Flying Bombs In 1944

A Memory of Carshalton.

I went to live with my grandparents in November 1943 and lived with them until March 1945. I lived at "Briar End" Mount Park in Carshalton. I was 6 years of age and remember clearly when the first flying bomb dropped a half mile away from us. It was around 11 am when my Grandmother called me to the kitchen window and we watched this strange aircraft suddenly stop and fall to the ground. Oh the poor pilot, my Grandma screamed. It was on the news later that we heard that a new kind of flying bomb had been launched on London. A couple of weeks later, I was walking one morning to school at the corner of Boundary Road and Stafford Road, when the air raid siren sounded. I had been told to lie flat on the ground if I was ever out on my own. Although only yards from my school, and only seconds to decide what to do, I decided to run back home. My Grandmother was waiting for me at the gate and ushered me quickly into the Morrison shelter in the dining room. In our caged surroundings we heard the deep throated drone of the V1, which then suddenly cut out. We waited for the explosion, which duly followed. Then the all clear sounded and I trotted off back to school. When I got there the scene was chaotic, as my school had received a direct hit, and was told that the caretaker was killed. Unfortunately I know nothing more about this tragedy as the school never reopened and I had no more schooling for three months, until being accepted in October, where I went to the Wallington Grammer School for Boys. During that long period of the flying bombs, the sirens sounded both day and night, and many times I would wake up in the night and find that I had been carried downstairs to the shelter whilst asleep. One of my vivid memories during the time I lived ar "Briar End" was to sit on the landing at night and watch the searchlights criss-crossing one another over Croydon Airport.

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