. This was in November. There was only one injury, an old man had a bumped head from a collapsing ceiling. Four of the houses (2 blocks) were flattened, the other two had to be pulled down. The same night a bomb landed in Gibraltar Recreation ground. They were rebuilt 18 months after the end of the war. Some residents of the maisonettes used the outside cupboard under the stairs as a shelter using sandbags for protection. During air raids the trains slowed down in case the track was damaged.
Another stick fell in the allotments behind Northcroft narrowly missing the houses (either September or De-cember. An incendiary burnt down the cottage at the end of Plough Rd in 1940 (by Park)
A mine landed in Lansdowne Road and blew no 47 down. A low flying lone bomber that had been shot up dropped a bomb on Salesians playing fields before crashing somewhere in Worcester park direction. The railway bridge provided an ideal viewpoint for everyone to inspect the crater.
School closed for months because of the buzz bombs which gave children ample time to make use of the playthings that the war provided. King George Rec. was bombed many times and had many bomb craters also many incendiaries fell there. Dantree School had one in the roof and they also fell in Hook arena Boys would play in the bomb craters and collect shrapnel, swapping bits with friends and building up a collection on the mantelpiece. The fin off an incendiary bomb was a treasured item. There were brick shelters at the en-trance to the recreation ground at the end of Plough Rd extension where children used to stand and watch buzz bombs fly over towards Kingston. Possibly aimed for the Decca factory. The ones that landed in West Ewell were probably meant for London. An unexploded shell had to be dealt with in Cherry Way.
Dogfights gave plenty of entertainment during the day. At the beginning of the war shops would close down when the sirens went but later they carried on business. Daytime raids were largely ignored but the night-time raids were treated with more respect. Anti-Aircraft guns were carried on the Horton Light Railway and also along the min line and their blast shattered windows in Chessington Rd. The light railway was often a target and the engine shed was damaged and a length of track destroyed in two separate incidents. Searchlights in West Park were also a target and the Hospitals were a land mark for the navigators finding London and were hit many times, when search lights were taken away the bombing became less intense. Horton Hos-pital was used as a military Hospital. There was a ammunition factory in West St. Ewell, there was also a small factory in one of the shops in Chessington Road for sub-contracting light engineering work. They pro-duced parts for aircraft etc. and were staffed mainly by women. There was a wardens post in Plough Road where the Weeks house is now and a public shelter in Bakers field.
Bins were put out in the streets to collect food scraps for pigs. Children would collect bags of acorns for the pigs which they got paid per bushel. Some enterprising gardeners would collect horse dung from the road after delivery carts had been to use on the garden. Most people grew vegetables in both back and front gar-dens and part of the playing fields were allotments. All Saints Church Hall was requisitioned by the Council for use as a British Restaurant. During the war there was double summer time and the kids and dads would play cricket on the field opposite Cherry way late into the evening. They mowed and levelled the grass spe-cially.
Various recipes had to be used to make use of the available ingredients, such as vegetable pies and suet mixed with Bovril and whale meat. Other meat would consist mainly of corned beef and the occasional sausage (if you were lucky) or for a treat, offal. 2 oz of cheese butter and tea each and half a pound of sugar. Fruit was in short supply. Food and clothing coupons were often swapped around friends and relatives. Brit-ish Restaurants would supply off rationed food. There was one at the TA centre (?) and one at the church hall in Fulford Rd. On D Day people in West Ewell could hear the guns firing even from their gardens. On VE day flags were hung between houses and people had red white and blue flowers in the garden, everyone came out to the street
In the 20's shell shocked veterans from the first war lived in Horton Hospital, they were dressed in blue out-fits. They played cricket with the locals and were called the Blue Coats
|
|
|
Raddery
United Kingdom
5 Posts |
Posted - 28 Nov 2007 : 11:43:08 AM
|
There were certainly many flying bombs following June 1944 in the area of Danetree Road.
My brother was doing his School Certificate at the time and following explosions in that direction I was despatched on my bicycle to see if the school was still all right! Several times as I went down the Chessington Road from Green Lanes the shopkeepers were sweeping up the glass on the pavements.
After the exams finished a number of the staff, pupils and parents were evacuated to Leicester where their stories of bombing were greeted with scepticism - they had only a couple of bombs in the city.
MichaelR |
 |
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
Wartime Memories
