Wed 25 Feb. 9.50 P.M [1942]
# RON SAVING FROM RAF WAGES
# NIECES AND CHILDREN VISIT
# FATAL BOMBING OF HMS ROYAL ARTHUR
# SKEGNESS BOMBED

Cold and raw to-day, kept trying to snow and felt as if it might turn off to cold rain. The wind is getting up now, blows at bay window so think it is N.E. Ground just covered with snow this morning but quickly melted except the few patches of old snow. Jean’s snowman really gone but still a patch where the drift was on the lawn. Had a letter from Ron to-day written Mon. night, he says they had 2 inches snow and on the sloping road in the village the children were sledging. He had been talking to Emmie on the phone, very clear for once. He will be going there for week-end on Sat. all being well. He is back again in A. flight again, at his own job. I expect as instrument repairer. It will be cold after being in the oxygen room, but the powers-that-be don’t study that. Said in last letter (before this) that he was making me an allotment of 10/0 a week to save for him, so that if ever it was necessary I might perhaps get something from R.A.F. Sincerely hope it will never come to that. He thinks he will make sure of saving £1 a fortnight by that. They are paid fortnightly. Roy does the same and Keith did, don’t know what happens when they get married, expect it automatically peters out.

Yesterday Doris, Kath. and Shirley and Barbara came for the day. S and B are 5 and 3 and are very good to bring out. S is dark and pretty, soft dark hair and bright dark eyes. Jean was very happy with them, she was having Mon and Tue half-term. Jean was minus her glasses on Fri night, it would happen ½ term, she was much relieved to find them in desk at school, as she thought she had them in her satchel when she started home. Various changes in Government but nothing startling. 7 now to bear the responsibility, instead of Mr C. alone. That at least is a change for the better. If two heads are better than one, let’s hope 8 are better in proportion.

No wireless yet and don’t know when there will be. Evison says when he writes re parts they do not even answer his letters. Car adjusting and batt. charging cost 9/3. Jean’s rubber hot water bott which she pierced with kn. needle vulcanised for 9D. It was little worn or it could not have been done. Father cleaned Ron’s cycle yesterday and mended Jean’s punctures and cleaned hers too. They both look OK. It is very nice not having them in the house all this snowy weather. I have put the bulbs Mr A gave me in soil in hut, to develop roots, they have already sprouted leaves, and the weather is not fit to plant them in the garden yet. Wind keeps coming in gusts at the window.

Evisons Garage 1940s

Evisons' Garage, Hogsthorpe, 1940s

On Sat. morning between 10 and 11 o’clock a new Dornier (Ger) bombed Roy. Art. One bomb was 3,000 lb. and brought down about 300 chalets. Fortunately only 4 persons were killed and about 15 injured. It is remarkable as there are thousands of trainees there. Another bomb which did not explode was dropped at Sk[egness] on Vine Rd off Drummond Rd. Father saw the plane and heard bombs. Paul saw the big one drop, said it looked like a man dropping down. There was a snow shower at the time. Plane circled round here before dropping bomb. Jean and I thought it sounded like a Ger. but it was frosty and snowing so thought it might be that. Jean ran out to look but could not see it thro’ the snow. Father was cycling to Hogsthorpe for car, then he took F Johnson to Burgh to fetch a calf. 7/0 but he gave him 6D extra, most unusual for FJ. to give him more than he is charged. Mr Scott has passed away. Expect Miss S. will stay on in Bungalow as it was his own and she has made a lot of friends now. Rene and I have each started a sock for Ron out of some wool I have pulled down a pullover for. It is about right colour and better than the new stuff we get now. Hope it does not shrink. His leave may be end of March now but he does not know for certain yet. Roy was home for week-end. Joan there in spite of having mumps. Rather selfish of her I think.

One Skegness house, unoccupied at the time, received a direct hit. The unexploded bomb at a second house was located months later. (See ‘Skegness at War’, Marjorie C Wilkinson, Cupit Press, Horncastle 2007, p 12.)

Fred Johnson, farmer, was the father of Norman, Doreen and Betty (see 8 Feb. 1942).

Have you read an introduction to May Hill & family (includes photographs) and explored ‘The Casualties Were Small’?

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