Raiders Over Kent —————— Bombers Chased off by R.A.F. and A.A. Gunners ——————- Home Guard “Bag” a Dornier with Rifle Volley ——————- Motorists machine-gunned in Lanes Kent experienced air raids on Friday and Sunday. In the first, damage was caused at Northfleet and there were some casualties, and in the second thrilling aerial dog-fights were seen. Men of a Home Guard posed fired at a Dornier, which staggered a few miles and crashed. On Sunday afternoon a large district in Kent received the unwelcome attentions of a number of German…
Category: Extracts
German Plane Brought Down
A German aeroplane which was brought down in South East England on Sunday 28th July 1940 [source: Bromley & District Times, 3rd August 1940, page 5]
German pilots buried in Cudham
This story appeared in the Bromley & District Times newspaper in July 1940, recording the funeral of two German airmen who were shot down by Hurricanes of 32 squadron from RAF Biggin Hill (flown by Pilot Officer Peter Gardner, Sergeant William Burley Higgins and Sergeant Edward Alan Bayley). The plane crashed at Baybrooks, Horsmonden after attacking Kenley aerodrome The two pilots were Erich Hoffman (a Flight Engineer) aged 26 years old (grave number NN30) and Waldema Theilig (a Wireless Operator) aged 25 years (grave number NN31) and both were buried…
Amos David John Friend
Amos D J Friend a member of the Royal Field Artillery. Son of Mr Alfred Friend and brother to Horace A T Friend Mentioned in the Bromley & District Times on the 2nd October, 1914. He is noted as being added to the Cudham Roll of Honour in 1916
Horace A T Friend
Horace Alfred Thomas Friend was the son of Mr Alfred Friend and brother to Amos D J Friend. He was with the Mounted Police in London before serving with the colours during WW1.Horace A T Friend He is commemorated on the Cudham Roll of Honour. Source: Bromley & District Times (search via www.militaryancestors.co.uk)
Captain John Peake Knight
Captain John Peake Knight, of Sundridge Mansions, was the son of James Percy and Ellen Gray Knight, of 17, Castle Hill Avenue, Folkestone; and Grandson of the late Mr J P Knight for many years manager of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway. He attended Quernmore School. He had married his cousin, Miss Olive Phyllis Wall Row (formerly Knight), of 8, Rodborough Rd., Golders Green, Hampstead, London. She was a native of Brighton, and the eldest daughter of Mr & Mrs Gray Knight of Preston Park, Brighton. They married at St John’s…
Private Charles Mitchell
Private Charles Mitchell was the son of Mrs H Mitchell of Chatterton Road, Bromley, and was an old boy of Raglan Road Boy’s School. He signed up to the Royal West Kent Regiment at the outbreak of war. Source: Bromley & District Times, October 1914 (searched via www.militaryancestors.co.uk)
Signaller Peter Robert Marchant
Reported in the Bromley & District Times newspaper on the 19th July 1940 Missing Signaller Peter Robert Marchant of Bromley Mr and Mrs Robert Whittingham Marchant, of Brookmeade, Hayes ROad, Bromley have been officially notified that their eldest son, Signaller Peter Robert Marchant, is missing. He was on the staff of the engineering section of the G.P.O. and joined the Royal Corps of Signals when he was 19, being one of the first to embark for France last September. From colleagues who have come back safely it is understood that…
Private Harry Robert Eldridge of St Mary Cray
Private Harry Robert Eldridge was reported as missing in the Bromley & District Times on 19th July 1940, however a search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission doesn’t list him in their war dead. Private Harry Robert Eldridge of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, third son of Mr and Mrs E. Eldridge of 23 Albert Road St Mary Cray, is reported as missing. Private Eldridge, who is 20 years of age, was fighting in France during the early weeks of June. He began school at Wellington Road Junior…
Private Patrick Joseph Reynolds, Bickley
Private Patrick Joseph Reynolds of the Royal West Kent Regiment, was reported as missing in the Bromley & District Times newspaper in 19th July 1940. After this report it transpires that he became as prisoner of war and was reported as having died 14 months later in October 1941. Private P. J. Reynolds Private Patrick J. Reynolds of the Royal West Kent Regiment, second son of Mr & Mrs J.P. Reynolds of Bickley Crescent, Bickley, has been officially reported missing since May 20th by the War Office. He first joined…