Son of Gravesend couple who were 'lucky' to survive V2 bombing 75 years ago shares story
10:00, 13 November 2019
This week marks 75 years since Gravesend was rocked by a bomb dropped on the town.
The V2 rocket, the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile, caused mayhem and destruction for residents when it tore through houses in Portland Avenue on November 13, 1944.
There was 84 casualties - five dead and 79 injured - and a number of houses were brought down.
One couple who lived in the street managed to escape death when the bomb hit at 4.40pm.
Denis and Barbara Ford were lucky not to die that day, according to their son David, now semi-retired and living with his wife in Istead Rise.
The 68-year-old said: “My father was preparing the house next door for his mother - Clara Ford - to move into. She lived in New Street, Gravesend, at the time.
“My mother, Barbara, was helping - they were not yet married.
“When the rocket hit, my father was behind a door, and Barbara was under the stairs.
“They were buried in rubble but essentially unhurt.
“The house needed to be rebuilt, and Clara never did move in.
“As well as the houses on Portland Avenue, there was extensive damage to the Co-op depot on Echo Square, which backs on to these houses.”
David’s parents never moved away from the town but the incident left a scarring effect on his mother.
“I remember being told the story about what happened as a child, but didn’t understand how affected my mother was by it all,” he said.
“She was so shocked by the experience that she never returned to her wartime posting at Bletchley Park.”
Denis Ford died in 1989, while Barbara Ford died in 2010.
The bombing in Portland Avenue was one of two attacks in Gravesend.
A second rocket hit Milton Place on November 29 the same year.
Sylvia Dash, 39, Patricia Keer, 15, Gertrude Finney, 50, Elizabeth Sprigmore, 59, and Mary Fergusson, 54, were the five people who died in the raid on Portland Avenue.
