Essex

School Examinations and Doodlebugs in Ilford

Our headmistress was a doughty Scot and decided that we really had to sit at desks in the school hall to...

The First Time I Met the American Airforce

After that I was sent to Burmah with 132 RSU where we used to repair damaged aircraft, or had been lost in...

Royal Observer Corps

My Father Harold Tarlton was Senior Observer at Harold Hill Essex Post 1940-- 1945, he was due to be called...

Getting out of London: From Walthamstow to Chelmsford

My dad's sister worked at Marconi's factory in Chelmsford, on war work and also at a shirt factory,...

The Wartime Gen

Peter Cottingham wanted to share this story to illustrate the sort of things that just became the norm...

A Big Mistake!

To say the least, this was an embarassing incident for all involved, both British and German..... I have...

Father Comes Back from the War

I was a young child in Canvey in Essex where my mother worked as a pharmacist. Ernie Benson was our...

The Girls Training Corps

During WW2 my wife was a member of the Girls Training Corps. CHORUS We are cadets of the GTC Our youth to...

Soldiers in Southend

Once a German fighter plane was diving towards us and I can remember seeing the flames along the wings as...

Bombs Over Chadwell Heath and a Chance Encounter 30 Years Later

My father was on duty as an Air Raid Warden and came back home with a little family - Mum, Dad and...

A Braintree Family at War

He was then posted to Naples in Italy for the rest of the War where he worked on Lancaster Bombers. My...

Evacuation

During the blitz of London in 1940, an incendiary bomb, dropped from a German airplane, struck our house...

Surviving a Direct Hit on our Home

I have retained a keen interest into the events of that night and have researched the Essex County...

Cooking for the RAF

She was Joan Frost, and was a cook/corporal in the WAAF on an aircrew ‘Feeder’. Mum was called...

German Bomber

Mine lived in Gosford Gardens, near Clayhall Park... As we left the house we heard the engine of a German...

Building Boats in Burnham

When I was 20, I was called up to do war work and was sent to a boat yard at Burnham which...

The Day the Thunderbolt Crashed

We ran a Fordson tractor, but when needed, used a horse and cart to collect tractor vaporising oil from the...

Rationing and a Cow

Peggy Bradley — Rationing and a Cow Even after the war, in 1946, we were still rationed for various...

Different views of London at War

We lived in Thurrock, and could watch all the bombers going in to London, and then see our fighters come in...

Out of the Clouds, Dagenham

I had arranged to meet her from work to go to the Princess Cinema on the Ripple Road to see a James...

A Railwayman's War: Part 1

In 1939 at the age of 16years I started work as an Engine cleaner at the Shoeburyness LMS London,Tilbury...

Training Ships at Burnham

When War broke out the ships were evacuated on Government instructions with the boys and crew from Grays to...

Doodlebugs at night

Then came the explosion and we thought that it was a German bomber been shot down with it's bomb load...

Summer Holidays

During the summer holidays from school,freinds and myself would go over the farm were my dad work..and we...

One Day in 1945

I was realesed from Plesseys war work aged 15 I started work at a garment factory. on the corner of Ley...

My Family

I am writing this story about my mother and father who took over a WMCA for service men after we got bombed...