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A schoolboy’s wartime memories of Nevendon, Essex - Part Two

Part two of an oral history interview with Mr. Dennis Mabey conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum

“I started at Palmer’s Grammar School in September 1942 aged 11. I had to get up at 07.00 to catch the 07.40 bus to Vange arriving about 07.50. There I had to wait for another bus at 08.00 that took me to Grays, O8.45 in time for assembly at 09.00. Despite the wartime conditions both buses were fairly reliable and I never got stranded in Grays. When possible I did homework, reading or revision during these long journeys. During assembly we sang a hymn and heard a short address normally from the Headmaster, the Reverend Abbott. He would also give out any notices.

In 1943 serious distraction from our studies was provided by a steadily increasing air activity, mainly from US aircraft. I quickly learnt to identify Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightning fighters. For bombers there were twin engined Bostons and Marauders together with four engined Liberators and Flying Fortresses. There were also transport aircraft, DC3 Dakotas. These sometimes towed gliders, Hadrian gliders which were American or Horsa gilders which were English. Many of these aircraft were based quite close in Essex at airfields like those at Finchingfield and Great Eastern. These were standard airfields constructed with great skill in only two weeks.

One afternoon at home I saw a daylight crash landing of a Spitfire. I was in my bedroom and I heard an aero engine misfiring. I rushed to my window and saw a Spitfire flying slowly towards Hornchurch at a height of only about 30 feet. I rushed from my room in the east to my mother’s bedroom at the west, I was just in time to see the Spitfire make a belly landing in a great cloud of dust in a field to the north of the arterial road. I ran downstairs, jumped on my cycle and tore towards the wreck. I left my cycle on the road and ran across the field, I was the first person there. I was surprised to see the pilot nonchalantly leaning against the aircraft and lighting a cigarette while a loud klaxon sounded. I shouted, ‘What’s that noise?’ The pilot said, ‘That’s a warning that I’m attempting a wheels up landing.’ Then he reached into the cockpit and turned the klaxon off. I asked, ‘Is it safe to smoke with all the fuel in the aircraft?’ He laughed, ‘I’ve crashed because I’ve run out of fuel!’ Other people, including a village policeman were arriving then and the pilot asked about access to the field to recover the aircraft. I retrieved my cycle and returned home.

We stayed out of London during the ‘Blitz’ obviously. I mean we were satisfied with my father’s accounts of it. But from 1940 to 1944 when there was actually comparatively little air activity my mother used to take us to London for day trips much to the surprise of some of our neighbours and friends. ‘Oh, you might be killed.’ She would say, ‘I might get blown up if I stay in Nevendon.’ So in particular I can remember going to the ‘Old Vic’ to see Henry IV Part One because we’d got to do that for ‘O’ level, I think I saw Lawrence Olivier. I mean really he shouldn’t have been there because - I think that was 1944 - there could have been a ‘Flying Bomb’ attack or something.

In 1944 Essex Road was suddenly filled with heavy military traffic and adjoining fields were covered with tented camps. Our bus had to make a major diversion west of Stanford-le-Hope but I still made Palmer’s in time for assembly. Then came ‘D Day’ June 1944. A road to Tilbury Docks passed by the school, many convoys carrying soldiers passed. During the morning break some soldiers threw their English money into our playground. The soldiers seemed very cheerful and some had been issued with French money already. After lunch our Headmaster made a short speech, ‘This is the greatest day in English history. Today Allied Forces have landed on the coast of Normandy. Initial reports suggest that the landings are going well. We should all pray for the success of our Forces and the defeat of Hitler.’

On the 13th of June the Germans proved that they were not yet beaten by launching ‘Flying Bomb’ attacks. The ‘Doodle Bugs’ were small, pilotless jet planes carrying about one ton of high explosive. The nickname ‘Doodle Bug’ came from the characteristic intermittent noise emitted by the pulse jet engine until the fuel supply was cut off. The bomb then took about 10 seconds to glide down to earth. We had no shelters at school so we were told to carry on working. If a ‘doodle bug’ approached we hoped the engine would keep going. If it stopped we had to dive under our desks and hope. Fortunately the school escaped with no casualties and only a few broken windows. For most of June and July the ‘doodle bugs’ came so frequently that my family slept in our comfortable shelter every night. One night my mother woke me and said, ‘We’ve had it!’ ‘Had what?’ I answered, ‘a ‘Doodle Bug.’ We climbed out and found the Café very badly damaged, all the roof tiles were blown off and many of the windows were broken. The bomb had fallen close to the crossroads and completely demolished two small buildings without hurting the owners, safe within their Anderson shelters although so close to the impact. I went to release our dog from the wreck of his kennel while my mother went indoors to survey the damage. Most of the upstairs walls were knocked down. She noticed an opened bottle of Guinness and poured a glass to help her to recover from shock. She went into her bedroom where she saw the telephone still sitting on its stand. She lifted it and was surprised to find it still working. She rang a friend in London who lived near my father’s shop with the message, ‘Café badly damaged by ‘Doodle Bug’. Family OK, get down if you can. Please tell my husband when he opens his shop.’ My father rang back at seven and said he would come down by train and bus which he did but he had to return to London in the evening. My mother and I were back in our bunks when an Air Raid Warden knocked on the door and asked, ‘Are you alright?’ We said we were and he went on his way. Just as I was leaving for school a team of builders arrived to begin emergency repairs which were completed in a few days. My grandmother came over by bus from the village of East Hanningfield and took away lots of dirty curtains and bedding for washing.

The London anti-aircraft guns were initially not very successful against the ‘Flying Bombs’ so the guns were moved to form a cordon on the south coast where they were much more successful, scoring about 80% hits. Inland two types of aircraft, the Typhoon and the Mosquito were fast enough to catch the ‘doodle bugs’ which generally flew at about 400 miles an hour. One afternoon I was on the Café verandah and heard a ‘Doodle Bug’ coming. It was being chased and fired at by a Mosquito. My mother was out of sight and I shouted excitedly to the Mosquito, ‘Get the b……’ using a bad word that I had just learnt from Shakespeare. There was only one customer on the verandah, he was telling me off when my mother appeared, she made me apologise for swearing before a customer. I don’t know whether my imprecation helped but the ‘Doodle Bug’ went down in flames crashing in an empty Essex field rather than crowded houses in London.

In the summer of 1944 Allied Armies advanced along the French coast and then in Belgium and Holland, capturing the launching sites of the ‘Doodle Bugs’. Thereafter we rarely heard their characteristic noise although a few were air launched from Heinkel 111 bombers. My family then reverted to sleeping in our house. In the autumn and winter of 1944 we did get a few ‘V2’ rockets which were falling well short of their target, London. However, these were travelling at supersonic speeds and thus gave no advance warning of their approach. The War in Europe ended in May 1945 which was marked by a sudden reduction in air activity. The Japanese surrendered in August 1945 after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.�

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