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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Sussex => Topic started by: alllegs on Tuesday 28 July 09 15:45 BST (UK)
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Hi,
I'm a teacher and next term I will be teaching WW2 to my year 5 class (9 and 10 year olds). I have a ton of information about WW2 and know what I'm teaching but I'd like to tailor it to where my school is situated (Rustington, West Sussex) to make it more relavant to the children. But I have no idea whether anything occured in Rustington and/or Littlehampton during the war. Were children evacuated here? Was the village bombed? Wikipedia claims that Littlehampton Community High School was a WW2 Military Hosptial, is this true and where can I find out more?
Any other info about the area would be greatly welcomed.
Thank you in anticipation
Legs
xxxx
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http://local-history.co.uk/Groups/sussex.html
gives contact name phone no and address of Rustington Heritage centre
may be worth contacting???
Local library may have local history publications
Suz
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Thank you Suz, will have a nosey :)
Legs
xxxx
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How far outside the named places will you go?
A close family member witnessed German dive bombers attacking the radar station at Poling, and others have told of the air field at Tangmere being bombed.
The Angmering Village Life website has a detailed and interesting report on the village in WW2. It also mentions the raid on Poling.
http://www.angmeringvillage.co.uk/history/Articles/WartimeAng.htm
HTH,
Stovepipe
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Thank you Stovepipe,
The Angmering site looks fab. The Poling radar station bombing sounds very interesting, do you have any more details? Tangmere is a bit far out for it to be relevant to my class.
I popped into the West Sussex Record Office at Chichester yesterday and they have loads of police records of bombings and the ARP log books, plus lots of log books from the Rustington School which was built in 1939 to accommodate the lcoal kids and the evacuees. All the original corridors are built to withstand a bomb!
Thanks again
Legs
xxxx
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Hi Legs,
The report of the Poling raid on the AVL website makes redundant anything I could add. The member of my family watched the action from Highdown Hill.
That's brilliant info from WSRO.
Regards,
Stovepipe
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Thank you again Stovepipe.
I can imagine the sight for Highdown Hill, I was up there only this morning walking the dog and admiring the view.
Legs
xxxx
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Hi
I went to north rd school in 1949, my father was in the home guard and their HQ was in the village hall (now the woodlands center ) i have a photo of him on parade on the rec, he had to patrol the beach at night after work with a 303 rifle .
Most of the gardens had airaid shelters then, and my sisters prefab on jubilee ave had an airaid siren in the back garden on a telegraph pole.
Our playground at school had airaid shelters as well,
My father told me all about the raid on poling , we could see the mast's from our front bedroom window and also the red lights at night. that was in Edward Rd, now Woodlands ave, the coucil offices was a fire station then,
Regard Tweet
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Wow, Thank you tweet, that's fantastic. The kids will love this kind of information.
thanks again
Legs
xxxx
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http://www.rustington-rifleclub.org/html/home_guard.html
Tweet again
I think the link above will be of use great for you class, on the photo at the bottom with the machine gun my dad is 3rd from the left B/Row
Mary Taylor is the person to contact for all your info on Rustington History, my sister Jean went to school with her,
Hope this is ok and will be of interest to you .
Regards Tweet, Rustington born bread now living in Derbyshire
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Excellent Tweet, thank you again. I have read one of Mary Taylors books abaout Rustington - very informative.
Thank you again
Legs
xxxx
(Nottingham born and bred but now living in Ferring!)
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If you go to westsussexpast.org.uk and look for past pictures you MAY find photos the area in Wartime.
The site does take some searching to get to the coreect photoss
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Thank you Binge, will have a look.
Legs
xxxx
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I fear you may not have much luck: I looked at the site myself & found very little.(0r simply nothing 1939-45 re war time Rustington! )
Perhaps the WSCC archives may be able to assist
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There are references to defences at Littlehampton on this site:
http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/ukfcdatabaselpage.htm
There are also war graves in local cemeteries, including one German. Also some civilian war dead which may relate to a local incident. More info at www.cwgc.org. Search under cemetery rather than surname.
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This site may give you a few ideas:
http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/schools.htm
There is also a specific reference to landings at Littlehampton in preparation for D-Day.
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Thank you Binger and Imber,
My class are hooked and determined to fine out as much as possible.
Legs
xxx
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I lived in Rustington during the war and went to the local primary school.
We lived in Broadmark Lane and had Canadian soldiers stationed in hotels opposite our house. There were air raids and I can remember the postman coming one day and warning my mother to make sure I went inside as he could hear something coming. A bomb dropped on a house just a few doors away. I remember my father collecting the shrapnel from out of the garden.
Most nights my sister and I slept under the big dining room table.
Good luck with you students, lovely to hear they are so interested.
Baldie now in Australia
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Hi Baldie
First of all, welcome to Rootschat and especially the Sussex boards which we think is one of the best.
As a more mature rootschatter, I, like yourself have memories of the war and the bombers going over on route to Coventry. At this particular time I lived in Nottinghamshire and mum says that a bomber crashed into the ground no more than half a mile from our house and near to the railway station: apparently I walked over the field to the crash site and came home later with some bits of aircraft parts.
Chris in 1066
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Hi Legs
My father was in the Metropolitan Police, and for safety moved his wife and two children to stay first with his mother in Northumberland, then to Rustington to stay with my maternal grandmother in Jubilee Rd. Then we got a council house in Conbar Ave, and my sister and I (DOB1932) attended Rustington school. Later we rented a house in Tennyson Ave. I passed the 11plus and went to Worthing High School, cycling to Angmering station. I joined the Army Cadet Force, and became platoon sergeant at East Preston. The church there had lead caps on the gateposts, covered in lovers' pencilled graffiti dating from WW1 as well as WW2. All troops in the area were Canadian. Between Tennyson Ave and Littlehampton in those days lay open fields. In one the Canadian AA artillery had a Bofors 40mm gun with a poor field of view. They opened fire on a crippled RAF Beaufighter, hitting it as it cleared trees. It crashed in the same field, killing the crew. On another occasion a Spitfire crashed on a bungalow about a mile from our house. In those days concrete roads had been laid to the south-east of our house, but no houses yet built, so we boys had perfect cycling. By Rustington church there was an extensive warren of tunnels, certainly not bombproof. Perhaps practice concealed entrenchments. A burned-out hotel was on the links, which in the lead-up to D-Day had scrambling nets up to the roof. CONT IN MSG 2
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Legs - Continued
My platoon of Army Cadets included three maimed lads (forearm blown off, eye missing etc). Playing with live ammunition or German butterfly bombs was very common, but I never heard of any Canadian attacking a child. We all felt remarkably safe, not to say exhilarated. I watched jeeps entering the concrete-sided boating lake to test their waterproofing. One of our dens was in deep sand under a smart house behind the beach: it had been fortified against a German invasion. Between the park and the links hotel was a large flat area of ponds, ideal for play and watching frogs. We used to cycle out to view crashed German planes. I remember a Ju87 Stuka on Angmering Wild Brooks. The scaffolding anti-landing barriers were ideal launchers for purloined thunderflashes. The trick was to light two and achieve an airburst over the sea. My mother danced with McIndoe pilots: RAF boys with faces burned off. Not many women could do it.
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Wow, Curt,
What great memories. Thank you for your input.
Legs
xxxx
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hi, i don't know if your still teaching the topic but the seafront was cordoned off with barbed wire there was a blockhouse at the bottom of sea lane the foreshore was full of land mines sometimes if the sea was rough it would set them off.in 1940 twelve high explosive bombs were dropped on the village damaging 50 houses, the village was frequently being disturbed by low flying enemy aircraft nuisance raids appearing suddenly from over the sea with machine guns blazing.the worst raid of the war occurred on 8th may 1942.A bomb demolished a house in Seafield Road.Two people were killed,five seriously injured and many others had minor wounds,most of the large houses and all the hotels were taken over by the armed forces.In1941 the Canadian troops arrived where they stayed for three years.In 1945 a mosquito night fighter from Ford airfield crashed into a house in Chaucer Ave, killing the crew and three civilians, a baby was badly burnt but survived with her mother
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Thank you Sal,
Yes I am still teaching WW2, we're off to the Imperial War Museum at the beginning of Nov. I'll certainly tell my class your memories on Monday.
Legs
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Dear Alllegs,
Not sure if previous two messages got through to you, as I am a novice to Rootschat. So for the third time here goes. 1. I suggest you obtain a copy of The Hardest Day (18th August 1940) by Alfred Price ISBN 0 354 0121 93 and check on page 118. The corporal was my late Father. 2. A front page photo and report appeared in the now defunct "The Morning Post" (incorporated into the now "Daily Telegraph" of the dead German WO covered in a parachute on Ham Golf Club surrounded by onlookers. My Father had an original copy and loaned it to a local museum. On later inspection, the curator denied all knowledge of it. 3. My younger Brother has a filler cap of the shotdown JU87, which my Father claimed as a trophy. Good luck
Divebomber
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Hi Divebomber,
Thank you for you're email and message. I will look that book up. However, I've moved year groups this year and am no longer teaching this topic. Thank you for your help though, I still find it all very interesting!
Legs xxx
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if you are still about - are you an Old Azurian (ex WHSB)?
James Feest (binge)
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Hi everyone
Read posts with interest.
Have lived in Pigeonhouse Lane, Rustington for 24 years. Was originally from London. Understand that during WW1 an Aerodrome was built when USA joined the war in 1917. It stretched from Ash Lane to the West to Pigeonhouse Lane in the East. It wasn't totally finished when war finished in 1918 and various buildings, such as the hangars, were dismantled, moved to nearby places and used for other things.
During WW2 the Canadians were posted here. Pigeonhouse House Lane is made of reinforced concrete - I understand to be able to cope with very heavy vehicles. I have also been told that a runway was built directly to the West of Pigeonhouse Lane but unsure about this.
Just wondered if anyone had any info to add?
Regards