The War Years

A Memory of Hanwell.

I was born near Lords Cricket Ground in London in 1933 and came to Hanwell soon after where my family settled in Greenford Avenue. Hobbayne School was a few yards down the road so I started my education there.
In 1939 the Second World War started and we had grandstand seats in our house to observe the German Luftwaffe attacks over London. Northolt wasn't too far away and we often watched as the RAF fighters climbed out of the airfield there to engage the enemy aircraft.
One particular night stays forever in my memory. After the siren sounded my brother and I went into our front room as usual to observe proceedings. We never went into our Anderson shelter as it was always filled with water. We were just kids and felt bullet-proof anyway.
Out of the night sky to the east a Heinkel 111 bomber appeared. We could identify it with certainty as the wings were eliptical like a Spitfire with a "greenhouse" front canopy which contained the aircrew. As it flew towards us it curved off to the north. All hell broke loose as ack-ack fire started up and the searchlights illuminated the sky, bracketing the bomber. It continued on unscathed and disappeared into the darkness. At this point a second Heinkel appeared following in the same track. Again the aircraft was bracketed in the beams and was shot at. As it crossed towards the north it was hit and trailed flames. It showed no sign of coming down and disappeared, still trailing flames, into the darkness. A short while later there was a huge orange ball of fire which lit up the sky as the stricken bomber exploded. A third Heinkel appeared and fairly scooted off to the north and escaped a similar fate. Later it was thought that the 'plane that was destroyed was finished off by night-fighters.
My feelings at the time were those of distress as I didn't regard the bomber-crew as the enemy but like-souls who probably met their ends that fateful night.
Later in the war we used to watch the buzz-bombs and hope that their pulse-jet engines would carry them past us before the fuel was exhausted. They always did.

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