Bombing Of Morland Avenue

A Memory of Dartford.

Written by my mother when she was 70. She lived in Swaisland Road
I think one of the things you would have noticed was the number of barrage balloons all around, high in the sky. The first sound of guns which we heard was far away, and sounded like horse trotting. The one night the air raid sirens sounded, and we went down into the shelter –we heard anti-aircraft guns in the distance and a couple of distant thumps, and this was all for some weeks. Then, one night the noises were much louder, and we heard bombs exploding nearer. Soon after this, the Pioneer Corps came round and put peculiar-looking metal things all around the rods, like big buckets with a big pipe coming out of them. We found later they were oil- burning, to make black smoke to hide the various targets near to us –mainly Vickers Armstrong factory. The soldiers came round at night and lit the oil. It made an odd low rumbling sound as it burned, was very smelly and made everything very grubby. Whether it was useful or not I don’t know.
It was when the bombing became worse that women and children were evacuated again, and I went with the children. We went into the Dartford, to a school near the railway station and while we were waiting there for the special train to come in, we heard a V1 come over, and we heard the engine stop –but it flew on further and dropped on Crayford Hill and did a lot of damage, and people waiting there for buses to evacuate them were killed – it was a dreadful bomb. We had American soldiers stationed nearby, and they were wonderful, they came to help whenever there was bomb damage.
Anyway, eventually the train came, and we were hurried into it, and got to London, where we had to change trains, and all was rush and hurry as the bombs were coming over so frequently. It was along and trying journey, but we eventually got to Nottingham where we were herded into buses and landed at a church hall and shared out among some people who were prepared to take us. We stayed there for some months, but things calmed down a bit at home, and thankfully we returned –only to be hit by one of the last of the V1 bombs!
It dropped in Morland Avenue just behind our back garden and we were very lucky, as it hit the chimney of a house and tipped over and made a huge hole in the road instead of spreading the explosion all around.. We had big barge boards nailed over the windows of the room where the Morrison shelter was , and where we were all sleeping. They were sucked off and there was broken glass all over the room -my son was covered with broken glass but did not get a scratch. The A.R.P. men came to check we were OK, which luckily we were.
So we pulled ourselves together –there was a gas main on fire behind us where the big hole was and we could hear people crying out, but we could not help as the A.R.P. men were there.