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In December 1914 Corporal Carey, of the 1st Beds. Regiment, whose home is at Leighton Buzzard, writes this cheerful account of his adventures;

“I am nearly sick of this Wilhelm von Hohenzullern and his tricks. It’s no joke, I give you my word. I have been in some of the worst fights and can’t make out how they did not hit me before. On the 5th November we were ordered to reinforce another unit, and it was fireworks if you like. A piece of shell hit me in the shoulder and made me feel a bit sick and savage. The day ended with a charge, plenty of casualties and a bruised Corporal. On the night of the 10th we had another extra special tuck in. We belted into them, left and right, but my time came at last – a bullet through the foot. I stuck it for a bit, but in getting away, which I could only do at the crawl the pigs shot me again. I am now at the Grand Hotel Astoria. It’s a fine place, in fact, too fine for us. The British Red Cross manage the place thoroughly well. They have also the help of several French ladies, whose patriotism is absolutely top hole. The French women are real good. Everything possible is done for our men and not a mite of trouble made over it. They deserve all the praise they get, and it’s a pity they don’t come under the public eye more than they do. . . . Those German blighters made three tidy holes in me, but some of my chums pasted them back for it.”

On February 10th 1916 the town experienced its first Zeppelin scare. Months before it had been arranged that in such an eventuality a series of warning blasts would be given on the hooter at Messrs. Brown and Son’s iron works, in Lake Street, with people having been instructed to remain calm and indoors, with lights extinguished. However, when at about 8.45p.m. the warning whistle sounded a crowd soon gathered in the Market Square, although perhaps due to the foggy night nothing happened. Later it was officially announced that at 6.30p.m. the enemy airships had approached the Yorkshire coast between Scarborough and Newcastle, and in the following months there would be many further alarms. Then on the night of Friday, October 19th 1917 came the first physical effects of a raid, when eleven Zeppelins raided the industrial Midlands in ‘The Silent Raid,’ since they flew at an altitude too high to be heard from the ground. One, thought to have been L45, but more likely to have been L53, commanded by Kapitanleutnant der Reserve Eduard Prolss, was driven south by high winds, and over Bedford at about 10p.m. dropped several bombs on targets showing unscreened lights. Veering south east, about 40 minutes later the crew observed obscure lights at Heath and Reach, and no sooner had a ‘take cover’ signal been sounded, by three blasts on the hooter at Brown’s iron works, than the sky was lit up by a magnesium flare, thrown out by the crew. Apparently having no idea of his whereabouts, on seeing a village below the commander dropped eleven bombs on Heath, but fortunately due to the altitude of the vessel the aiming was inaccurate, and even before the flare had descended there were 11 explosions in quick succession in open countryside, along a line of about a mile in length between Overend Green Farm and Shenley Hill Road. Bomb fragments fell in the main street of the village, but the only damage caused by the Zeppelin was a few shattered window panes. The bombs had made craters 7 feet deep and 10 feet wide, and in the morning these attracted hordes of souvenir hunters. However, as found by Mr. Dancer, a tenant of some of the land, the only victim was a rabbit. As for L53, passing east of London she went out to sea at about 12.30a.m. near Dover, and having crossed the Western Front returned to the Naval Airship Division Base at Nordholz towards 4a.m.

(During World War Two the region was again menaced from the air, and on the night of December 10th 1940 the cricket ground at Soulbury (which had been in use since at least 1864) became the target for a marauding German bomber when, to obtain a clearer view, an inquisitive resident drew back his blackout curtains. With the light immediately attracting a direct hit the house was completely destroyed, but fortunately no one was killed. Another bomb, plus incendiaries, landed in a nearby field, and although subsequent reports would suggest that the device had been dealt with by a Canadian unit, who were stationed in the area, there was considerable doubt at the time. Yet in January 1941 there was no doubt about the bomb which killed a girl at Heath and Reach. After the war, the suspicions regarding the unexploded bomb at Soulbury were finally vindicated, when, in 1946, a 500 pounder, fitted with two clockwork fuses, was found near Clay Hill farm, only 60 yards away from three cottages. No. 22 Bomb Disposal Group were called in to effect the detonation, and with the cottages protected by a wall of sandbags ‘Not even a window was broken.’ However, parts of the wooden shafting were later found over 200 yards away!)

At Christmas time 1916 Mrs. Rose, the mistress of St. Andrew’s School, Leighton Buzzard, had a narrow escape during the early hours of one Thursday morning. A massive cap from one of the chimney stacks between the school buildings and the School House fell through the roof of her bedroom, and at first she thought a Zeppelin bomb had fallen on the roof. Greatly shaken, Mrs. Rose suffered a glancing blow and serious injuries, and her husband sustained cuts about the face and legs.

Just as flags were being hung out for the cessation of hostilities, Mrs. Elizabeth Stevens, of 12, Plantation Road, Leighton Buzzard, received news that her husband, 28 year old Sapper Samuel Stevens, of the 157th Field Company, Royal Engineers, was dangerously ill. He had been admitted to a casualty clearing station in France on November 8th, and died on the 13th from pneumonia, following influenza. Besides a widow, he left a small daughter.