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Ted Prangnell was born in 1934 and spent the duration of the war with his family in Kemsing, Kent. Although Ted was only a young boy at the time, he quickly became aware of the war. He recalls:
‘My brother and I started to realise that something was up. I remember that the front door was open. There was a bit of a commotion outside, and we saw my parents in an agitated state, and pointing skywards, with outstretched arms. It was a bright and sunny day. Two or three aircraft were flying fairly low in the distance towards Sevenoaks. They didn't look very big, nor did they look at all threatening to me. When my parents realised that we were also outside, and trying to see what the excitement was all about, they hustled us back indoors in a panic. They insisted that we should each have a cork, from a bottle, and hold it between our teeth, and then we were told to stay under the enamel-topped kitchen table’.
The war was a constant presence in Ted’s life. Although it was London that suffered the heaviest bombardment during the Blitz, the areas surrounding the capital were also affected. Considering the impact of the Blitz, Ted comments:
‘The Blitz of London was part of our experience. We were only 25 miles from London, and must have been on the flight-path for many of the raids. The Blitz took place at night, and I believe it went on for 57 consecutive nights. Even to this day, if a propeller driven aircraft flies overhead at night, it still stirs those childhood memories of night bombing. As it also does to my German born wife; Mechtild: "It sounds like one of yours", we say to each other when we lay in bed at night, listening’.
Ted has written extensively about his wartime memories as a child growing up in Kent and his story can be read below. The story is accompanied by a number of illustrations created by Ted.
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