Gunfire on St. Helier
... all our windows and mirrors would bounce on the wall..
Bullet hole in Westminster Road
Renee Cromarty
The German bombers used the easily recognisable building of St.Helier Hospital as a guide line towards the factories at Beddington Corner. Eventually, the authorities attempted to make it less recognisable by camouflaging its bright, white colour with a dirty grey. An ack-ack gun was situated on one of the
Council corners on Westminster Road as there was a good line of sight there to the skies above the hospital. The adjoining house still has bullet holes in its brickwork from when the German pilots retaliated. Does anyone remember the position of other guns on the estate?
The flashes were blinding ..
"The worst thing for us in our little shelter, was the sound of the anti-aircraft gunfire, which we were in the thick of. These guns made a colossal noise and the flashes were blinding; we put a cloth up to the shelter door to lessen the glare, and to help keep our the cold. It became easy to distinguish between the gunfire and bomb explosions; the anti-aircraft guns made a sharp 'pang' sound, and the bombs, apart from the 'shu shu' sound when falling close, landed with a sort of 'balomp' noise causing the ground to vibrate even at quite a distance." (An extract from Memories of a Morden Lad 1932-1957) by Ronald Read, published by Merton Historical Society - Local History Notes No. 30. The booklet can be purchased from the society very reasonably.)
Friendly fire
Over by Mitcham Junction Station was a very large army encampment with many guns. James Jackson, who lived in Peterborough Road, remembers the noise.