Hello all -
Happy Sunday!
Staveley Road is a quiet thoroughfare in the archetypal middle-class suburb of Chiswick, on the outskirts of London. No. 1, Staveley Road is located towards one end, approximately halfway between Chiswick Tennis Club and Chiswick House Cricket Ground... you get the idea.
It is a pleasant but unremarkable area. I’m pretty sure you will have never heard of it. But No. 1, Staveley Road is remarkable for one particular reason.
Today marks the 80th anniversary, 8 September 1944, of the first German V-2 rocket exploding on British soil. It landed on... No. 1, Staveley Road, killing three residents and creating significant destruction.
It was the first of approximately 1,400 V-2 rockets aimed towards England, with over 95% of them targeted at London.
But as destructive and unnerving as the V-2 rocket was, in terms of terror it was no match for its predecessor, the V-1 flying bomb.
The V-1, also known as the buzz bomb or doodlebug, was by far an inferior weapon to its successor, the V-2. It had limited control and couldn't change direction once launched. As such, it would hit a general area rather than a specific target.
It was this lack of control and unpredictability that made it so terrifying. It could land anywhere, and usually did.
When I spoke with Paddy Hine, former Air Chief Marshal of the RAF in our episode 22 Black Arrows, we talked about the buzz bombs. The plane Paddy first flew in the RAF was the Meteor. Towards the end of World War II, the Meteor was deployed to manoeuvre alongside V-1 flying bombs as they crossed the English Channel.
With great sensitivity, pilots would then nudge the V-1s wing-tip to wing-tip, sending them off course and, hopefully, into the Channel.
Podcast episode... a look back
A Child’s Eye View of World War II
My first Batting the Breeze guest, Enid Bottle, was a young girl during World War II living in Ewell, 12 miles from central London.
In our episode, A Child's Eye View of World War II, you can hear Enid’s description of the arrival of a V1-flying bomb overhead. You can then hear an original recording of the V-1 as its engine cuts out to then fall out of the sky. Listen here - literally spine-chilling.
Full disclosure; Enid is my mother and still going strong!
Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music or just about any other podcast player of your choice. Check out the show notes for the links and transcript to learn more.
My favourite quotes from the episode...
I didn't start school because of the war till I was seven, which was very late, but didn't seem to do me any harm in the long run. At least I don't think so!
I remember being extremely frightened at that stage because they (V1-flying bombs) were missiles which would drop anywhere. And that is a horrible feeling.
…..and then quiet until you heard the bang, the explosion, when they got to the ground.
…and it was really frightening because you didn't know whether it was going to be you or someone else or what.
Dates with History...
13 September - A Tale of Two War Heroines
Laura Ingersoll was born on 13 September 1775 in Massachusetts, USA. However, her family, British loyalists, moved north to the British colony of Cananda in 1795 settling near Niagara. She married James Secord in 1797.
In 1812, the United States, effectively independent from Britain since 1776, declared war to fight against maritime trade interference. They also had designs on clearing the British from the rest of North America.
By June 1813, American troops had reached Queenston, Laura Secord’s home town. American troops were billeted in her family home.
One night, she overheard plans for an attack on British forces at Beaver Dams. If the Americans won here, the Niagara region would fall.
The next morning, Laura set out on a precarious 20-mile journey to warn the British of American plans.
At risk of being spotted and captured by American soldiers, she avoided roads. She encountered wild animals, forests, swamps and rivers. The conditions were sweltering, her clothing inappropriate and for much of the journey she trekked in bare feet.
18 hours later, Laura reached Lieutenant James FitzGibbon to deliver her warning. The British armed and prepared, and the Battle of Beaver Dams was duly won. As a result, Canada remained a British colony until 1982, at which point it eventually achieved full independence.
Today, Laura Secord is remembered and celebrated as a true Canadian heroine for her valour in the 1812 War.
Noor Inayat Khan was special. She was the “princess”. Her recent lineage identified her with an 18th-century ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern India.
Nonetheless, Noor was born in Moscow in 1914, moved to London, then Paris for much of her childhood and back to London when World War II broke out. This last move had been for safety's sake. As it turned out, the last thing on Noor's mind was her own safety.
She joined the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force as a wireless operator. In 1943 Noor was recruited to the Special Operations Executive. SOE carried out espionage throughout World War II, supporting local resistance movements across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Winston Churchill called on it to “set Europe ablaze”.
Noor proved to be a woman of extraordinary courage. She was sent to France as an undercover wireless operator. Statistically, her life expectancy had reduced to six weeks.
She defied the odds, but only by a few weeks. In October 1943, she was betrayed and captured by the Gestapo. Imprisoned and tortured for nearly a year, Noor refused to concede any critical information.
80 years ago this week, on 13 September 1944, Noor arrived at Dachau Concentration Camp about 12 miles from Munich, to be executed the same day.
Posthumously, Noor Inayat Khan received the George Cross and French Croix de Guerre as recognition for her extraordinary bravery.
Question of the week...
Today would have been birthdays for two of the original cast of The Goon Show which first aired on radio in 1951.
I can recall hearing repeats of the mad-cap show as a young lad, particularly remembering “Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, iddle-I-po” from the “Ying Tong Song”.
The show inspired future irreverent radio comedy such as Monty Python, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and so on.
Harry Secombe was born on 8 September 1921 and Peter Sellers was born on the same day four years later on 8 September 1925. Can you name either of the other two original cast members? (An extra point for naming both.)
(answer at bottom of newsletter)
And finally...
On September 9, 1947, she was working on the Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University when it crashed. On inspection, a moth had landed across a relay to cause a short circuit. Hopper recorded in her diary, "First actual case of bug being found”. She taped the moth to the actual page in the log.
The first computer bug had been recorded. While the term ‘bug’ had been coined at least 100 years earlier, Grace Hopper’s entry helped to popularise the term ‘bug’ for a computer malfunction.
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Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
Answer to Question of the week: The remaining two members of The Goon Show cast were Spike Milligan and Michael Bentine.
NEXT WEEK'S BREEZER
Pigeon Impossible - William of Orange's flap of honour
LAST WEEK'S BREEZER
Julian days to Gregorian ways: Britain’s 11-day vanishing act
Attribution (cover): London Blitz, 1940: H. F. Davis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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