A direct hit - on the Isle of Wight

When I was with 403 Searchlight Battery, part of my service during WW2 was spent on the Isle of Wight. We were stationed near Freshwater and I recall some lively evenings spent in a local pub in the company of other soldiers from as far afield as Canada. Sometimes things got a bit too lively and the SM or MPs had to come along and sort things out!

Some thought that working on the searchlights was dangerous, I took it in my stride as ‘part of my job’. However, there was one evening I will never forget. Things were getting rather busy up in the skies above my head, when suddenly I realized that a bomb had been dropped and was heading my way.

What happened next was that the bomb scored a direct hit — not fortunately an accurate one, on my station — but a direct hit on a cow in the next field! I guess you could say that was one of my lucky days!

This story was submitted to the BBC People’s War site by Kaye Larkins on behalf of Mr Edward Windeatt and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Windeatt fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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