Winning?

This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Katie Holyoak, for Three Counties Action, on behalf of Brian Gurney, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

The long awaited invasion of Europe took place on June 6th 1944. What a great day, we were so excited to learn the news and listened regularly to the radio reports of the progress of our armies; moving the Union Jack and Swastika flags on our maps as the allied (that is all the forces fighting against Germany) forces advanced.
At that time the conventional air raids reduced, but there was another threat. A German secret weapon — the “V 1” which was a pilot-less jet plane carrying a lot of high explosives. Also called “doodle bugs” or “buzz bombs” they were launched by the Germans, directed towards Britain, and flew until they ran out of fuel, then they crashed making a large explosion. I remember seeing them flying over, with flames shooting out form the jet engine, and as long as they kept flying then all was safe; it was when the engines stopped that there was danger. When I was 13 I was playing in a cricket match when a V 1 appeared on the horizon. The person in charge instructed everyone although they were in whites to get down on the ground, and we waited; but it flew on so the game was continued. Another secret weapon was the “V 2” which was a rocket with very high power explosives, but which could land anywhere without warning. My cousin was staying with us when a V 2 landed nearby, making a terrific noise. Of course we both wanted to go and find where it had landed so we went out together to look. It was a terrible sight; a large area was devastated with about 12 house destroyed and more damaged. The fire fighters and air raid wardens were there when we arrived and of course we were rather nosey. So much so that we were parted and my cousin, who did not live in Watford, got lost. I was told off for not looking after him!

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