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BETTY FAGG's WAR

Betty Hughes, as she was at the time, was a 16yr old girl living with her parents in a double-storey, brick house called 'Pelhamdale', at 30 Broadstairs Road, Broadstairs, Thanet, Kent when war was declared in September 1939.

Thanet and the coastal areas were declared a restricted zone open only to local residents and military personnel. Manston Aerodrome, an RAF fighter station and prime target for the Germans, was situated a short distance from Broadstairs and Betty's home.

Consequently, there was a large defensive military presence in the area. Pelhamdale backed onto a school playing field where a battery of 4.7" heavy anti-aircraft guns was deployed. A 40-man Bofors anti-aircraft gun was situated on the roof of the garage attached to Pelhamdale, right next to Betty's bedroom. Many a sleepless night was had.

The winter of 1939 was a very bitter, cold winter, with constant storms, snow and ice. Conditions for the soldiers manning the guns were atrocious, so feeling sorry for the soldiers, in an effort to make their life a little more bearable, Betty's mother made large pots of hot soup which Betty would take out to the nightshift soldiers on the guns. A large fire was kept going in the house where the officers were invited for hot drinks and a chance to get warm. Military cars, trucks and brengun carriers were regularly parked outside the house. It quickly became a sort of unofficial H.Q.

Often German ME109's and ME110's would cross the English Channel, flying just above the tree tops and would then use Broadstairs Road as a navigation aid to take them straight to Manston where they would bomb and strafe the airfield before flying back along Broadstairs Road and home to Germany. Betty had a grandstand view of these raids and the ensuing retaliation by the anti-aircraft funs around her home.

May 1940 came and with it the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. Ramsgate harbour, the next town to Broadstairs, suddenly became a focal point for the returning soldiers. Thousands of exhausted, hungry, dirty, wounded soldiers flooded into Ramsgate, being unloaded from a variety of ships and boats. Once landed, they were sorted into a semblance of order and either sent to hospitals or military depots. This sudden massive influx of troops quickly exhausted all local food supplies, so vans were sent around the local community and towns asking for donations of food and cigarettes. In the midst of this chaos Betty volunteered her services and worked tirelessly alongside members of the WVS cheerfully handing out buns, hot tea, chocolate and cigarettes to the disembarking soldiers, doing her best to revive the sagging spirits of the soldiers.

By now war was well established and coastal England, including Broadstairs, was under constant bombing by German planes. On Sunday, 3rd August 1941, Betty and her father were completing the rounds of Broadstairs pubs collecting cigarettes which Pop Hughes took back with him to London to distribute to workers at the munitions factory where he worked. Pop was sitting at a table with Betty, finishing his pint of beer, when at about 1345 a JU88 slipped across the English Channel below radar level and dropped a stick of five bombs on Broadstairs. The first hit the railway station, the second the fire station, the third Councillor Forde's house, killing him. The last two landed in the grounds of the Catholic Church. The station hotel (pub) was next to the railway station and it suffered blast damage and extensive dust, ceiling plaster and flying glass from the window. As the explosion died down, Pop was heard to say "the bastards have ruined my beer" and on that note, covered in dust and plaster, Pop and Betty went to the Stationmaster's place where with others they helped pull him from the rubble. Next they went to the railway station where they worked assisting in the recovery of injured people. Betty managed to wave down a passing army lorry and diverted it to the nearby hospital with the injured aboard. Pop, realising it was well past lunchtime sent Betty back home to tell mum he would be late. Mum having heard the explosions, was very agitated and when she saw Betty coming up the road covered in dust and blood, immediately thought Pop had been killed and went into hysterics. It took Betty quite some time to calm her down and explain what had happened. Lunch was very late that day.

December 1942 saw Betty enlist in the ATS at Camberley as an ambulance driver. She was sent to No. 7 Training Centre at Guildford where she was posted to No. 4 Platoon C Company. From there she was sent to Derby. Betty was discharged August 1943.

Early 1944, when out in the front garden of Pelhamdale, Betty heard the sound of an approaching aircraft. Not knowing whether it was friend or foe she waited to see if she could see it. Suddenly, a German FW109 fighter roared up the street machine-gunning everything it its path. Betty's instant reaction saved her life. She threw herself face forward on the ground behind the front brick and wood fence and lay there as the plane thundered overhead. When it was gone and when she picked herself up, stitched along the top wooden part of the front fence was a neat line of bullet holes, exactly where she had previously been standing.

Betty's next brush with death came on the night of Monday, 10th July 1944, when a V1 flying bomb landed in Pelhamdale's back yard, exploding and half demolishing the house. Betty was asleep in bed at the rear of the house at the time, but escaped unhurt, though shaken. After emerging from under the bedclothes Betty remarked "well I never, I can see right down the garden." The bomb also caused extensive damage to surrounding houses.

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