Chapter 3: Slaughter and Suffering - August 1940 to September 1940

An important note - while this entire diary consists of mentions of horrific things on the larger scale of the war, there are portions in this post specifically that discuss very personal horrors, one of which is sexual assault, murder and suicide in the AUGUST 27TH portion.

Please skip the AUGUST 27TH portion if you are particularly sensitive to discussion of that kind of material.

While I always intend for the posting of this diary to be in the spirit of education and informing others of what it was like to live in this time period, I am firmly against readers suffering or relapsing in mental trauma just because I'm writing a blog.

Hello readers, it's me again. We took a bit of a break over christmas and the new year, but now we're back!

So, welcome to 2024, and a new entry from the diary. This sees things beginning to ramp up considerably in granny's life, as well as during the war.

We see some communications between Gordon and granny back and forth, all the while granny is still in her studies. Air raids and air raid warnings become commonplace, with "twisting vapour trails on the blue of the summer sky" also becoming regular appearances.

Moreover, we see The Battle of Britain, one of the most critical battles for the Allies in all of World War II, along with the bombing of Berlin, and 'The Blitz' - the bombing of London.

Like always, the wording is all as transcribed by granny herself, and formatting applied by myself to help with readability.

Images and embedded links are also going to become a regular occurrence in all entries from now on to brighten up each post, as much as these posts can be brightened up, considering the subject matter.

I hope that these interjections will provide further context to the happenings described, or, like the below image of Staffhurst Wood.

I remember that last spring underneath the trees in Staffhurst Wood there were crowds of silent Londoners. They had travelled by excursion trains to hear the nightingales singing.

The B.B.C. recording unit was there with three well-known musical sisters and their stringed instruments.
As soon as they started to play the birds joined them, swelling to a glorious chorus of birdsong flowing through the cool night air.
Today there are two young women and a young man searching for early brambles (wild blackberries).

The nightingales are still there but at this time they are asleep in the trees. Suddenly they are alerted to wakefulness by a rumbling like a distant thunderstorm.
The three young folks hear this sinister noise too and look up to see a great black cloud droning in their direction - German bombers! Panic and terror!

Unable to move they see small planes seeming to leap out of the hedges. They look like little dogs as they attack the German planes. It reminds them of dogs baiting a bull.

As they watch, a German plane, gushing a trail of black smoke, plunges to the earth near them. They cover their ears as it hits the ground before returning their horrified gaze to the skies.

To their amazement the bombers have turned round and are flying away. “Hurray, it means the little planes have won. These must be the Hurricanes and Spitfires we have heard so much about.”

With this thought the young man is galvanised into action. He runs toward the country tavern dozing in the hollow at the edge of the wood. On the way he remembers its doors are locked at this hour of the day, but the doors of the little church next door are open so he dashes in there to put a thanksgiving offering in the offertory box.

The two young women fall to their knees on the soft grass to give thanks to God for their deliverance from the enemy.

August 10th
On the news we are told the R.A.F. have destroyed 31 German planes and we have
lost 20 planes. Gordon will be sorry to have missed seeing the battle. I had a letter from him today. I will make a record of it in my diary as I want to keep some of his letters.

Blackpool
My Dear Margaret,
Many thanks for your interesting letter received this morning. I am sorry that I am unable to write a long letter but you must be aware of the shortage of time in my life now.
Up in Blackpool it is impossible to tell there is a war on, except for the phenomenal prices of most things. The streets are crowded with holiday makers.

We went to some really beautiful swimming baths yesterday, 2,000 of us all at once. I have not been swimming in the sea yet, only paddling, to ease the soreness of my feet. Here the beaches are all sand not like those awful pebbles at Brighton so you can guess how lovely it is.

Please let me give you a word of advice!! Don’t think too much about young men. Concentrate on your studies then you should get a long way because you have great capabilities.
Think this over very carefully before you go falling love. That will greatly impair your chances.

Yes I do have to wear boots and most uncomfortable they are too. I’m sorry the lighter goes dry so quickly. I saw some exactly the same in a shop yesterday and they were priced at 8/6d.
Lots of love from your brother Gordon.

It means so much to me to have my own letter from Gordon. I always use the lighter that he gave me to light the bunsens in the lab. It makes me feel close to him. I know he does not have much time for letter writing but I will make sure that I write to him at least once a week.

He need not worry about my falling in love. Anyone I marry must be as wise and gentle as our Dad. Although he acts tough I have seen how different he is with Mum. They will have to come up to Gordon’s standards too.

August 13th
We had an air raid warning at 1.20 p.m. today but by the time I got outside there wasn’t much to see, just a lot of twisting vapour trails on the blue of the summer sky.

On the news they said it was Eastchurch Aerodrome they were after and that a flight of Spitfires went from Kenley to join in the scrap. Another formation of bombers went after the coastal command station near Maidstone. We have managed to shoot down forty-five bombers and eleven fighters but we have lost thirteen planes although six of their pilots are safe.

I think I’d better write and tell Gordon about all these convoys of tanks, bren-carriers, guns and lorries that keep rolling by the house.
It goes on day and night so I haven’t bothered to try and find work to do at the front of the house because I think I have now seen all the various pieces of equipment.

This morning the side of the road opposite the house collapsed under the weight of a tank.
I wish I had been there to see it happen but at least I had a chance to go over and look at it, as Mum let me take some of the Early River plums we are picking to the two soldiers who have been left with it.

I must remember to tell Gordon about helping Dad down the ‘Works’, as now Gordon has gone it is my job to take his place. Dad doesn’t like me reaching over the whirring cogs to apply the brake which stops the diesels.

Although he won’t let me swing the fly-wheel on them to start them, he has to have my help to swing the fly-wheel on the sludge pump because that six-foot fly-wheel needs two people.

Dad is afraid I won’t get my hands out in time to avoid the kick-back and then I shall end up with another broken wrist. I don’t tell Dad that I’m not worried about that but I am scared of the balancing-tank ladder. I’m afraid one day when those metal rungs are wet I will slip and fall into all that mass of swirling filthy water.

After working like mad at the suction pump, the only way to check that we have full flow is to go up that ladder to have a look.

August 15th
We’ve had a lot of raids today. The planes have just been pouring overhead. I suppose the target is London but on their way back one of them had a go at us.

Dad and I were just standing talking in the garden when he swept in low and machine-gunned us. Dad saw him coming and pushed me down into the angle made by the ground and the house wall and fell down beside me.

It was horrible to hear the bullets whistling in the grass of the field next door and bouncing off the concrete where we lay. I was surprised that I could see the helmeted and goggled crew, and the swastika on the side of that plane has left an image burned into my memory.

It was all over so quickly that I hadn’t time to be afraid and when I got up I just felt furious that these Germans have the cheek to come and machine-gun me in my own back garden. They should keep those tricks for the battle-front.

The spent bullet cases were quite hot so when Mum came rushing out the back door to see what all the noise was about Dad warned her not to pick any up. She sent Dad and I down to the Hare and Hounds because now Mr. Isted is in the R.A.F. regiment his wife is running the pub on her own.

I have never been in the Public Bar but Dad didn’t let me stay long enough to have a good look. He sent me through to the back to ring up Sergeant Hales.
There was a terrible mess. The front door was shattered and there was money all over the floor swimming in rivulets of liquor still trickling from some of the shattered bottles behind the scored wooden bar.

The bullets must have gouged across the bar and hit the bottles behind it. I reckon Ron Hales must have broken the speed limit on his bicycle as he seemed to be there almost as soon as I put down the phone.

While he and Dad were busy in the bar I went in search of Mrs Isted. I found her cowering in the cupboard under the stairs. I don’t know how she got in there as she had William (her 8 yr-old son) and the dog in there too. I had to assure her it was safe to come out as all the noise had really frightened her.

I took them down to Mum who had got a cup of tea ready for their arrival. Dad and Sgt. Hales have boarded up the front door and the money has been taken to the police station, but the brewery will have to send somebody to help Mrs Isted deal with the rest because there isn’t a whole bottle in the place.

Sgt. Hales said it was cannon shells from the rear guns that had caused most of the damage.
They must have fired at the pub as they lifted up and over the hedge at the end of Hankey’s field. I’m glad they didn’t turn cannons in our direction.

The news says we’ve bagged 75 Jerries today and Dad has heard that Croydon has caught a packet. Fortunately only training aircraft were destroyed on the ground at the aerodrome as we have lost thirty four more operational aircraft today.
There are about two hundred houses damaged and nearly sixty people dead.

August 16th
Yesterday’s raid on Croydon is headlined in the paper this morning.

It says “Between 20 and 30 bombers attacked Croydon Aerodrome and dropped a number of bombs. An alarm was sounded in the London area for the first time for many weeks and only the fifth time since the war started.”

I’m pleased to read that we are at least keeping them out of London as we have plenty of room here for their bombs.
Mind you they were determined to make sure the bombs hit their target this time because it goes on to say “The raiders were first seen when they started to dive at about three miles from the aerodrome and people in the streets saw them come down to a few hundred feet before releasing their bombs.”

It also said that they only just missed the gas works. The bomb landed in a nearby street.
I’m glad they didn’t get the works because it is vast and took us over three hours to get round it when we went on a school visit. I can still remember the scrumptious tea they gave us afterwards and we must have drunk gallons of the fizzy drinks they provided.

Mum is glad they missed it too because all our lighting and cooking uses their gas and we should have to go back to oil stoves and lamps. Dad still has oil lighting for the ‘Works’ so there are plenty of lamps around and they have an oil stove down there to make their cups of tea.

We’ve had three raids today, the first one at 11.45 a.m. and the last one at 5.15 a.m. Now that I can see the planes and parachutists coming down in the surrounding fields I am getting on my bicycle and locating some of the crash sites. The parachutists are picked up by anybody that is handy. I see quite a few of them up on the fire-tender.

I am amazed to see how cheerful most of the Germans look. Perhaps they are glad to be out of this war. At least they don’t have far to go once they are picked up because the racecourse is now a prisoner of war camp.

The score today is Germans 45 Us 22 and I have had another letter from Gordon.

My Dear Margaret,
Many thanks for the long and interesting letter received today. I hope you won’t be
offended by this scrappy note but it is the best I can do.

I am glad you like my picture. The food here is good because we are in Private billets but it will probably be different when we are posted next Saturday.

We pass out through our drill test on Friday. As yet I have no idea where I am going but will let you know when I get there. I was terrifically surprised to hear Bill Gorringe was married. It was a bit sudden. What an awful shock for his Mum to have him killed at Dunkirk and to be told the news by an unknown daughter-in-law who had received the telegram.

Like you, I find it hard to think of him as dead. We had such good fun together when we were all at school together.
I remember that fight I had with him on the way to Sunday School and I made his nose bleed so badly we left him with you behind the half-built Police Station while the rest of us went on and made up a good tale to cover your absences.

I hope you are keeping an eye on my motor-bike to see it does not get rusty or dirty.
I will finish now with lots of love
from your brother Gordon

August 17th
It has poured with rain all day today and we have had William down for tea. It is a
pity Granddad didn’t put the air raid shelter in their garden as Mrs Isted crams into that cupboard as soon as the siren goes and won’t come out until the All Clear sounds.

We only use the shelter for storing our fat and milk rations as Mum has found it is specially cold down there. We have just heard on the wireless that a pilot has been awarded the V.C. He is Flt. Lt. Nicholson and flew a Hurricane.

He was patrolling over Southampton when he was attacked by a twin-engined Messerschmitt 110 fighter.
Although his cockpit was on fire he stayed long enough to pump bullets into his attacker until it nose-dived into the sea.

Then he baled out and eventually landed in a field in Hampshire where some fool of a Home Guard mistook him for a German and fired at him. He is now seriously ill in hospital.

August 18th
They’ve come back in force today. We had a super day. Between 12.30 p.m. and
2.15 p. m. there was a marvellous air battle right overhead.

I saw four parachutists land. Four German fighters and a German bomber, all pouring black smoke, nose-dived into the ground near here.
Unfortunately there were three of our fighters too.

It is a good job they are all clearly marked on sides, wings and tail with swastikas or R.A.F. roundels because my aircraft recognition is not yet good enough to identify the actual planes as Messerschmitts or Spitfires.

I found one of ours at Gib Brook. It was quite close to the railway line. I think it was a Hurricane but the wings were badly buckled. Not far away near the brickyard was an enormous scooped out basin lined with baked clay.

In the trees were shattered bits of wings and I think it had come down vertically with the engine going full blast.
The propeller had acted as a drill carrying it into the ground while the wings sheared off. I couldn't hang around as an Army lorry arrived.

I jumped on my bicycle and took off up the back lane as I knew no motor vehicle could get up there.

August 19th
It is as well that we have plenty of fields round here for all the bombs to fall harmlessly as most of their bombers jettison their bombs here if they can’t get through to London.

Dad has just brought in a piece of that bomber that crashed near the ‘Works’ yesterday.
Some bits fell off as it skimmed over. It was a Dornier and one of its engines finished up outside Mrs Brown’s front door.

August 23rd
Gordon’s civilian clothes have just arrived by parcel post. There is a letter for me in it so I’ll just include it in this diary.

My Dear Margaret,
Many thanks for your long, interesting and exciting letter I received from you this morning. I’m only sorry I cannot write a suitable reply. I wish the Germans would come this way so that we can give them a taste of gun-fire. So far no plane from here has failed to return since the war started.

Why don’t you look in the dictionary when you can’t spell a word. For instance manoeuvres and humorous. I have an excuse for spelling them wrong. You see I haven’t got a dictionary.

Thank you for having a look at my tools and motor cycle. The gloves should be oiled with ‘Mars Oil’. This is a blue tin on the right hand shelf above the bench. It has a brush attached inside the lid. Use the oil sparingly, painting each seam.

I’m being inoculated this afternoon at 3 p.m. I hope it doesn’t hurt like the last one did. I’m learning all about guns now and there is a chance that I will be absorbed for flying training soon.

I will finish this note now with lots of love from
Gordon xxxxxx

This afternoon I went to see ‘Stanley and Livingstone’ at the cinema in East Grinstead.

Afterwards I found four photo frames for Mum as she had asked me to look for some to put the photos of Gordon in.

August 24th
We’ve had more raids and I have been busy chasing round the crash sites. In between I have been up the village to see if I could find any chocolate as Gordon has asked for some but I can’t find any.

On the news they said Malta is having a rough time of it. Malta is pretty isolated in the Mediterranean at the moment but H.M.S. Argus, an aircraft carrier, has got through with some Hurricanes and Spitfires on board so that should help them.

August 27th
Yesterday we had more raids and some bombs fell very close. I went to Dormansland to examine some craters near the butcher’s shop.

As soon as I got home I oiled all Gordon’s tools and it was as well that I remembered as he came home today for two days leave before starting at an Intensive Training Wing.

This afternoon we have been down the ‘Works’ where he has taught me how to load and fire Dad’s service revolver. We practised on the celery pots that Dad has round his celery plants to bleach them.

Eventually I managed to hit four pots out of six shots. I was enjoying myself until, having holstered the gun, Gordon found us a seat on the bank overlooking the sludge drying pit and then he told me that the Nazis are ravenning beasts and are committing frightful atrocities in the countries that they have invaded.

Since we are expecting them any hour he wants me to be prepared. As soon as they land Mum and Barbara will be evacuated but I must stay behind with Dad to help him run the ‘Works’ which cannot be abandoned.

Blog note - Refer to warning at the beginning of this post. At your discretion, stop reading here and skip to August 28th.

If the Germans get as far as the village he doesn’t want either of us to fall into their hands.
He says if they ever get as far as the village I must shoot first Dad then myself.

At first I did not believe that he really meant me to do it so he convinced me by telling me about ‘rape’. I had only read it as a word in the dictionary and I had no idea what it was all about.

He says that it would be impossible for Dad to shoot me as we both know that I am the greatest gift that Mum has ever given to Dad.

Gordon very reluctantly told me that the Nazis would rape me in front of Dad as part of his torture.
When Gordon finished talking he held me very tightly while he said “Do you think I can go away and concentrate on the job I have committed myself to do if all the time I am wondering what is happening at home?”

I knew that Gordon would not lie to me and he knows now I have given him my promise I shall not break my word whatever it costs me.
It will get done because I shall keep in front of me the image of his face. This is the first time that we have both spoken of the appalling thought that death can part us.

Naturally we are both avoiding Dad as he may require an explanation for his broken celery pots.

Blog note - continue reading below here.

August 28th
After a shorter Summer School holiday we started again today. We will have another week of holidays later on to help with the potato harvest.
I don’t know exactly what it will entail but, if it is anything like the potato races we had at the village Sports then Barbara and her friends will be much better at it than me.

I am not good at all that bending down. I found on arriving at the station, that the other students are relying on me to get them to and from school safely.

When the bombers are driven back before reaching London they usually come back along a railway line aiming their bombs at the line and stations.
These tactics are upsetting the transport system and delaying the delivery of arms and ammunition to the aerodromes and gun batteries on the south coast.

The fighters look for a moving train, watching for it to reach a high embankment, then sweeping down and ‘straffing’ it.
This is flying along the length of the train machine gunning the carriages as they pass over them.
If they don’t meet with any opposition they climb and then roll over and repeat the performance in the opposite direction.

I suppose they do this to try and kill the train drivers and possibly to demoralise the rest of us.
I can tell them that they are wasting their time because this is our country and every one of us are prepared to die in order to stop them picking even one of our
wild flowers or treading on a single blade of grass.

As there are no shelters at the stations I have told the students to stay in the waiting-room until the train arrives.
Then they can spread out along the platform to board it as rapidly as possible.

As soon as they are on board they must pull down all the blinds to afford some protection from flying glass.
If they hear an approaching aircraft they must get as far under the seats as possible and not worry about getting dirty as it is better to be dirty than dead.

When we get to Oxted Station I will tell them in the waiting room which route we are going to take to school. This will be a difficult decision as there are two possible routes.

The first one runs beside the high railway embankment for a time before turning off and the second one goes by the gas works and if the gas holder is fully inflated then it sticks up like a sore finger and is an obvious target for any bombs available.

We did have a couple of raids today and have been in the shelters.
There was no warning while we were getting to school but there was one in operation when we left school.
I boarded the children on the 4.10 p.m. train which waits in the siding at Oxted until the Edenbridge train arrives from London then as soon as it has cleared the signal we take off for Lingfield.

I was glad the All Clear went just as the train pulled out of Oxted Station so we did not have to test my proposed tactics on the train.
We had an air raid during the night lasting from 9.30 p.m. until 4 a.m.
We went to bed at 11 p.m. as there were no bombs falling near us.
There is a lot of noise from guns and planes but we are getting used to that so we got some sleep.

There is a guard on that Dornier plane that came down near the ‘Works’ and Dad has forbidden me to go anywhere near there.

He is unaware of Gordon’s talk to me but I know that three of my cousins are expecting babies (the youngest girl is only thirteen) and somebody must have fathered those babies.
That will be why he is determined to keep me well away from any of the men stationed here.

August 29th
Churchill has ordered the bombing of Berlin. That’s the style. It will do them good to have a taste of their own medicine.
Perhaps the awful racket at night now is our bombers going over on the way to have a go at them.

As the Jerries seem to be around most of the time I wonder if there is much point in sounding the All Clear, but of course if they don’t, poor Mrs Isted and William could never emerge from under the stairs to get something to eat and go to the lavatory.

August 30th
We had a few lessons this morning before the sirens went at 11 a.m.
After the All Clear at 12.35 p.m we had time to play a game of hockey before the next raid at 3.15 p.m.
Once again we were lucky enough to have the All Clear at 4.00 p.m. before the train left the station.

We only just made it to Lingfield Station as the siren went again at 4.30 p.m. and it was a bit dicy getting home as they hit a bomber right overhead. It came down at Puttenden Manor.

Dad went along to see if Uncle Fatty was all right as he is the farm bailiff there. He was on the top of a haystack as it whizzed by and landed in the next field. He was glad to see Dad and talk about it as he was pretty shaken.
He was in the Navy in the last war and it had stirred up some memories of then.

The All Clear went at 6 p.m. but we were back to square one at 6.10 p.m.
In the papers it says our fighter pilots are flying seven or eight sorties a day and Air-Chief Marshall Dowding had a heck of a job to get bullet-proof glass for their wind-screens.

In the end he said “If Chicago gangsters can ride behind bullet-proof glass I see no reason why my pilots should not do so too.” That fixed it. The pilots paint a swastika on their fuselage for every Jerry they destroy.

There are separate Polish squadrons and a band of American volunteers who call themselves the Eagle Squadron, but all the Empire chaps are in the R.A.F. At the moment the one with the highest score is a Canadian called Screwball Boerling.

August 31st
We slept downstairs as there was a terrific barrage going up and we thought a lump of shrapnel could come through the roof.
It’s going on again now and I cannot move off the doorstep as I haven’t got a tin hat but I can see a plane coming down and a parachutist. It’s a wonder one of them hasn’t finished up in the river.

A German did land on the railway line and broke his ankle. I’m glad I wasn’t around as apparently he was a Nazi decorated with the Iron Cross and between his
gesticulations and HEIL HITLERRING he was spitting at everybody within distance.

Ernie Carne decided to leave him where he was and sent for the soldiers stationed at Hobbs Barracks.
It is a Canadian regiment there and I bet they soon shut that Nazi up.

Mr Rosier picked up a hand full of bullet cases in the depot and gave them to Barbara.
People are making them into lipstick cases and some have managed to make cigarette lighters from them.

We think they were after Biggin Hill last night but it is just too far away for me to get there on my bicycle or I would have gone for a ‘look-see’.

They told us that today’s score is Germans 39, us 32. Mum says there is an unexploded bomb in the field next to the house as she heard it come screaming down when she was sitting by the chimney.
Of course we all laughed at her as we cannot see anything unusual in the lines of ploughed land.

Blog note - at the mention of "Biggin Hill", I did some research and learned about "The Hardest Day", which took place on 18th August 1940. The German Luftwaffe performed a colossal attempt to utterly destroy RAF headquarters, and were beaten back.

Read more about "The Hardest Day" here: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/history-of-the-battle-of-britain/the-hardest-day/

In particular, Biggin Hill is mentioned as part of the Battle of Britain over the course of August 30th - August 31st 1940 at the following link, which follows the chronology of this diary portion: https://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0031.html

September 1st
The first siren went at 11.45 a.m. and I have never seen so many planes.
They poured overhead and against the blue vault of the sky they looked like shoals of silver fishes swimming in a blue sea.
I was a bit puzzled as I could not see any of our planes about.

We did hear that Biggin Hill is a complete wreck as the Dorniers came in at low level sweeping in over the road. There are a lot of the personnel killed too.

September 2nd
We’ve had a hell of a job getting to school as they arrived at 8.11 a.m. before we
were on the train and didn’t leave until 9 a.m. I had just managed to get to school when the All
Clear sounded so we had assembly.
I’m petty certain they missed out on sounding a warning at dinner time as during hockey
practice we kept a wary eye on the sky as there was a dogfight going on at a fairly high altitude.

Cousin Bob has come to stay with us. He borrowed Dad’s bike and I took him round to see some of the crash sites as some of the planes are still there after the Army have finished with them.

He was able to pull a bit off the ‘Me’ at Gib Brook to have as a souvenir. He had just got into the bath when the siren went. He yelled out “Margaret, what do I do now?” I told him if he was frightened he could undo the hook which held the lid of the bath up and shelter underneath it.

It was as well he finished bathing because that raid lasted quite a while and he would have been pretty cold and uncomfortable if he’d stayed in the bath until it was over.

September 3rd
I took Bob to the cinema in East Grinstead as we try to carry on as usual but I could tell he was pretty nervous.
When we got home there was a letter for me from Gordon. He says:

My Dear Margaret,

This is just to thank you for the interesting letter I received yesterday. You asked
about washing facilities. They are quite O.K. It is possible to bath or shower every day if need be. I usually have about three baths a week.

Now that you are back at school you will not have much time to write, so don’t bother about long letters. Just a few lines to let me know how things are going along. And don’t forget to work hard for that B.Sc.

Blackburn Skuas not skewers. Skewers are things to stick in meat. I don’t think the planes you mentioned were Skuas though, because they are dive bombers of the Coastal Command and don’t have a gun turret.

Probably the planes you saw are Boulton and Paul Defiants. They have a single engine. You didn’t say if Bob is down now. Is he?

I will dry up now with lots of love from
your brother Gordon xxxxxx

September 4th
I have answered Gordon’s letter. We haven’t had our Physics lesson today as Mr Callard, our physics, music and mathematics teacher was blown off his bike by bomb-blast on his way to school. I hope he isn’t too badly hurt.

Mum has had another letter from Gordon today to say he is being sent for flying training.
Mum does not say very much but I suppose she must be very worried about her only son being in the forces.
She will remember the anxious times of the last war with two brothers fighting in the trenches and the third one “missing, believed killed”.

She has told me about Granny Cox meeting every ship in at Hull docks hoping he would be one of the prisoners of war on board.

September 5th
Thank goodness Mr Callard wasn’t badly hurt and is back at school today.
There are some teachers I can do without but I certainly do not want Mr Callard killed or injured.

Bob went back today. I think he thought life was a little too exciting down here and he would rather be in Hull.

Perhaps just as well he has gone because we have had three raids today although it looks as if they prefer to come at night now as we have the sirens on all night long.
It went at 10 p.m. tonight and I don’t expect to hear the All Clear until about 6 a.m. tomorrow morning.

There is usually plenty of activity during the night but I don’t stay awake now to listen to it.
They really are plastering London and I am glad I am not up there.
My cousin Eva, who is three months younger than me has managed to join the W.A.A.F. and she has come to us for her first forty-eight-hour leave.

She is stationed up in London but she says she is more frightened down here because up there they are in a deep shelter and they are so busy moving pieces, representing squadrons, around on a board that they don’t have time to wonder what is going on up on the surface.

She also knows a W.A.A.F. sergeant called Joan Mortimer who is issuing ammunition from the armoury at Biggin Hill while a deluge of bombs falls around it.

September 6th
In the raids today they have managed to hit the railway lines at both Whyteleafe and Upper Warlingham so there are no trains from here to London.

I have walked our youngsters the seven miles home and if the lines are not repaired by tomorrow we shall have to find a means of getting Eva back on the buses or she will be absent without leave.

It was Kenley aerodrome that they were aiming for and it is a comfort to know it is still operational so we will put up with a damaged railway line instead.

One thing - there was plenty to watch as we marched along home because there was a raid on for half the time we were walking.

In fact when it stopped we wondered why it was so quiet then we enjoyed hearing the birds again.
I wonder what they make of all this racket that goes on around their nests.

I’m not bothering to note down the score any more as it gets boring.
Eva said that we had already lost over a hundred of our pilots and there are over a hundred so badly wounded they will never fly again.
It doesn’t bear thinking about as they are all somebody’s sons and brothers.

September 7th
The lines are repaired and we got Eva on a train. I just hope she arrived safely.

The sirens didn’t go until 11.30 a.m. and by that time she should have been safely back at base.
The next siren went at 12 noon and I never heard the All Clear although I was out in the garden watching a huge pall of smoke that was rising over London.

The City of London is over twenty miles away and the nearest suburbs of Purley and Croydon are fifty miles up the road but I am sure that those fires were in London.

There was an awful racket going on but Mum said she heard an All Clear at 1.30 p.m.
They needn’t have bothered because I did hear another warning at 2 p.m. which was when I remarked “Poor old Ernie Carne, he’s going round the bend he’s sounding warnings now and not bothering with any All Clears.”

Mum was really angry and I shall have to be careful what I say as Ernie and quite a few other people with a lot of responsibility are close friends of Mum and Dad.

There always seem to be planes overhead. At four o’clock this morning we were out in the back garden looking towards London. It was an appalling spectacle.

I can just remember seeing the Crystal Palace burn down but this was a hundred times as bad.

Dad said “I bet there is enough light from those fires to read a newspaper by.” So I went in and fetched yesterday’s paper to see if it was true and you could certainly see the headlines.

I hope I never have to witness such a sight ever again. As I stood there, looking and listening to the roar of more high explosive bombs falling into the holocaust I began to realise what this war is really like and to know that Hitler is the spirit of evil roaming the world and tonight he has lit the fires of Hell.
We must destroy him utterly before he reduces the whole world to a flaming ruin.

In spite of the fact that Fleet Street was badly hit last night we have got newspapers this morning. The docks were the chief target so the City of London has been badly hit.

There is a photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral silhouetted against the surrounding conflagration.

It has escaped and so have the bridges of Hungerford, Lambeth and Waterloo, but London Bridge Station and Cannon Street have both been hit.

The Tower has escaped too and best of all the Monument is still there which is a good omen. It must mean that as London rose from the ashes of its first great fire then it will do the same in the second great fire.

Small wonder that we could see it from our house. There was timber ablaze in the Quebec Yard at the Surrey Docks and in the Royals there were barrels of rum exploding, sending sheets of blazing spirits out to start more fires.

I expect that was part of the Navy ration and God knows they need it doing their job.
In other docks there were stores of paint, pepper, flour and rubber all going up in smoke.

At one time a westerly breeze sprang up and swept a sheet of sparks and smoke right across the River Thames and the surface was ablaze with a covering of molten sugar.

They think about nine hundred civilians died last night.
One of them was Dad’s cousin Violet. She was found dead with her head crushed by her mangle which had been blown on top of her.
She does not have any children but I wonder how many orphans there are this morning.