On August 13th, the body of a Boy Scout was washed ashore at Margate. The clothing was marked P.H. Dulwich Mission, 2nd Walford, finally Percy Huxford was able to be returned to London to be reunited with his friends.
The bodies of the Scouts, who lost their lives, were removed from the Leysdown Coastguard Station, being carried with incredible dignity and bravery by the surviving scouts, to the destroyer Fervent, which was sent to return them home to London.
The Sheppey Troop of Scouts lined up as a guard of honour from the Coast guard station to the beach.
A later inquest, gave a verdict of Accidentally Drowned, and confirmed that Scoutmaster Marsh had done his utmost, and that his conduct was very praiseworthy.
Leaf Man
Aylesham, a village situated between Canterbury and Dover in the Kentish countryside holds a strange mystery, clouded in uncertainty since the Second World War, Leaf Man.
A relatively new mining village around 10 years before the time of this conflict, in which the local Spinney Woods saw action from a couple of doodle bugs (or V1's) that were launched upon South-East England from across the channel.
Effectively these craters that were left by the bombs became known as the Bomb-Holes and were a haven play area for countless children in Spinney Woods in the coming years.
Next to the woods is the industrial estate that during the war is said to home to an army base for British or America troops. It is uncertain which force actually stayed there. But it soon became apparent that parents and grand-parents were concerned for the welfare of their children that were attempting to go to the woods to collect prized possessions such as bullets and shrapnel.
Spinney Woods was guarded by sentries and rumour soon spread that a leaf man was circulating in the area. Some rumours also exist that grand-parents made up Leaf Man to put a frightener on the children and prevent them from going to the woods and avoid injury.
Some people have said they have seen him, could this be an image of a soldier in leafy camouflage or an actual Leaf Man.
Many people in and from around Aylesham over the years have heard about the legend of Leaf Man, but whether or not any truth attaches itself to the story is completely unknown.
Kate Buss - Titanic Survivor
Miss Kate Buss was born in Sittingbourne, Kent in December 1875, her father, James, was born the illegitimate son of Mary Ann Buss in the (allegedly haunted) village of Pluckley, Kent in 1845. Kate was the 3rd of 7 children.
Kate lived the early part of her life working in the grocers shop owned by her brother, Percy James, in the small village of Upper Halling, close to Sittingbourne.
She was well known in the village and residents remember her preparing her trousseau and gathering together the wedding presents to take to America for her marriage to Samuel Willis in San Diego, California. She was 36 at the time and travelled alone to America where she was to be met by her fiancé.
She booked passage on the Titanic and joined the ship at Southampton with ticket number 27849 and occupied a cabin on E-Deck. After exchanging her ticket for a luncheon card Kate took her seat at the lunchtime dining table, where she met some of her fellow travelling companions, among them Dr Ernest Moraweck, whom she described as "very agreeable" and who proved his medical skill by removing some soot that had got in her eye.
Later that day, while on deck she met and shared a steamer rug with Marion Wright.
On the journey from Southampton to Queenstown she wrote a letter to her brother, Percy, using headed paper from the Titanic.
In other letters Kate described the pleasure she gained from the orchestra, in particular the cellist, she noticed that every time he finished a piece he would smile at her.
On Sunday April 14th Kate joined about a hundred other passengers in the second class dining saloon for a service led by Rev Ernest Carter, she noticed that people sang the hymns with great emotion and that some had tears in their eyes.
Kate had retired and lay in her bunk reading a newspaper when the collision occurred at 11:40 pm that evening. She thought it sounded like a skate on ice. She waited and listened to the engines reversing; when they stopped she went out in the hallway where she met her table companion, Dr Ernest Moraweck, who offered to investigate.
Kate then went to the cabin of Marion Wright, whom she met during the voyage, awakened her, and together they went on deck.
On deck there was little activity but they met Douglas Norman who told them the ship had hit an iceberg. They looked over the rail at the well deck where people were congregating, some with their belongings. Kate berated a passenger who remarked on how protective they were being of their property, telling him that those trunks might contain all they had in the world. Before an argument could develop Douglas Norman guided the ladies below for some warm clothes.
As the boats were loaded, Kate turned away; she couldn't bear to watch the evacuation. She, Marion and Douglas discussed their chances of rescue. A little while later she got into boat number 9. But Douglas Norman was prevented - despite Kate's protests - from boarding.
When the boat reached the Carpathia she was the last to leave the lifeboat as she was frightened of heights and didn't like the thought of climbing the rope ladder up to the deck.
When the Carpathia reached New York Kate was alarmed that passengers without people to meet them would be taken to Ellis Island, for this reason she stepped off the ship into the crowd. Kate was eventually taken to the Junior League House, a hostel for women.
She was later taken under the wing of Rev S. Halstead Watkins chaplain to the Port of New York to whom the vicar of Sittingbourne had written. Kate applied to the American Red Cross for relief and was awarded $250.
Kate Buss eventually reached San Diego where she and her fiancé were married on May 11th 1912. They had a daughter, Sybil and after their retirement moved to Pasadena. In 1953 Kate followed her daughter to Oregon, where her son-in-law was a minister.
She was never able to discuss the Titanic disaster without being emotional. She died on 12 July 1972 at the age of 96. In 1992 her daughter was still living in Oregon.
Name: Miss Kate Buss
Born: Tuesday 28th December 1875
Age: 36 years
Marital Status: Single.
Last Residence: in Sittingbourne Kent England
2nd Class passenger
First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 27849, £13
Destination: San Francisco California United States
Rescued (boat 9)
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Died: Wednesday 12th July 1972
Buried: Fircrest Cemetery Monmouth Oregon United States
S S Richard Montgomery
The ship was built by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company in its second year of operations, and was the seventh of the 82 such ships built by that yard. Laid down on 15 March 1943, she was launched on 15 June 1943, and completed on 29 July 1943, given the official ship number 243756, and named after General Richard Montgomery, an Irish-American soldier who was killed during the American Revolutionary War.
In August 1944, on what was to be its final voyage, the ship left Hog Island, Philadelphia, where it had been loaded with 6,127 tons of munitions.
It travelled from the Delaware River to the Thames Estuary, and then anchored while awaiting the formation of a convoy to travel to Cherbourg, France, which had already fallen to the Allies (on 27 July 1944) during the Battle of Normandy.
When Richard Montgomery arrived off Southend, it came under the authority of the Thames naval control at HMS Leigh located at the end of Southend Pier. The harbour master, responsible for all shipping movements in the estuary, ordered the ship to a berth off the north edge of Sheerness middle sands.
On 20 August 1944 it dragged anchor and ran aground on a sandbank near the Isle of Sheppey, about 1.5 miles from Sheerness and 5 miles from Southend.
During the enquiry that
followed, it was revealed that several ships moored nearby had noticed the Montgomery drifting toward the sandbank. They had attempted to signal an alert by sounding their sirens without avail, since throughout this Captain Wilkie of the Montgomery was asleep. The ship's chief officer was unable to explain why he had not alerted the captain.
Because of the presence of the large quantity of unexploded ordnance, the ship is monitored by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. In 1973 it became the first wreck designated as dangerous under section 2 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and there is an exclusion zone around it monitored visually and by radar. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency nevertheless believe that the risk of a major explosion is remote.
According to a survey conducted in 2000 by the United Kingdom Maritime and Coastguard Agency survey the wreck still contains 3,173 tons of munitions including approximately 1,400 tons of TNT high explosive. These comprise the following items of ordnance:
286 × 2,000 lb. (910 kg) bombs
4,439 × 1,000 lb. (450 kg) bombs of various types
1,925 × 500 lb. (230 kg) bombs
2,815 fragmentation bombs and bomb clusters
Various explosive booster charges
Various smoke bombs, including white phosphorus bombs
Various pyrotechnic signals
One of the reasons why the explosives have not been removed was the unfortunate outcome of a similar operation in July 1967 to neutralise the contents of the Kielce, a ship of Polish origin, sunk in 1946 off Folkestone in the English Channel.
During preliminary work the Kielce, containing a comparable amount of ordnance, exploded with force equivalent to an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, digging a 20-foot (6 m) deep crater in the seabed and bringing "panic and chaos" to Folkestone, although no injuries.
According to a BBC news report in 1970, it was determined that if the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery exploded, it would throw a 1,000-foot (300 m) wide column of water and debris nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the air and generate a wave 16 feet (5 m) high. Almost every window in Sheerness (pop. c20, 000) would be broken and buildings would be damaged by the blast.
Critics of government assurances that the likelihood of a major explosion is remote argue that there is a possibility that over time a partially flooded fuze in the 2600 fused fragmentation devices may become less stable owing to its lead azide constituent reacting with water vapour (rather than liquid seawater) to form hydrazoic acid.
This could then react with copper in the detonating cap, to form extremely sensitive copper azide. A knock, such as caused by the ship breaking up further, or a collision on the busy shipping lane, could cause the copper azide to explode, triggering an explosive chain reaction resulting in the detonation of the bulk of the munitions.
Similarly, when the condition of the munitions was originally assessed there was concern that copper azide would be produced through reaction between the lead azide and copper from brass fuze components.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency argue that the fuses probably have been flooded for many years and consequently the hazard is insignificant since these chemicals are water soluble and will have been washed away.
The Bouncing Bomb
When World War Two broke out, Wallis believed that the quickest way to defeat Nazi Germany was to destroy its industrial base. Without factories, the Nazi war machine could not be supplied.
The most important industrial area in Germany was the Ruhr. It was also very heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns and searchlights. A 'normal' bombing raid risked heavy casualties.
Wallis developed in his mind a plan for a raid by a small, highly trained team of expert fliers, navigators, bombers etc. who could fly so low that radar would not pick them up and hit, with pin-point accuracy, their target. In his mind, those targets should be the dams that held back the mighty waters of the Ruhr. If these dams were breached, the water would destroy anything in its path.
Wallis set himself the task of designing a bomb so special that it would break up the reinforced concrete that made up the Ruhr dams. The bomb needed to be dropped at an exceptionally low height so that it hit a dam, did not explode but sank into the water.
At a given depth, a fuse would break and the bomb would explode. The shock waves created by the bomb would be accentuated underwater and, Wallis believed, would be enough to destroy the dam. The first tests of the bomb were done in a large indoors pool with a scaled-down bomb. The experimental indoors tests were a success.
A life-size one was dropped under the greatest of secrecy in the waters off of the beaches of Reculver Bay, Kent. The first test was a failure (as were those that followed it) and MOD personnel remained sceptical about any success for the 'bouncing bomb'.
Wallis believed that the plane, which came in unusually low, was flying too high and asked the crew to fly in even lower for the next test. His gamble, and the crew's piloting skills, worked - the bomb bounced and bounced so, in its imaginary situation, it would have cleared any nets that protected the dams in the Ruhr.
In May 1943, the Dambuster Raid took place. 617 Squadron, commanded by Guy Gibson, VC, attacked the Ruhr Dams using the bomb invented by Barnes Wallis. The actual physical impact of the raid will always be open to debate. The huge psychological impact of the raid, however, can never be doubted. Wallis, however, expressed his view that the raid, having cost eight Lancaster bomber crews out of nineteen, may not have been worth the losses.
Wallis also invented the 'Tallboy' bomb that was used to penetrate the U-boat pens on the west coast of France. He also developed one of the mainstays of Bomber Command - the Wellington bomber, used so often in bombing raids over Nazi Germany.
Wallis continued inventing things after the war. He invented a glassless mirror that did not mist up - and put forward ideas for swing-wing planes. He retired aged 83 and his work for the country was recognised in 1968 when he was knighted. Barnes Wallis was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Barnes Neville Wallis died on October 30th, 1979, aged 92. In 1980, in recognition of what he had achieved, a memorial service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral
The Detling Unexplained
During the adverse conditions of February 2009, an unexplained occurrence happened to a truck driver on his way back to South Wales from Canterbury. This trip has been made many times over the years, but this particular night, something extraordinary appeared to have startled the driver, Steve G.
Steve recalls the incident recently stating that:
“I was driving down Detling Hill and approaching the second bend. It was freezing cold outside and snowing hard, it was really bad weather. My lights suddenly caught sight of a man standing with his arms folded just on the other side of the barrier.
He just stood there staring at me. He didn't have many clothes on, which was pretty unusual in this kind of weather. But he had a top on that was dark at the bottom and got lighter as it got to the top. He face was really bright.
As I approached this man, he smiled and put his hand up to me as if to wave. When I passed him I looked into my mirror and he had disappeared from site."
Steve has had trouble in trying to put an explanation to it. He knows the hill very well. If the man was trying to cross, he was at a point where there is a vertical drop behind him down to Detling village and on the other side of the road a vertical climb to the other carriageway.
Why was he trying to cross here as there was no reason to? There is a safer crossing at the top of the hill as there is at the bottom. If he was walking up the hill he was going into nowhere, there is nothing for miles.
Who was it that night? A passer-by? A ghost? Could be an innocent, but taking into consideration that due to the bad weather and the few clothes this man had on. It seems unlikely that it was a passer-by wanting to cross this dangerous road or even to walk up or down it.
Steve has not seen this occurrence since but still drives it frequently.
The End<
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So ends our short compilation of stories from down the ages, our collection continues to grow as we research and write more and more, if you have enjoyed those in this book please come and check out our website at www.legendsofkent.co.uk where these stories and more are available, including some great images to go with them.
You can also Buy the Full edition of the book for your kindle at Amazon.
Thanks for joining us on our journey and we hope you enjoyed reading our stories as much as we have enjoyed writing them.
Mike & Pat
Abridged Legends of Kent Page 5
