Kent

For Patrick (part two)

As I heard the whistle of the bombs, I was thrown into a shop doorway with dad and about five more men...

From a North Central School to Bomber Pilot

We then heard that Hitler was making a vast collection of barges and boats in France and Belgium ports and...

Memories of a Cumbrian 'Mining Lad' Called Up by the RAMC

I was born at a small village, at Scilly Banks, near Moresby Parks which is a few miles from Whitehaven in...

Memoirs of Army Life From Canterbury to Cologne.part 1

MEMOIRS OF ARMY LIFE FROM CANTERBURY TO COLOGNE Part 1 O by A.N. PILCHER. It was comical too, as the...

A Wartime Childhood in North Kent - 1942 to 1945

The first was Short Brothers’ factory on the Rochester Esplanade with constant processions of...

Bills Story 3

When we had waterproofed all the vehicles they all had to be tested and this meant going into...

Memories of a Young Lad in Kent

The teachers got the children into the school block house, the school being one hundred yards from Ashford...

An Agricultural Apprenticeship: Dung Spreading in Kent, 1940

The Kent Education Committee had a farm at Sittingbourne in Kent, it belonged to the `The Kent Farm...

Chapter 1 - Part 1: England to France with the BEF

The regiment consisted of the CO's regimental headquarters with its specialist officers in A, Q and G...

My 7th Birthday Surprise: 3rd September 1939

My playthings that day were the scaffold boards and poles that my dad pulled out from behind the garden...

Teenagers Memories of the War (Part 3)

It was a great shock to us all, and my boy-friend ,Stuart, came with me to The Red Cross Office in London...

My Life My War - Chapter 13d

On the special parade for the forgotten fleet, held in Portsmouth, all spick and span and standing with the...

A School Boy's Memories of World War II - Douglas Smith

But I do know that soon after the conclusion of the Battle of Britain, the Blitz on London began and...

My Life My War - Chapter 2a

I had already stated that the squad as a whole had decided that we could no longer put up with the...

Memories of the Women's Land Army and Other Wartime Memories

Training at the Midland Agricultural College The trainee Land Army girls who had been sent to the College...

The Lighter Side of War - CHAPTER 8: Military Prison-Fort Dahlen Barracks, Chatham.

One day Butch noticed a RAF prisoner walking, staggering rather, with two full buckets across the square. A...

Headcorn Airfield. Part Three: Activity and Events 1944 onwards

Eventually, as a result of my request in the 362 Fighter Group Newsletter in the Autumn of 2000, I received...

The Building of Headcorn Airfield

Every September there is a memorial service and fly past of Spitfires to commemorate those who flew...

A Cockney Kid In Green Wellies

Mum, Maisie, Stella, Evelyn, Betty and me. Dad, mum,Stella, and Maisie were picking....

WAAF

I would like you to imagine a young country girl 20 years of age standing on the platform of her local...

A Little Girl in Kent: A Soldier Father, Keeping things Normal, Convoys and Community

Homeless puppies For some of the time during those war years I slept in the big double bed with my mother,...

Growing Up in Wartime: In Welling

My eldest brother was stationed in the Shetlands during the blitz and when he came home on leave was...

Phoney War? What Phoney War??

At Beaux Aires this was a four cylinder Lister diesel generator, rather than a searchlight lorry. On this...

Evacuations

Like many late Victorian families, my mother's was huge, with 12 children surviving to adulthood, so...

Wartime Activities 1939-1945 of Peter Ascott

This crew member, 22 years old P/O Jack Flemming RAAF landed in a field on Newpark Farm The farmer and his...

Wartime Memories of an Evacuee

My sisters were to stay with the Willets' family in a miners cottage, and I was to stay with the...