the doodle-bug

(A record of the first night that a flying bomb,(V1) arrived in England during the second world war.)
At that time I lived at Crossways, which was a roadside cafe as well as a house.It was situated at Nutberry Corner near Grays in Essex. on the flight path to London.
In a small copse opposite Crosswyas was a small army camp and a little further away, about 300 yards, there was a battery of 4.4 ack-ack (anti-aircraft) guns.
Whenever we had an air raid,(and that was very often), the guns would open fire on the planes flying overhead which were sometimes lit-up bt a searchlught battery sited just behind our house.

On the night that the first 'doodle bug' came over, the siren had sounded but we had not gone to the Anderson shelter in our garden. The sound of the 'plane' could be heard and the searchlights quickly found the 'plane' in the sky. The guns opened fire and the noise was terrific. Suddenly we, that is my mother ,brother and I, noticed that the 'plane' appeared to be on fire.Flames were pouring from the back and we really thought that the guns had scored a direct hit and the 'plane'would crash. Instead it flew on much to our amazement, with its tail belching flames.
The following morning in the news we were informed that what we had seen was not a plane but a flying bomb.
We watched many of these 'doodle-bugs',(as they became known),but terrible as they were they were nowhere as destructive as the V2 rocket. The V2 , because of its speed, could not be heard coming and its explosive power was much greater.

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