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Birchington
Dangerous Coastline - 1939-1945
A wartime childhood in Birchington, Kentby Derek S. HartEdited by Jennie Burgess ISBN 0 9544789-2-4. Published in 2004. This A4 size softback about wartime in Birchington has 56 pages and includes many old photographs, line drawings and maps.Price:
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Dangerous Coastline - A wartime childhood in Birchington, Kent
This book was written by Derek Hart after he retired from the Post Office in 1941. His experiences were unusual because so few children remained in Birchington village during the war as most were evacuated to Staffordshire.
Sadly Derek died suddenly in 2003, and Jennie Burgess of the Birchington Heritage Trust has edited his manuscript.
To give an idea of the contents of the book, the following is a summary of the contents of the book.
1920s - Move to Minnis Bay, Rats, The Family, My Father, Trains
1939 - Winter Fun, Local Geography, bedlam Strangers, War is declared, Gas masks, Black-out, First troops arrive
1940 - Early months, Dunkirk, Threat of invasion, Local preparations, Invasion imminent, Fall of France, Spies, Battle of Britain, Uncle Ernie, Local shops, Grenham House School
1941 - Manston, Home amusements, Land mine, Germ warfare, Smuggling, The Blitz, Exercises, Laundry van, Tanks, U-Boat, Fifth Columnist, 25-Pounders, New friends, Lord Haw Haw
1942 - School, German warships, Beach, Stick of bombs, Truant, Parachutes, Mortar bombs, Canterbury, Sea shore, Storm, Homestead Farm.
1943 - Westfield Road bomb, Lancasters and the bouncing bombs, air-raid, cinema, Bottle of yellow 'lemondade', high explosive mortar, bullets, hand grenade, barrage balloon, Molotov Cocktails, Huge mine, PIAT bombs, Gas power, shops, toys, cooking, Jane, Paravane, Burning, Perspex, Whirlwind
1944 - Songs, Chocolate, exercise, football, cheek!, films, railway, school, 6-Pounders, jeep, Churchill, D-Day preparations, secret weapon, V1 off course, V2
1945 - Water rats, Canterbury, Concrete Pillar, demolition, V.E. Day, Peace in the Far East, Back to normal
plus other articles
Birchington book
This book would appeal to anyone who has lived or visited Birchington, and also to those interested in life in Britain during the war.