AFTER the years of bombings, strafing and shelling, Kent then had to face a new onslaught as Hitler’s "secret weapons" arrived in 1944 to bring a new form of terror from the skies.

First, the V1 flying bombs – the "doodlebugs" – then the V2 rockets, raining death and destruction on the people of Kent, their homes, workplaces and shopping streets.

A Kent Messenger book on the 20th Century in this county cites Mrs D Barden, of Maidstone, who was just 14 when war was declared in 1939, who survived the bombing, the surprise strafing attacks and then the regular doodlebug onslaught.

"We heard a doodlebug come over very near," she said. "Then the engine cut out and I can still hear the terrible rushing noise as it came racing down to earth.

"Then all hell broke loose. It dropped at the top of my road, right on top of a café which was full of customers, a butcher’s and many more.

"Forty-four people were killed and when I got out to the front gate, I found someone’s hands lying in the road. These things will haunt me forever. Even when a plane goes over now, my eyes go up to the sky."

Meanwhile, quick-thinking and cool courage by an RAF fighter pilot saved lives. He diverted a flying bomb away from houses by tipping its wing with his plane.