Defending the Homeland

It was February 1940.The autumn dawn came up cold over the Thames Estuary. The chilly wind blew in over the huge and menacing oil storage tanks which lined the southern banks of the river.We were "standing to" huddled around the old first world war anti-aircraft gun (mounted on an old American Peerless lorry) which fired three inch shells and was so inaccurate that we were not allowed to fire it at night for fear of hitting the oil tanks. Two months earlier we had built up the emplacement tediously, extracting earth and sand with pick axes and shovels and packing the stuff into bags.
Suddenly two German seaplanes flew in and landed on the Thames. The pilots left their cockpits, walked on to the wings of their planes and landed a number of mines in the Thames.
We were unable to use our gun during the hours of darkness and...................... the Home Guard, who should have been there to attack, had gone off for tea.

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