Charlie’s War …
Following article was written and published by Bob Collis, one of the original Flixton members.
Memories of the nights when bombs screamed down onto the blacked-out streets of Lowestoft were evoked at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, when Charles Holt, a former Lowestoft Civil Defence ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Warden was a visitor to the site.
92-year-old Mr Holt was a guest at the museum at the invitation of aviation historian Bob Collis, who was one of the early members of the museum when it began life in the early 1970s in a “rusty Nissen hut behind Flixton Post Office”. Bob says that the museum now has one of the largest privately owned collections of historic aircraft and aeronautical memorabilia in the region.
Accompanying Mr Holt was his daughter, Sue Pope. Charles joined the ARP service aged 17 and spent many nights at the Sub Control Report Centre which used to stand at the bottom of Normanston Drive. Speaking about the visit to Flixton Mr Holt said: “I found it extremely interesting. Anyone with an interest in world war two ought to come here. This has taken me back 75 years.”
Mr Holt had some extraordinary wartime escapes and played a vital role in keeping communications open by delivering messages on a BSA 250 motorcycle if telephone lines were brought down in raids. He vividly recalled the day Lowestoft was attacked by low-flying German FW 190 fighter-bombers in 1943, throwing himself to the ground several times as successive waves of aircraft roared overhead, “so low you could see the pilots” he recalled. He was also interested to see the small pieces which he kept as souvenirs from the crash site a German Junkers 88 bomber which was shot down in an area then known as the Church Fields in Lowestoft in 1942, and which he donated to the museum via Mr Collis in 1988, on display.
Mr Collis said that showing Charles Holt around the display had been a “complete privilege” and that Flixton was “A shining example of just what was possible with a group of hard-working enthusiasts” He added that he was “pleased and very proud” of his continued association with the group and what the museum had done to promote aviation heritage in the region.
Photos below:
- Three of the young ARP men at the Report Centre. From left to right, Malcolm Young, Charles Holt and Ted Rounce.
- The Report Centre at the bottom of Normanston Drive near the junction with Rotterdam Road West. The building was used for among other things, a polling station before being demolished in 2012
- Charles Holt with the display cabinet featuring the pieces of German Ju 88 bomber he recovered in 1942 on display at Flixton.
- Charles Holt with a Spitfire replica at Flixton.
What a great story.