Aldington is a village 6 miles west of Hythe.
| Name | Occupation | Posted from | Until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sergeant Clive George Boulden | Tractor driver assisting father |
27 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Sergeant Austin Harris Wilcox | Farmer |
26 Jun 1940 | 01 Feb 1943 |
| Private Leslie Booth | Farm labourer |
20 Mar 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Peter Gorham Boulden | Farmer |
27 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Jack Burden | Pigman |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private George Marsh | Stockman on farm |
22 Nov 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Harold Marsh | Horseman on farm |
27 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Charles Velvick | Market gardener |
30 Oct 1941 | 22 Nov 1942 |
The OB and ammo dumps were constructed by Royal Engineers in Harringe Brooks Wood just north of Court-at-Street, off the Roman Road linking Aldington with Lympne.
The site is very close to Lympne Airfield which the Germans would have used to supply their invading forces. A tunnel was excavated into a bank, just inside the woods, and led back under the field. It had a steel interior with a brick base and a blast wall as protection against grenade attack. It collapsed sometime after the war when a bull fell into it. There were two nearby ammunition dumps hidden beneath thorn hedges.
Aldington Patrol
The OB is very close to Lympne Airfield so that would have been an obvious target. Peter Boulden considered fuel dumps would have been the most useful targets and he recalled practicing targeting tanks while training with the Tank Corps.
Peter Boulden recalled his time training at Coleshill and at the Garth. He recalled that in the early days they were working full time on the farms, were training hard and were called out a few times expecting an invasion. They got very little sleep.
“We all went down to Coleshill for intensive training in all aspects of clandestine warfare, including unarmed combat, survival techniques, booby traps, and how to use our machine guns, pistols, knives and explosives. We also learnt survival technique, how to pick a suitable target and how to move at night. I remember learning how to destroy tanks using limpet mines and improvised explosive charges strapped to huge magnets. We were given a hundredweight of Plastic Explosive to take back to Kent and experiment with. Can you imagine the scene? We blew up stones, rocks, trees, absolutely everything we could think of. And none of our families knew.
We also spent many nights and weekends training at The Garth in Bilting. Again, unarmed combat, sabotage and demolition techniques and how to kill a sentry quietly were at the top of the training agenda. I remember on one occasion we were all standing in a circle timing the various types of fuses used, when someone dropped a hand grenade, minus its pin. We just froze. Captain Allnatt, as cool as a cucumber, simply bent down, picked it up and threw it away."
Peter Boulden; “After we were stood down in November 1944 regular Army personnel came around and collected our arms and ammunition."
Peter Boulden; “Many people have asked me, ‘Would you really have gone into action if the Germans had invaded?’ The answer is, of course, we would have done whatever was necessary. The horrors of the First World War were still fresh in people’s memories and we hated the Germans. I don’t know how effective we would have been, given that our expected life span was less than two weeks, but we would have caused as much mayhem as possible to gain time. The objective was not to go out and kill Germans. We could do more damage by destroying a few thousand gallons of petrol, a few hundred tons of explosives, or a few aeroplanes. Patrols that went to ground and stayed undercover until after the initial German assault before attacking convoys and depots might have stood a better chance of survival.”
In 1990 Peter spoke to the BBC and Stephen Sutton. Recordings are held at Imperial War Museum.