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'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Rick Allden of the CSV 麻豆官网首页入口 Coventry and Warwickshire Action Desk on behalf of M. R. Spurgeon and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions'.

When Hitler first launched his V1 flying bombs I was living in Bexley, Kent, in the path that they took en route to London. The first of these doodle-bugs flew almost overhead and many landed in the neighbourhood.

Most nights the air-raid siren would go and my brother and I would jump into our siren suits and, with my mother and baby sister, hurry downstairs and round to next-door, where we shared an indoor air-raid shelter. It was a mad rush to get there before the doodle-bug arrived. Frequently we could hear it鈥檚 unmistakeable drone before we reached the safety of the shelter.

This mad rush became a thing of the past when I discovered that I had my own early warning system, so much more reliable than radar and the siren. I had a bed where the mattress rested on a metal spring base and I soon realised that this spring base resonated to the frequency of the doodle-bug engine. Before the drone of the doodle-bug could be heard, even minutes before the siren sounded, the springs of my bed began to twang, loud enough to awaken me. I would then inform my mother that the bed was twanging and we would be up, dressed and round to the shelter next-door by the time the air-raid warning could be heard.

It never worked with aircraft or the V2 rockets, but as long as the V1 doodle-bugs continued, this early warning system worked perfectly.

This story was donated to the People鈥檚 War website by M. R. Spurgeon, of the Leam Writers. If you would like to find out more about Leam Writers call 0845 900 5 300.

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