Mrs Roosevelt leaving Barham Village Hall to the cheers of the local community.

Mrs Roosevelt admiring a pig - named "Franklin"! - presented for inspection by a member of the
Women's Institute.

On 30th October 1942 Mrs Churchill and Mrs Roosevelt, wife of the American President, visited Barham's Women's Institute in a double headed train of seven LMS coaches.   The visit was reported in all the major newspapers but, as was the norm during the war, almost all newspapers kept the identity of the village a secret.   One newspaper however carried a minor headline "Barham Kent" and on the following day, when Canterbury was blitzed, a train was straffed at Barham.

 
Various events were held to raise funds for war effort.
This record was found in old village papers.
(What the last uncompleted event was is not yet known.)

The officer's forage cap and Luftwaffe gravity knife can now be viewed at the  Kent Battle of Britain Museum
at Hawkinge near Folkestone.
 

Being only a few miles from Dover, known locally as "Hellfire Corner", Barham suffered from enemy shells from France whining overhead, 13 enemy planes finding their final resting place within the parish as well as a large number of bombs.

One recorded moment of excitement for this corner of rural Kent was the incident that took place on the morning of 13th August 1940 when a German Dornier Do17Z, having blitzed Eastchurch airfield on the Isle of Sheppy was intercepted by the RAF who managed to cripple it.

Attempting to fly on with one working engine, it gradually lost height until "pancaking" close to Greenhill Lane Bridge on the Elham Valley Railway - just north of Barham Station.

The tail section broke away whilst the fuselage slewed into the scrub and woodland where it came to rest.

Sergeant Ronald Swann (115th Field Regt. Royal Artillery) was stationed at Beechwood, close to the crash and in charge of the camp guard. Taking the guard with him was first on the scene, disarming and capturing the crew (Obit Schlegal, Obit Oswald (Staffel Füher) Oberfw Babbe and Oberfw Holz) who were extremely dazed and lucky to have survived. Soldiers of the London Scottish Regiment arrived on the scene very soon with fixed bayonets and the aircrew was then taken into custody by them.

The webmaster is indebted to Ronald Swann for relating his first hand memories of that day. More details about wider incidents may be found at: -
The Battle of Britain Website.

The Boche-Buster gun at work near Kingston.
The forces generated at detonation propelled the gun backwards and raised clouds of dust from the trackbed.

The Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the gun on 20th June 1941

The military authorities began negotiations with the Southern Railway with a view to taking complete control of the line for defense purposes.   On 25th October the passenger service between Lyminge and Canterbury was suddenly suspended in order that the engineers could install loop sidings for railway born guns at a number of loop sidings at various points on the line.   One of these was at Barham.

On Friday 1st December the Southern Railway officially withdrew the passenger trains and the line was handed over to the Railway Operating Troops.   The war department undertook the running of the daily goods train on behalf of the Southern who's staff remained at all of the stations.   The War Department also ran their own recreation trains for troops and the public on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

After track changes had been completed the 18 inch railway gun named "Boche-Buster" travelled down from Catterick Camp disguised as a string of banana wagons.   It was capable of hurling a 6 ft shell weighing 1¼ tons some 12½ miles.

Four brick magazine stores were built into the cutting north of Bishopsbourne and steps were cut into the banks either side of the southern portal of the tunnel which then housed the gun.

The bridge over Railway Hill, Barham was strengthened by huge timber baulks to support the weight of the 250 ton gun which was moved up and down the line to suitable points as it could only be fired parallel with the track.   The meandering railway allowed it to sweep virtually the whole south east corner of Kent thus enabling it to bombard any invasion force.   A short spur built into a field north of Barham gave the gun additional directions which included cover of Pegwell Bay near Ramsgate.

The line, itself, suffered little damage during the war despite a few attempts to destroy it.   One bomb did manage to land squarely on the track at Kingston 
(1 mile north of Barham) but failed to explode.

In March 1944 the line was handed back to the Southern Railway and all guns and military units were withdrawn.   Repairs to signalling was costed at £128.2s.9d, removal of surplus assets £1,165 and repairs to stations and bridges at £2,120 - for the whole line!