THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

1940 IN FINDON

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

1940 started with intense cold that winter. It is reputed that even the remaining sheep on the open Findon downland were frozen to the bushes by their wool.  Many people went skating on nearby Patching pond. It was the worst January weather for over fifty years.  On 17TH JANUARY 1940 the River Thames froze over for first time since 1880 as bitterly cold weather engulfed Europe. 

It was not until 11th March 1940 with the introduction of meat that Findonians realised that things were beginning to get serious.   The meat ration was deemed to be 1s. 10d. worth per week per adult .....and 11d per week for a child.   No ration coupons were required for liver, tripe, heart, oxtail, poultry or game.   A bit of good news was that no coupons were required for meat served in canteens, schools, restaurants and catering establishments as these were to be rationed at the sources of supply. Also, sausages and meat pies were not rationed at present.

In Findon village a baby's life was saved in MARCH 1940.  The village district nurse was praised for ingeniously rigging up an oxygen tent for the small one when it suffered from pneumonia.

In 1940 there was a Worthing Refugee Committee and this held its annual meeting at Mitchell's Arcade Cafe in nearby Worthing.   It was here that supporters heard that Germans were still able to evade Hitler's regime with their help, but the cost had increased to £500. per person to flee, compared to the original £150 at the time when war had broken out.

In 1940, despite the prospect of hostilities with Germany, thousands of passengers came to nearby Worthing by rail at Easter, forcing the railway company to lay on extra train services from London.

On 10TH MAY 1940 Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister and Winston Churchill forms a coalition wartime government, saying: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

It may sound extreme now, but on THURSDAY 16TH MAY 1940 there was an announcement on the radio warning any car owners to lock their garages.  It went on to ask people to be vigilant and see that their vehicles could not be used by the enemy if there was an invasion. 

On 27th MAY 1940 the evacuation from Dunkirk began.

By JUNE 1940 the warbling wail of the air-raid siren was familiar, followed by the "all-clear".

More than 3000,000 troops were rescued from Dunkirk and the surrounding beaches in MAY and JUNE 1940.  Bill Day has fold me.......

The above picture is of the West Parade in Worthing at the southern end of Grand Avenue (looking east).  There was later a battery close to the sea there and there were two 6 in. breech-loading guns on the grass strip at the bottom of Grand Avenue.    I understand that these guns came from an old naval cruiser scrapped after the First World War, HMS LION.  This vessel had seen action at the Battle of Jutland.    The guns had been stored at Fort Elson, Gosport awaiting seeing further action.  The battery at West Parade was set up and immediately operational by 1940.

Originally, these guns were situated in sand-bagged positions, but as soon as possible they were emplaced in brick-built casemates with a flat concrete roof.   This was strengthened (and camouflaged with netting) against enemy attack.   Magazines were constructed in brick or concrete behind the guns.  The guns were manned by gunners from the medium and heavy artillery regiments who had left their guns behind at Dunkirk.   The guns were capable of firing armour-piercing shells at enemy vessels seven miles out in the English Channel  and the armoured shield allowed for a wide traversing action. For the first months ammunition was short on the ground and more often than not amounted to only fifty rounds allotted to each gun at a time.  Major Tom Hitchins of the Royal Artillery was for a period in charge of the 6 in. battery at the foot of Grand Avenue. 

The house at the corner of West Parade and Grand Avenue was requisitioned as a command and observation post for the battery.    I guess there was also an engine house for the searchlights somewhere adjacent.

A hole was also cut through the then solid south wall of the flats at Marine Point for a similar purpose. 

It is said that a Mrs Lynn living at 26 West Parade (now long gone.....the house I'm talking about) was a good friend of the gunners and gave them tea and refreshment during their long cold vigils on night watches.

The last of the 338,000 British, French and Belgian forces were evacuated from Dunkirk on 4th JUNE 1940.

The 10TH JUNE 1940 the Luftwaffe launched the official commencement of the Battle of Britain.

Most of the flat coastline of our area was suitable for disembarking German troops and tanks from landing barges.   In JUNE 1940 work commenced to make it as difficult and as dangerous as possible for any likely invading German troops.  

Some of these initial preparations could be considered of doubtful value today.   At nearby Worthing for instance, timber beach huts were filled with shingle to use to block roads.   Vehicles and tree trunks were also dragged into position for this purpose.  

Fire positions were prepared at strategic road junctions, bridges and along our main roads leading from the sea and out of the town heading towards Findon.   Slit trenches were dug through gardens, holes blasted in walls and fences and piles of sandbags were built for rifle and machine gun positions.  

As the summer of 1940 passed and more time and resources became available, permanent defences replaced the home made ones.   For instance square pillboxes of concrete sprang up at important road junctions.    Often they were rather imaginatively  painted to resemble shops, hayricks or even cafés from the air.  

In the centre of the roundabout outside the old Town Hall in nearby Worthing (now the Guildbourne Centre) there was one of these pillboxes painted to resemble a shop with the name "Hyam Already".    The weapons therein commanded all four roads at this point.  

From 28th June 1940 all parked cars had to be rendered incapable of being driven off.   This was because it was feared the enemy may use them.

Metal poles were erected on the fields around the village with wire across the top to prevent enemy aircraft from landing.  By MID-JULY the immediate horror of invasion seemed close and air raids grew in number and Windlesham School was evacuated to Glastonbury.  Before the children departed the hay was cut by order of the government and left neatly stacked in the middle of the school cricket pitch. 

Did you know that during the traumatic times of the Second World War, the press were forbidden by censorship regulations to identify specific places that had received bombing during air raids?    This ban also included photographs of bombed properties.   The main reason for this was that precise information about the location and time of the incident might held the Germans evaluate the accuracy of their bombing.   Therefore, a photograph of a bomb-damaged local house, could appear in the local  newspaper unlabelled, or with a rather vague caption such as

"A damaged house during the recent German air raid on the south coast". 

As the photograph would appear in the local press, it was hardly likely to represent a bombing in London or Liverpool.

On SUNDAY 19TH JULY 1940 an aircraft with large black crosses plainly visible was spotted as it flew off out to sea at 6 p.m..  It was pursued by three of our own fighters who zoomed over and around and brought it plummeting down like a leaf in autumn.

Round about this time, the South Downs were often covered with small strips of metal foil. These were released by the German night fighters in an attempt to inhibit the radar, and were known as  dupel.  

The day arrived when Hitler had promised "Britain would be brought to her knees".  The date was 15th August 1940.

On 23rd August 1940 The Blitz began as German bombers launched an all-night raid on London.

Group Captain Brian Thynne, third son of the last owner of Muntham Court, Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne, still continued to land his small aeroplane on the makeshift airstrip above Muntham. One day he even dared to arrive in a twin-engine bomber. For another visit he landed in a Blenheim and the local Home Guard surrounded the plane mistaking it for a German one. From then on the war saw an end to civilian flying to and from the Muntham airstrip.

By late summer 1940, the enemy had overrun the French soil and their bombers were based just over the English Channel and air raid warnings were wailing across our area with such frequency that the majority of Findonians began to treat them with indifference.   Instead they stayed above ground and watched the vapour and smoke trails left by our R.A.F. Hurricane and Spitfire fighters as our aircraft took their toll of Luftwaffe bombers in the Battle of Britain.

During the first week of September 1940, there was a big air battle in our skies when R.A.F. and Free Polish pilots shot down six German aircraft in under an hour and left them trailing smoke as they crashed.

On 14th September 1940, Findon had a near miss when Worthing was bombed.

Familiar Findon establishments were taken over by the military during the war years. The Findon Manor Hotel, (in earlier years known as the Rectory), became the Regimental Headquarters controlling Territorials, and later, units of the 2nd Canadian Division. Both of these mounted defences in Findon including barbed wire, mines and tank traps. There is an unconfirmed report that Monty (General Sir Bernard Montgomery later to become Commander-in-Chief Land Forces) was present at the Findon Manor Hotel before D-Day.

Cissbury Ring was brought within the Sussex Defence Scheme in 1940. (Although attempts were made to remove the traces of these fortifications upon the conclusion of the war, they are still evident in some places). An anti-tank ditch was rapidly excavated all around the Ring and the chalk was piled up on the inside.  The anti-tank ditch was exactly 50 yards outside the perimeter defence ditch of the fortification built by men of the Iron Age.  Within the fortification, gun emplacements were sliced into the ramparts or made on the higher ground in the centre. Barbed wire sprang up everywhere. The dew-pond on the north side of Cissbury Ring was filled in and lost forever.

A lookout tower was constructed on the top of Church Hill. It nestled among the smooth barked beeches on the summit and was well concealed, only peeping out above the glossy leafed tree line. When it was unmanned, a magnificent view was obtained by the village children who risked life and limb by climbing up at least four long ladders to clamber to the top.  

The Gallops at Bost Hill were laid to agriculture and many mysterious rectangular "crop marks" came to light as a result. This suggested that extensive buildings had been present in ancient times. Everyone was too busy with the conflict to do much about this during wartime.

31st December 1940.  An interesting photograph of a tank exercise .... and yes, it is in Findon.  But whereabouts is a bit of a mystery — has anyone an idea? I know that the tank is a Mark II Matillda of 'B' squadron of the 44th Armoured Tank Battalion and the soldiers look quite spooky wearing  gas masks during a gas alert.

Dominic Miller of Bassingbourn near Cambridge says —

On 31st December 1940 fire watching became compulsory in wartime Britain.

Continue if you would like to read about the construction of public underground air raid shelters near to Findon in Tunnels of War Near Findon.

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.