Elhamers Remember WW2
Wartime Memoirs
Gordon Young
remembers a Doodle Bug hitting the Lambing Meadow opposite Railway
Cottages in Duck Street, Elham.
Bill Morgan,
who was serving in the Royal Navy, remembers that when he came home
on leave he only had transport as far as Canterbury, from there he
was going to have to walk. He set off and walked as far as Barham
where he was picked up by DR. Hunter-Smith. When he arrived at 2,
Cherry Gardens he found there was no front door as it had been blown
off by a Doodlebug that had landed in the Lambing Field. This
doodlebug had removed most of the windows in the village.
Bob
Martin
remembers hearing a doodlebug coming across the field at about eight
or ten feet above the ground, so he lay down on the grass and
shouted out ‘Doodlebug coming!’
Suddenly there was an almighty bang with glass, slates and
everything falling. He recalled that every room in the house had
been upset and, in the bathroom, the curtains had been cut off and
pinned to the opposite wall by shards of glass, fortunately no-one
had been injured.
Gordon Young
remembers the railway guns at Elham firing. They had to fire,
of course, for ranging and practise purposes, you see, and the whole
village was warned to open their windows, you see, and they fired
five rounds each, and we had goats at the time and I think a pig in
a pigsty or something and we thought the goats might be upset so we
took them on leads up to the chalkpit while the firing went on, and
when the all clear sounded we came back. We got down to the gate
there and out of the door came a little grey cat.
We didn’t have a grey cat – we had a white cat.
The whole of the ceiling had come down and mess – you never
saw anything like it!
The interview was broadcast on Wed 16th August 1989 and recorded by
Derek Boughton. The interview is in two parts as the cassette tape
needed to be changed! :)
Interview Part 1 (25 mins.)
Interview Part 2 (3.5mins.)
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