A doodlebug and a school

Tom Holloway (xuegx@CSV.WARWICK.AC.UK)
Thu, 11 Apr 1996 16:06:10 +0100 

Doodlebug

I lived in the town of Aldershot during the war.  It's a
'garrison' town (which means there are lots of Army
Barracks in and around) but even so it was hardly ever
bombed, but doodlebugs would fly over us on their way to
London and many fell in the local area.

On one occasion I can remember I was in school when we
heard a doodlebug engine suddenly cut out (that meant that
it was about to drop!).  We hadn't taken shelter because
there wasn't usually time for that, and only just enough
time for Miss Clarke, the Geography teacher to yell "duck
everyone" and so we all ducked under our desks as usual.

There was a tremendous CRASH and all the school windows blew
in - glass everywhere, nobody was hurt fortunately, but we
could see through the shattered windows that it had fallen
on the school just down the hill from us.

My mother heard it and came out of the house, to be told
that it had hit "the school on the hill" and immediately
assumed it was mine.  She ran non-stop for three miles,
apron flapping, until she could see that our school was
safe.  By that time a full regiment of the Canadian Army,
billeted nearby, was already on the scene, scrabbling at the
debris of the classroom with their bare hands to get the
kids out.  By a miracle, only one child was dead and all the
others were rescued.


I would like especially to thank one of those Canadian
soldiers - Regimental Sergeant Major Tom Johnston - for a
wonderful surprise.  When his regiment was ordered over to
France in 1944 they were told to destroy all their surplus
food; this was because we had very strict rationing laws and
it would have been quite unfair for Aldershot people to get
what others couldn't get.  RSM Johnston (Uncle Tom to me...)
managed to smuggle out a couple of big tins of dried fruit
(an incredible treat to sweet-starved children) in the back
of his Austin Seven.  I can still taste those wonderful
raisins and apricots even now!  If there are any Canadian
Johnston's reading this, please accept my grateful thanks on
Uncle Tom's behalf.

Margaret Auckland
April 1996