D-Day diaries chronicling life in Wickham to be published

David Warwick, who covered the village news for the Chronicle in the mid-sixties only discovered his mother - Dorothy’s - journal after her death and has added his own childhood memories of the time. 

As first lady member of the Rural District Council and billeting officer for the area, she had much to tell. And, written at a time when invasion was imminent, the outcome unknown, her diaries have direct first-hand immediacy.

Mrs Warwick, originally from Preston, spent the early years of her marriage above a tiny ironmonger’s shop devoid of electricity or running water. Come the war the family – now a girl and three boys, endured the seemingly endless wailing of the siren; nights spent huddled in the damp cellar listening to the sound of distant bombardment as enemy bombers droned overhead. Only eight days during the month of July 1941 was free of raids.

David Warwick (Image: David Warwick)

As the village prepared itself for the expected enemy assault signposts were removed, bridges damaged to impede their advance. Concrete blocks known as “Dragon’s teeth” appeared in strategic places for the same purpose. The Home Guard, under the leadership of General Sir Herbert Powell, late commander of the Gurkha Rifles in India, sprang into action, patrolling nightly for parachutists, spies or unexploded bombs; simulating attacks on one another’s villages in preparation for what might come.

Gradually the tide began to turn till, come 1944, the long-expected invasion of Europe was imminent. The nation was abuzz with rumours. No one knew when it would come, but the build-up was tantalizing.

Dorothy Warwick’s diary takes up the story. March 15th: thousands of aircraft are seen streaming overhead; convoys continually pass through the village. Has the moment come? No. Five days later all travel within a ten-mile radius of the coast is banned. Surely this must be it. Again disappointment. During the next month strange yellow markings appear on all roads south. Why?

May 15 and all is revealed – fully loaded tank carriers and military vehicles of all kinds arrive to take their place each in the space reserved for it by these strange markings. Then, on June 6, D-Day itself is announced. Gliders stream overhead. The family listen all day on the radio.

A bridgehead is established. On June 24, Caen and Cherbourg are captured. The largest seaborne landing in history has begun. As a council member Dorothy is aware of the coffins stacked up in readiness for those who will never return. But says nothing.

Home Front Wickham (Image: David Warwick)

The retaliation is swift and terrifying. On the night of June 16 came a sound not one of the family had previously heard. Spasmodic. Pulsating like the buzz of a badly-serviced motorbike. Looking up they catch sight of an elongated cigar-shaped object.

Pilotless with no propellers but flames blasting continuously from its tail. Not plane but a rocket, just like those they’d seen in countless science-fiction movies, packed with explosives.

Hitler had unleashed the first of his vergeltungswaffen the “reprisal weapons”. The V1s – enormous bombs propelled by jet rather than traditional engine.

The family came to dread the moment when, with a spluttering cough, the engine cut out and the doodle bug, as they came to be known, plummeted to earth causing devastation wherever it fell. Not least frightening was the rudimentary navigation system, meaning that no one knew precisely where this would be.

Dorothy also has some delightful stories to tell regarding her experiences as the only lady member of the Rural District Council.

As billeting officer for Wickham, planning for the arrival of evacuees began almost a year in advance of the war. Some 500 arrived by train during its first week, one batch returning immediately to the dangers of home finding the village far too quiet for their liking. The search for accommodation for those that followed resulting in Incidents both humorous and harrowing.

David Warwick, the youngest and only surviving member of the family from this time, was born and spent the first 30 years of his life in Wickham, where he reported on village events for the Hampshire Chronicle.

Subsequently he served in the Royal Air Force Fighter Command and worked as a teacher, senior lecturer and professor at schools and universities across the UK and abroad. He’s written widely in fields of History, Management Religion, and Education. Married with two adult sons and two grandchildren, he and his wife, Ann, have recently celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary. Home Front Wickham, he believes, is his forty-third book. They now live in Chichester.

Home Front Wickham (ISBN: 9781915067463) by David Warwick is published by Crump Barn Studios, available in bookshops or online retailers from July 18.