Battle of Britain: Harvesting Potatoes in Kent

This is really my mothers' story. During the summer of 1940, my father volunteered for the AirForce and my mother left Bromley to live with his parents in Oxfordshire. Before joining up my father had planted the vegetable plot in the house in Hayes with potatoes. My mother and paternal grandfather returned to Hayes on 12th September to harvest the crop. Mother recalls the journey (by Morris 8) from Oxfordshire to Hayes as being "interesting" but they were not stopped by police or air raids and arrived at the house in Hayes (close to Biggin Hill) at about midday. It was a clear sunny day and they began to lift the potatoes. However, my grandfather was attracted to the sounds and sights in the air above him and spend most of the afternoon watching the aircraft in the sky. Neither of them had a tin hat and mother could hear spent bullets and what have you coming down all around them. When she remonstrated with her father in law he said "Lassie, I wouldn't miss this for all the world." and carried on watching. Eventually, they finished the potato harvest that afternoon and returned to Oxfordshire in the evening.

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