Grenham Bay
This area of Kent has a lot of WW2 history, the bouncing bomb at Reculver, Manston and the Spitfire, and the Dunkirk evacuation boats out of Ramsgate.
But a lot of people don’t know that the Isle of Thanet had a secret resistance. These were made up of people from the local area recruited in secret by the army, to follow orders and pass secret messages on.
There were three patrols based on the Isle of Thanet, all eventually under the command of W G Bill Gardner, a farmer, corn merchant and renowned orchid grower who lived in Birchington. However, Bill Gardner did not take command until July 1941.
Sgt. E. BURLEY
C. W. BRIEN (DISCHARGED JOINED HM FORCES 20/11/45)
P. C. WELLS
W. ROBSON
G. J. HEWELL (DISCHARGED JOINED HM FORCES 04/02/43)
F. W. HOPKINS (DISCHARGED JOINED HM FORCES 21/06/43)
S. NEUENSCHWANDER(GEOFFREY NEWLOVE (DISCHARGED JOINED HM FORCES)
Also J. S. PILCHER (DISCHARGED JOINED HM FORCES 27/10/43) may well have been involved in this patrol although no hard evidence has been found yet. Their mission was if the Germans landed in Kent they were to destroy Manston Aerodrome at any cost even if it meant losing their own life. So they were issued with an array of weapons and explosives.
After the war Bill Gardner kept some explosives for use on his farm in Upstreet to blow up trees. He once set a booby trap to stop a thief stealing his broccoli but injured him self in the arm and groin when the trap went off.
In 1984, Bill Gardner's house, Garfield, in Green Road, Birchington, was sold. The contents of his house were put up for auction. An arsenal of weapons and explosives were found in the garage and garden shed.
Two hundred people were evacuated from neighbouring streets while bomb disposal experts made the area safe. The munitions were moved to Grenham Bay, Birchington, where they were destroyed by controlled explosion.
Your looking for something they didn’t blow up.