August.
After the very late spring frost of April and the beautiful summer weather of the Whitsun and August Bank Holiday’s brought an influx of visitors to Windsor and Eton. The holiday encouraged the day trippers to take to the river for boating and swimming and before the day was out the pubs were finding that the beer supplies were inadequate.
Isolated V1's continued to fly over the district and in late August a missile fell in an orchard at Cippenham. The blast wrecked houses and brought the ceilings down at White Heather Garage, Dorney, the home of Mrs Quarterman.
"As a Radar operator serving with 608 at Dorney, I remember this period after ‘D-Day’ as being very busy. Little sleep was had with the threat of the flying bombs, and it was difficult to know what was happening in the first few days. It called for constant vigil by the battery which was crowned with success when we managed to shoot down one of these bombs”. (Mrs. B. McCade)
For the months of June, July and August, Windsor and Slough district had 202 alerts with a few bombs falling around the neighbourhood. The maximum number of alerts in any one day for this period was nine. Twenty-one Buzz Bombs fell in the area, three of which were in the Windsor Borough and one at Cippenham (Slough).
 |
| V1 Doodle Bug |
A fear of more air raids and V1 attacks brought an enquiry from Councillor Mr. Harding asking whether seats could be installed in the shelters at Eton Wick for the older people. This was not sanctioned as the use of the necessary materials was not warranted at that stage of the war. Reporting that the supply, fixing and waterproofing of Anderson shelters to those who had applied had been completed in Eton Wick and Somerville Road and the Surveyor replied that nothing more would be done.
 |
| V2 Rocket |
A reported case of Scarlet Fever also gave concern for the cleanliness of communal shelters and the spread of infectious deceases.
Many public libraries in towns and cities suffered damage by air raids. To replace the destroyed books a national book drive was launched in which the village school took part. A magnificent effort by the children gave a total collection of 2,934 books and two children, who had collected over 250 books each, received a Field Marshall badge as recognition of their endeavour.
This is an extract from Round and About Eton Wick: 1939 - 1945. The book was researched, written and published in 2001 by John Denham.
