Walter Pullen and the Canterbury Blitz of 1942

Walter Pullen was my Grandfather. He was born and lived his whole life in Kent. He owned a garage for many years, when car garages were rare in the early 1900s. I attach a photograph of him in taken in 1916 when he was 39 years old. In 1939 when the war started he lived in Sittingbourne, Kent and I think he was retired. He wrote poems and stories and I have a collection of some of his writings. Attached is one he named 'Canterbury Blitz' which is his account of the Germans bombing Canterbury in 1942.

It gives an insight into the horror of war and also an insight into how 'life went on' despite it! You can read in this account how Walter mentions his son 'Max' (who was my Uncle) who lived with them at this time when Max was about 19. Max was training to be an accountant and after a night of bombings, he still had to travel to London to take an exam. At some point, Max joined the RAF and he was based somewhere near Dover where he was a radar operator and listened out for the Luftwaffe heading to England across the English Channel. After the war, Max did eventually qualify as an accountant and he died in 2017.