Air Raid Damage Reports Brentwood Division Essex Fire Service 21 November 1939

Date Time Location Damage

21/11/1939 16.20 Thundersley Electric and telephone wires down due to a drifting
Barrage Balloon.

5, Oxford Road
Colchester
Essex
Getting absent minded
R.A. Mess
Larkhill.
13th September

My very dearest Mazra and Par,

A thousand thanks for your charming letters which I simply loved reading and for the sheets and more especially for the ‘things inside’ which were most welcome. You really have both been too terribly kind to me always, and I don’t have to tell you, I know, how much I appreciate everything you have done for me, nobody could have been so lucky as I have been in the way of parents, and I only hope that what I’m going to tell you now won’t let me down in your eyes. It’s not going to be easy, but I shall do my best. I have always been in your own words ‘a very secretive old chap’, well now I’ll tell you everything and only wish I had before.
As you have guessed, I expect, it concerns Eileen. You remember that night when you said how silly you thought it was of me to be tying myself with one girl, and that you wanted me to enjoy myself while I was young. Well you may or may not have realised it but I have never got on too well with girls in general, nor like Cecil for instance, so to get hold of someone like Eileen, as I did, was to me ideal. I always was very fond of her and grew more so as time went on, but being young and unqualified could of course do nothing about it. But since we got back from Zoute our friendship has got much more intense and we are definitely in love with each other. I can honestly say that this was absolutely nothing to do with this War game and that we discovered it at least a week before the War. I have since then thought it over very, very carefully and have asked Eileen to marry me and she wrote to-day saying she would. I know you’ll think it stupid and impulsive of me but it isn’t and I fully appreciate the responsibilities.

So when I get back on Sunday week as I hope to, with yours and Pa Adams permission get engaged to Eileen. Please don’t hesitate to say exactly what you think but I don’t think it will come as a very terrific shock though, so there we are. I naturally couldn’t think of getting married to her for several years but she realises that.

Do write to me soon, remembering that whatever happens I shall always love you just as much, more really, if possible because in future I shall have nothing to hide from you. I wish I hadn’t before, but what’s done is done.

Thank you both for your encouraging letters I shall write to you again tomorrow but felt today that I must get this off my chest.

All my love to you both and thank you once again for everything
Your ever loving son
Peter.

On back of envelope “tell Brian that I am writing tomorrow P”.

In cover addressed to Mrs G.C. Benham, 5, Oxford Road Colchester Essex. Postmarked Salisbury Wilts. 8 30 PM 13 Sep 1939.

HENCHMEN OF ADOLF HITLER

Adolf Hitler’s inner circle were the most powerful men in the Third Reich. It was a finely balanced team of military commanders, administrative leaders and Ministers of the Nazi Party.
The following is a list of these men, who they were and a brief explanation of their roles.
———————-
Martin Bormann was Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and Hitler’s private secretary who controlled all access to the Fuhrer. He had final approval over all legislation and control over all domestic matters together with all information going to and from Hitler. Whilst escaping the Red Army in Berlin, he was allegedly killed but there some doubt as his body has never been found. In his absence, at the Nuremburg Trials the authorities charged him with war crimes, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
Karl Donitz was Commander of the German Navy’s U-boats until 1943 when he took over as Commander-in-Chief of the German navy. He was eventually promoted to Grand-Admiral. At the Nuremburg Trials, he was convicted of war crimes, found guilty and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He lived quietly in a village near Hamburg and died in 1980 after his release.
Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German Nazi SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. His involvement was organising the logistics for the mass deportation of Jews to the ghettos and extermination camps. With Germany defeated in 1945, he fled to Austria and lived there until 1950 when he relocated to Argentina using false papers. Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, located him in 1960 and captured him. They then transported him to stand trial in Israel for crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was found guilty and executed by hanging on the 1st June 1962 in Israel.
Walther Funk was the Reich Minister of Economics, President of the Reichsbank and State Secretary of at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. A qualified economist, lawyer, philosopher and also editor of a financial newspaper. At the Nuremburg Trials he was tried and convicted as a major war criminal and sentenced to life in prison. He was released on health grounds in 1957 and he died three years later.
Joseph Goebbels was Reichsminister for Propaganda having control over all news media, art and public information in Germany. He delivered emotional speeches to motivate and mobilise the German population. He was named in Hitler’s final will as the successor to the Fuhrer. After Hitler committed suicide Goebbels also committed suicide on the 31st April 1945.
Hermann Göring was Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and, in 1933, the founder of the Gestapo. He served as Minister of the Economic Four-Year Plan. He was named Hitler’s successor in 1944, and deputy to Hitler in all offices. A former fighter pilot ace in the Great War, he received the Blue Max and was commander of the fighter wing that included Richthoffen, also known as the Red Baron. At the Nuremburg Trials he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging. He ingested cyanide to commit suicide before the sentence was carried out.
Rudolf Hess was a German politician, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. He was appointed Deputy Fuhrer to Adolf Hitler in 1933. In an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom he flew to Scotland in 1941. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against humanity and served a life sentence until his suicide in 1987. Hess had enlisted as an infantryman at the outbreak of the Great War. He was wounded several times and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class in 1915. Shortly before war ended he enrolled as an aviator but never saw action in this role.
Heinrich Himmler was Reichsfuhrer of the entire SS. He was Military Commander of the Waffen-SS, Commander of the Gestapo, Minister of the Interior, Commander of the Home Army and Supreme leader of the administration of the entire Third Reich. Realising the war was lost, he attempted to open peace talks with the Allies. Hitler ordered his arrest and Himmler attempted to go into hiding. He was captured and arrested by British forces and committed suicide while in British custody on the 23rd May 1945.
Wilhelm Keitel was Field Marshal of the German Army and was Chief of the High Command of the German Armed Forces. He was also Chief of Defence for Germany and Hitler’s Chief of Staff. At the Nuremburg Trials he was charged with war crimes, found guilty, sentenced to death by hanging and executed on the 16th October 1946.
Josef Mengele was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician in Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. He performed deadly human experiments on prisoners, particularly adult and infant twins but mainly Jewish, and was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers. On the 17th June 1945, just ten days before the Soviet Red Army troops arrived at Auschwitz he was transferred to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. After the war, he fled to South America where he evaded capture for the rest of his life.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany, an authority on world affairs and confidante of the Fuhrer. He was an independent broker of the Pact of Steel between Germany and Italy, and also the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In 1936 he was the Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s for London and the U.K. At the Nuremburg Trials he was tried and convicted for his role in starting the Second World War. He was sentenced to death by hanging and was the first to be executed on the 16th October 1946.
Erich Raeder was Grand-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine (German naval force) and the Reichsmarine until 1943. At the Nuremburg Trials he was sentenced to life in prison but was released early due to his failing health. He died in Germany on the 6th November 1960.
Albert Speer was Chief Architect, also Minister of Armaments and War Production in the Nazi Party. He designed and constructed the Reich Chancellery and the Party Rally stadium in Nuremburg. He also designed the wide streets of Berlin and modernised the transportation system. At the Nuremburg Trials he was charged with war crimes, found guilty and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. After serving the full sentence he was released on the 1st October 1966. He died in London on the 1st September 1981.
———————-
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party did leave a legacy behind them after the Second World War. After Germany had been bankrupted by the policies resulting from the Treaty of Versailles, they began to recover economically by embarking on a rebuilding programme. When Hitler came to power in 1933, in an effort to solve the unemployment problem, the Nazi Party embarked on an interstate highway system. Hitler began the building programme by digging out the first spade full of soil for the nationwide Autobahn network. Although it was reputed to be Hitler’s brainchild there had been previous attempts to create highway system. The Nazi Party ignored this and incorporated this system into their Autobahn project. The Autobahn planner, engineer and Nazi Party member was Fritz Todt, who smoothed the way for the project to continue. Any opposition to the project found they were “encouraged” to desist to the building of “Adolf Hitler’s roads”. By 1938 over 2000 km of road had been built which had gentle curves, gradual inclines, smooth surface roadway and to enter or exit the main highway long lanes in which to accelerate and decelerate. The Autobahn system was one of many building projects planned and started before the outbreak of the Second World War.
In 1937 the Nazi Party formed a new state-owned automobile company which was eventually named Volkswagenwert, or “The People’s Car Company”. It has been disputed about how much involvement Hitler was involved in what was known as his pet project. However, the development and mass production proceeded for an affordable vehicle for the masses to enjoy. To provide the design for this “people’s car”, Hitler employed the Austrian automobile engineer Ferdinand Porsche. The design was finally settled and would eventually be known as the Volkswagen Beetle.
———————-

1939 to 1945 – WOMEN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
When the Second World War began in 1939, women were just as ready to follow the example of the previous generation. The women of the Great War of 1914 to 1918 had served with distinction in the nursing profession, the ammunition producing factories, the land armies and many occupations normally performed by men. The women of the Second World War carried out similar roles but their labours were extended to include complex manufacturing of vital war equipment. They also included many women serving in the navy, army and air force mainly on administrative duties. Tedious though it might have been it was vitally important. This freed up the men to allow them to be involved with the military and home guard roles. Women were involved with the delivery of aircraft, and were agents for the resistance movements in occupied countries. Professional performers were also actively involved in entertaining the military both on home shores and overseas. In addition to all the tasks undertaken by the women they :
KEPT THE HOME FIRES BURNING.
——————————
The women selected do not in any way detract from the sterling works of the multitude of women participating in the Second World War, who have not been mentioned.
——————————

MILITARY PERSONNEL WOMEN OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The award of the British Empire Medal to driver Elizabeth Glen Booth of the Fleet Air Arm was the first gallantry medal awarded to a wren. She was on duty at the Crossaig Bombing Range near the Royal Naval Air Station Machrihaigh at Argyle & Bute, Scotland when a Swordfish aircraft crashed in flames. Wren Booth pulled the observer from the burning wreck and drove him to a doctor, but to no avail. She was presented with the medal by King George VI at Buckingham Palace.
Mary Churchill was the youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. Mary was born on the 15th September 1922 and was raised at the Churchill home at Chartwell in Kent. At the outbreak of war she worked for the Red Cross and the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS). In 1941 she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), serving on mixed anti-aircraft batteries in London and Belgium. She rose to the rank of Junior Commander in the ATS, accompanying her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys. One of her trips was the post-VE meeting at Potsdam where Churchill met Harry S. Trueman and Joseph Stalin. In 1945, in recognition of her meritorious military service she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). She married Christopher Soames in 1947 and they had five children. She led a full and active life and died aged 91 on the 11th May 2014.
Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Services (ATS) on her eighteenth birthday the 21st April 1944. She was employed as a mechanic and driver and she took her duties seriously. Taking pride in her work she got her hands dirty in order to be called a mechanic. Every vehicle she worked on she learned to drive. On the 8th May 1945, VE day, Elizabeth and her sister Margaret were allowed to mingle with and join the crowds to take part in the victory celebrations.
Muriel Hall was born on the 24th September 1921 in Faversham in Kent. Her father died of illness in 1923 after surviving the Great War. She was sent to live with her grandparents who ran the local telephone exchange and lived only a few streets away. She lived with her grandparents until she was about 8 years old then moved to Maidstone to be with her mother who had remarried. Aged 16 she went to the Cromwell Hotel in London for an interview in the telephone exchange. She was asked to start immediately. At the outbreak of war she received her call up papers and was drafted straight into the Royal Signals as a telephonist. She spent most of the war attached to Headquarters, either the Southern, South Eastern or Scottish branch. However, Muriel was sent to a typing school to be taught teleprompting, typing and shorthand. The army also taught her how to use the teleprinter. Her experience of the teleprinter enabled her to join Reuters and she was based in Cabinet War Rooms. Muriel served in the Royal Signals Cabinet War Rooms for Reuters during the final year of the Second World War. Muriel’s words at the time were, “It was sad that it was spoilt for the King and Churchill. Someone in the USA broke the embargo that the war was over and therefore the announcement by Reuters had to be forwarded to all relevant parties”. The announcement was – “19.41 pm London Monday tomorrow will be VE day Europe full stop Churchill ET King will broadcast – Reuter”. Muriel was instructed to forward the message to all concerned by teleprinter that the “war in Europe was over”. She passed the message on and left her office at approximately 8.00 am on the 8th May 1945. After hearing that the Prime Minister Winston Churchill would be stating The King would be making a speech at 3.00 pm, she went home. She wasn’t permanently attached to Winston Churchill’s office, but whenever he needed anything typed, whom ever was available, would be seconded to his office. She took shorthand notes and his various letters etc. on a number of occasions. After the war Muriel and her husband Robert Belson, who she married in 1942, served in Malaya and she became a member of the Red Cross where she learnt to speak the language. Her husband worked as a head teacher in a local school, and he was transferred to Jamaica. Muriel went with him. After their tour of Jamaica was finished, Muriel and her husband came back to England in the late 1950s. She secured a position in the civil service until and remained until her retirement. Muriel died aged 89 in 2010.
Dubbed “Flying Nightingales” by the press, nursing orderlies of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) flew on RAF transport planes to evacuate the wounded from the Normandy battlefield. The Royal Air Force Air Ambulance Unit nurses were trained to treat broken bones, missing limbs, head injuries and burns. RAF Dakota aircraft were used to transport the nurses, stores and military to the battle area. Because of this the aircraft did not display the “Red Cross” sign, which they were entitled to, when they transported the wounded back to Britain. Most female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the RAF and held RAF ranks, whereas the Air Force nurses belonged to Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service. The WAAF was established in 1939 as the female auxiliary of the RAF and was discontinued in 1949, when it was renamed the Women’s Royal Air Force. Several members of the WAAF served with the Special Operations Executive during the war. During the course of its operations the WAAF had four Air Chief Commandants.
Dame Jane Trefusis Forbes, January 1939 to October 1943.
HRH Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, October 1943 to August 1944.
Dame Mary Walsh, August 1944 to November 1946.
Dame Felicity Hanbury MBE, December 1946 to January 1949.
Norma Lodge was qualified in maths and physics when she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) determined to do anything but office work. As an experiment to assess her ability to take on a job that was normally operated by men she was trained as a radio location mechanic. She was posted to Charminster in Dorset where she learnt about faults and all forms of maintenance of the tracking systems on anti-aircraft sites. The work was classified as highly secret and very complicated. She was one of the first women admitted into the newly formed Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME).
Mariya Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya was a Soviet tank driver and mechanic who fought on the Eastern Front against the Nazi German army. After her husband was killed in 1941 Mariya sold her possessions to donate a tank to the war effort and requested she be allowed to drive it. She donated and drove a T-34 medium tank, which she named “Fighting Girlfriend”. Mariya proved her ability and bravery in battle and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. She was killed in action, aged 38, in 1944 and was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union’s highest award for bravery during combat. She was the first of the few female tank drivers to be awarded this honour.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army and credited with 309 kills. She is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time and the most successful female sniper in history. When Germany began its invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the 24year old Lyudmila was studying history at Kiev University. She volunteered and was assigned to the Red Army’s 25th Rifle Division. As her kill rate increased she was promoted until June 1942 when Lieutenant Pavlichenko was wounded and her confirmed kills were recorded as being 309 including 36 enemy snipers. She was withdrawn from combat after recovery from her wounds, and sent to Canada and the United States for a publicity visit. She was the first Soviet citizen to have an audience with the U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lyudmila was later invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to tour America and relating her experiences. Her tour was a total success. Back in the Soviet Union she never returned to combat but trained Soviet snipers until the end of the war. She returned to university after the war to complete her education and began a career as a historian. Lyudmila died on the 1oth October 1974 aged 58.
Corporal Daphne Pearson was the first Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) member to be awarded the George Cross. The medal is the civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross for gallantry and “acts of the greatest heroism or for the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger” not in the face of the enemy. This applies to members of the British armed forces and to British civilians. An aircraft crash-landed near her WAAF quarters at Dettling in Kent on the 31st May 1940 and Daphne ran over to help get the crew free from the burning wreckage, despite knowing there was at least one loaded bomb. One officer had been killed, two airmen were slightly injured and the pilot had serious injuries. She released him from the aircraft, administered first aid next to the wreckage, released his parachute and managed to get him away from the plane. When they were about 30 yards away a 120 lb bomb exploded and she threw herself over the pilot to protect him from the blast and splinters. On the 31st January 1941 she was presented the George Cross by King George VI. Daphne was born in Christchurch, Dorset on the 25th May 1911. As her father was a vicar in the church she moved with her parents onto the Isle of Wight. She joined the WAAF as a medical officer at the outbreak of the war in 1939. A month after her courageous action she was commissioned as a section officer and for the remainder of the war she served mainly in recruitment. She became the assistant governor of a women’s borstal after demobilisation in 1946. She then worked at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Daphne emigrated to Australia after a visit in 1969 where worked as a horticulturist. She attended reunions of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association until her death in Melbourne in 2000 aged 89.
When the Great War ended Flora Sandes, the only English lady to have served in the trenches, continued to serve in the Serbian Army until finally being demobilised in 1921 with the rank of Second Lieutenant. She had been awarded Serbia’s highest decoration the Kara George Star. After demobilisation she travelled the world before marrying ex Russian artillery colonel Yurie Yudenitch in May 1927. They eventually moved to Belgrade in Yugoslavia. As an officer in the Serbian army she was eligible for recall into the service and when Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941 she once again became a soldier aged 65 years. Following the unconditional surrender of Yugoslavia Flora, evading the approaching Germans, was smuggled away in her uniform in a lorry which was evacuating the wounded to a German controlled military hospital in Belgrade. With help she obtained women’s clothes, changed into them and walked out of the hospital dressed as a woman not a soldier. She made her way back to their home and stayed with Yurie looking after him as he had been very ill until June 1941 when they were arrested by the Gestapo. They were separated, but were released and re-united after a few weeks due to Yurie’s ill health. With food scarce and Yuri needing constant nursing it soon became apparent he was dying. He died and was buried in Belgrade Cemetery and Flora stayed on in Belgrade until the end of the war. She supplemented her income by giving English lessons, after which the RAF flew her home and she settled in Woodbridge in Suffolk. She was still planning to travel when she died in Ipswich Hospital on the 24th November 1956 aged 80 years old.
Beatrice Shilling was a British aeronautical engineer and motor racer who was born in Waterlooville in Hampshire on 8th March 1909. Prior to the war she received a Master of Service Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Before and during the war she was employed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) as a scientific officer. During the Battle of Britain in 1940 serious problems occurred in both Hurricane and Spitfire fighters as their carburettors would flood performing a nose-dive. This frequently caused the engine to stall during a critical part of a dog fight in aerial combat. Beatrice devised the RAE restrictor which limited the flow of fuel into the carburettor and prevented it flooding. The restrictor was a brass thimble which had a hole in the centre and could be fitted to the carburettor without having to take the aircraft out of service. The pilots were delighted with the restrictor as it gave them the opportunity to partake in the aerial battles unrestricted by a possible stalled engine. After the war Beatrice continued at the RAE until her retirement in 1969. She worked on various projects including the Blue Streak missile. She and her husband were keen motor cycle racers and later progressed to racing cars, where they performed all their own tuning and maintenance. She was 81 years old when she died ibn 1990.
————————-