My mother is 94 now. She can remember sheltering in the cave during the first World War. She remembers the light from the oil lamps flickering on the walls.                                                                                                    LS

1915

courtesy Dover Museum

My father was killed in the Great War. To survive then my mother took in washing from Connaught Barracks. Mr Farrier went up there with his horse and cart, and I went with him to get the washing. Mrs Jackson was my mother's friend, and she helped with the washing. They had a big copper that they had to boil up in the yard to put the clothes in.

Uncle Bert lost his leg in the Great War. It got machine-gunned off. He was in the platoon, and the man carrying the Lewis gun said it was too heavy, so Uncle Bert carried it. Then the bullets from the cross fire killed everyone except Uncle Bert. That was because he was carrying the gun, and the bullets pinged off it. But he lost his leg.

He was shell-shocked by the war, and when they were bombed in the second World War Uncle Bert was eating his dinner. The peas on his fork went straight up in the air, and even without his leg he bolted straight across Liverpool Lawn and into the caves.  He passed out when he saw the damage afterwards, but no one in the family was hurt.  LB

My father died in the Great War. My mother fainted when she was told. Her pension was very poor, and she had me and my brother to look after. Lady visitors came to help, and all they said was, "Put the children in a home and sell the house." Mother wouldn't let us go like that. She would cook, and darn and mend by candlelight, so she could get money, and her parents helped too. They kept us in shoe leather and gave us vegetables from the allotments. We stayed out of the soup kitchens and never went hungry because of that.                                                           IH

My mum was a Dover girl, but we were away from Dover when World War II started.  My dad was at sea, and she wanted to come home. Later the authorities asked how we'd got in without any papers,  and we said we hadn't seen any sentries. It was quite true. My brothers were 13 and 15 and they found out where all the sentries were stationed. We'd come in over the hills one dark night and avoided them all!                                                                         EP

I didn't go to school for years because of the War. We used to have to go into the caves. It was so boring. After the last shell had come over each time we had to wait for an hour before the all-clear. That was because of the way the guns worked, and you knew if nothing had happened for an hour then it would be safe. But if a shell came after 55 minutes then you'd be stuck for another hour. You could be in the caves for days. The people who were killed at the Tower Hamlets cave had gone to the entrance because they thought it was safe. It had been nearly an hour since the last shell. But then one came over.

The Salvation Army man brought round cups of tea. He went all through the raids and then he was killed at the Red Shield club. I thought he was ever so brave, going through all the raids like that.                                                DE

courtesy Dover Museum

When we were in the air raid shelters we would sing “Under the Chestnut Trees” and “This Old Man, He Played One”. If your mum said "move", you moved. Children were obedient then.  They had to be or they got killed in the air raids. EP

My grandmother lived at Clarendon Street. Aircraft dropped a load of bombs on it, eleven in all. Numbers 135 and 139 were destroyed. My grandmother's house was 134, and she threw me down on the floor and laid on top of me. I was all right, but my grandmother got bomb splinters in her back.                                                                       DC

My friend and I were walking along Cambridge Road. We heard an airplane and turned round to see if it was theirs or ours. But at the same time we heard a rat a tat tat and we dived into a doorway. The next moment we saw the bullets hitting the ground, screaming up the street towards the monument.  It was one of theirs. It roared as it flew very close overhead.                                                                                                                                                 JC

Borough of Dover

Fire Prevention Service

Training

Please note that your attendance is requested for the purpose of receiving instruction as laid down in the Civil Defence Duties (Compulsory Enrolment) Order, 1942, and the Fire Prevention (Business Premises) (No 3) Order 1942

addressed to Mr Pearce, of the Invicta Inn, Snargate Street, requiring attendance on Tuesday December 9th 1942, at Peter Street

with thanks to Derek Yeomans

My mum told me how a German plane went over the Danes. It shot at all the footballers, and then it went right up St Peter's Street, leaving a bullet trail along the middle of the road.                                                                            DA

My granddad was shocked after the first World War. When the sirens went off he was always first to bolt for the shelter. But he was getting a bit deaf, and one time the wind was in the wrong direction, and he didn't hear the siren, so didn't know about the raid until the first bang. He really ran then!

One time he was sheltering under the stairs, and was looking for something. He set his hair alight with the candle!     NC

I can remember the shell that exploded on the hill behind 125 Clarendon Place. Christchurch school on Military Hill was demolished while we were in the caves during a raid. There was no school to go to, and so I went home afterwards and got a hiding from my Gran, because she thought I was playing truant! After that we all went to St Mary's school, but that's gone now as well.                                                                            DY

My mum was out in an air raid. It was her lunch hour and she wanted to go home. She was cycling over the viaduct when a shell exploded right near her and her friend. They were blown off their bikes and covered with dust and rubble. A man came running over to them. His face was absolutely white with shock. He said, "I thought you'd had it!" He helped them get up and dust themselves down, and then they went home. My grandmother was absolutely furious. She called my mum every kind of fool under the sun for being out during a raid. But eventually my mum got shell-shocked. She went down in the caves and wouldn't come out again, and they had to send her meals down there to her, until she was called up for munitions work.                                                                                                   MW

The V1 came on13th August 1944. When we first heard them and then the silence followed by a loud bang we wondered what they were. Then we saw them, and we knew that if we could hear them it was all right, but when they went silent we ran like hell for shelter as we knew they were coming down to explode. Lots of them passed over the town, and a great number were shot down by ack ack guns on the cliff tops or air craft.

Sometimes we saw an amazing sight. A fighter plane would come out of a steep dive to gain speed and then fly alongside the V1 flying bomb. then he would place his wing under or over the V1 wing and by tapping the V! wing would cause it to turn away. Sometimes it went back to France. It didn't happen often but when it did we let out a big cheer.                                                                                                                                                              JC

Four shells landed on houses in Eastbrook Place just off Castle Street. The houses were still standing but badly damaged. I always remember seeing the elegant furniture and curtains.  All badly damaged houses were eventually pulled down and the contents just put onto lorries and taken to the tip up St Radigunds. As the lorry went up the hill we would jump on the back, and rummage through the contents, and then as the lorry got to the top we would jump off again.                                                                                                                                                             JC

They had the sirens; if there was shelling there were two sirens, and if there was an air raid it was one siren. We went to the pictures, to the Plaza.  My mum always said that if there was a raid I was to come home. You wouldn't always hear it, in there, so they used to put it up on the screen, "Shelling in Progress". We had to come out, and so we went back home up the steps by the Priory Station. We stood there and watched the shelling. I saw St James go up in smoke and flames, and all go down into rubble.                                                       EK

The seafront was all blocked off, with wire along it. There were imitation landing barges there. The Germans thought the landing in France would come from there, and they came over and photographed them. But it was all just a decoy.  EK

I was sitting in the class room when there was a sudden loud bang, and shortly after we heard the sound of running feet then shouting. The next class was emptied of children, then we heard moaning. Our teacher told us to remain seated and went next door. A short period of time went by and our curiosity got the better of us. We put our chairs against the wood glass partition and peered into the classroom next door.

What I saw I shall never forget:- on the floor lay two children, their faces covered in blood.  The hand of the child nearest to us was hanging onto his arm by shreds. He lost his hand and his sight. The other lad escaped serious injury. They had found a butterfly bomb and were attempting to take it apart.   (more)                                   JC

On 2^nd Sept, about 2 o clock, the Germans were lobbing shells all the time. that was because the Canadians were advancing on them. We were in the shelter, and it was pitch black. There was an enormous bang. We lived at 14 Lowther, and it took out the backs of about eleven houses. Number 17 was destroyed, that was where Sheila Hare lived. She was killed and her mum badly injured. Mrs Ricketts and her daughter were safe in the shelter, but the Elkins and the Moats had to go to new accommodation. Our roof was taken off. There was an emergency mobile repair service. They'd come and put a tarpaulin over to keep the rain out, and there was a clear plastic to put over the windows when they were all blown out.                                   EK

You didn't get much schooling in Dover during the War because the warnings always went off. You could see the flash across the channel and know you had a minute or so before the shell came over. I used to go up through the caves to school at Christchurch. One time I found an incendiary bomb in the ground and took it into the classroom to show everyone. They all scattered!

I had been evacuated first of all, to Cwmbran, but my mum brought me home again because I was suffering from malnutrition. The man of the family worked in a biscuit factory, and I'd have to pinch the broken biscuits and the pies as well, because I was starved. If you asked the Mrs for another slice of bread she'd cut it for you - but she'd stare at you the whole time while she was doing it. We didn't get much schooling there either, just sat and talked.             RE