The German V1 That Dropped In Lodge Lane

A Memory of Collier Row.

When the VI rocket raids started we spent most nights in our Anderson Shelter, as did most of our neighbours. My parents slept in the lower bunks in the shelter and I slept in the upper one. In the early hours of 18th June 1944 I was awakened by a tremendous explosion to find that the back of the shelter had moved out allowing soil from on top of the shelter to fall in on my bed clothes at the foot of my bed/bunk where my feet were. A V1 had landed at 5-27 a.m. in the middle of the road about 10 houses from us. We got out of the shelter and then went into the bungalow to see what damage had been done. My bed was under the window in my parent’s bedroom. It was covered in shards of glass where the blast affect had shattered a number of windows. In the front room other windows had been shattered, including some of the leaded coloured fanlights. There was also some damage to the side wall of the front room (which was repaired and decorated by one of the war damage teams).
We went next door to No 41 Mr & Mrs Fitt’s bungalow. Their damage was worse as they had doors hanging off as well as window damage. Opposite the Pike family had serious damage to the side wall of the house (which had to be partly demolished and rebuilt ).
Later we carefully worked our way down the road. There was a very large crater where the VI had dropped with houses either side of the crater totally demolished. Mrs Sellen who lived in No 22 had been killed as she was in her house which was right next to where the V1 dropped. At the junction with Collier Row Road there was a WVS Canteen vehicle serving drinks to all affected by the V1 as we had lost our water, gas and electricity supply.

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