This story has been submitted to the People's War site by Jan Moore for Kent Libraries and Archives and Canterbury City Council Museums on behalf of Mr Ken Webb and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

In the summer of 1939 I was on holiday at our seaside bungalow, which was situated on top of the cliffs between Herne Bay and Whitstable facing the Thames estuary, with a vast view across to Southend and the Isle of Sheppey. This was very busy with shipping heading up to the docks at London. Coming up to the age of 13, I was well aware of the international situation with Germany and like all boys of my age, knew all about the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

On September 3rd, we all listened to Mr. Chamberlain's speech and about 15 minutes later heard the air raid sirens go, then a roar of planes heading towards Sheppey where the RAF base of Eastchurch was situated. At that instance, the anti-aircraft guns opened up on the planes, which were in fact a flight of our own Bristol Blenheims. We heard much later that some of the Hurricane fighters had been shot down by our own people.

From then on, at night there was a lot of activity out to sea which was very loud, the water carrying the exploding noise very clearly to us.This was the time when the Germans were dropping the new magnetic mines on the coastal waters. Some of the Wellington bombers were modified to have anti-magnetic rings fitted to them underneath the fuselage; the planes flew low over the sea, causing the mines to blow up.

With the coming of Dunkirk, our school, which was situated alongside the main railway line to London, saw a lot of troop trains go by, with the survivors going through to London. Luckily, there were no air raids then, that was to come later. The weather from then on was one of the best summers I can remember, sunshine every day.

We now had a blockhouse near us, which was built about 100 yards from our bungalow; this was manned by Czechs who had escaped from their homeland. The cliff top had barbed wire all along and if you were out after dark you got stopped, to see what you were doing...

When the Battle of Britain started, the German bombers came over in their hundreds every day. We used to count them every morning, when our fighters attacked we used to shelter in a blockhouse. This went on for the rest of the summer and the German air force was forced to switch to night bombing because of their casualties. We would hear the planes pass overhead on their way to bomb London. We had four bombs dropped very near us, but because of the muddy soil they went right in and we never heard them and only found the holes some days later. About that time the Regal Cinema in Canterbury was damaged in a daylight raid, when a few bombs were dropped. However, there was constant activity in the Thames estuary, as all of the ships that were coming ang going from London were being attacked.

One evening, a friend and I decided to go to a Gordon Harker film in nearby Whitstable, going by bike. We had just ridden down the hill opposite the harbour when I looked up and saw a twin engine aircraft flying above us. It was recognised at once as being a Dornier 217 bomber, we could see about six bombs dropping from it. We dropped our bikes and ran for shelter to a house (a silly thing to do!). It took out about four houses in the street behind us. We went home frightened.

As our house in London had been severely damaged, we salvaged some of our furniture and moved to a house in Herne village on top of the hill next to the windmill and had an even better view of the Thames.

Some time later I left school, as I had felt unsettled with the constant air raid alarms interrupting my school work. I went to work in an office in Canterbury, in the Dover Road. We were awakened one night by the sound of low flying bombers and went outside to check for incendiary bombs. We saw the red glare coming from the direction of Canterbury. I went to work at the usual time and the devastation was unbelievable. The bus only got to the edge of the city, where Sainsburys is now and I had to walk the rest of the way because of the devastation everywhere. One thing I cannot understand is why some of the buildings were pulled down, which could have been saved; for example, the church at the top of the High Street where the walls were still standing to where the roof was. It has all gone now except for the tower.

Moving on, an event of interest was that the Lancaster bombers were active over the Reculver district, flying very low over the sea. We found out later they were testing out the dam busters bombs in the sea and dropping them in it, where they were recovered at low tide. About that time I applied to join the Royal Observers Corps and was successful in passing the exam. I had to commit to memory the description of thirty aircraft, at various angles, to get through the test.

While on duty at the Reculver lookout some months later, we had to look out for the German Focker Wolf 190 fighters, which used to come in low and fast, drop their bombs and get out quick. I observed the Mosquito bombers testing out a new kind of bomb, which was able to be shied into the submarine pens in France. I was forbidden to report any of this at the time. Also at that time, I loved dancing at the Kings Hall and liked the music so much I bought myself a drum to go on a job at the British Legion Hall, was paid six shillings for that...I was asked to join the Herne Bay Entertainers. We used to go out all over East Kent to where the troops were stationed, with a concert party. I did this till I was called up.