JRH
Registered: February 2004
Posts: 380
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Eric Hayles (formerly of Second Avenue, Carnarvon Drive, Chaucer Avenue and Church Road) writes:
Final para in the Gazette article gives a wrong
impression. There were a lot more than 6 bombs that fell in Hayes; there
were more than that which fell around Longmead Rd alone. And there must
have been more than 6 incidents, too. Re the two V2s: My wife Maureen and I only knew of one, the one at Gledwood, which we both believe fell behind Corinth Parade rather than Crown Prd...but we could be wrong, tho we don't think so, her Aunty Eva's (Wheeler) house in Whittington Ave was damaged in that.
Fortunately it fell into a grassed rec area/allotments between the shops and houses, so went in a long way before detonating. Mo also remembers the bomb falling in Hurstfield, she was in Lansbury Drv at the time, but was not aware that it was a V2 ... she met a woman running who had just lost her house ... there were usually no air-raid sirens when V2s fell, because no one saw them
coming!
Re the V1 on Gramophone. My father (Joel Hayles) worked in Gram packing dept on the south side of Blyth Rd. He would stand behind the heavy entrance doors when the pips (imminent danger) sounded, rather than run for the shelters. On that occasion he saw the Doodle-bug falling and expected it to collide with a water tower (not sure whether it was one of those in the pix on Hayes website (also on S side), but I've always imagined it to have been one on the N side. In any event, he reckoned it must have been air currents around the tank that caused the V1 to veer off and plunge down where it fell near the Canteen. Since Barbara
(my sister) was a clerk in the Canteen he rushed across there, pushing aside security personnel to find her. I'm not sure whether he did, but I remember Barb
arriving home in a filthy state and very subdued. We kids were told to leave
her be. She was in a shelter just round the corner of a building (the
Canteen?) from those on which the bomb fell. She has since told me that she
went back into her demolished office to collect her handbag before coming
home, hence her grubby state.
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