Elm court during the Second World War was called Gibraltar Gun Emplacement. There were quite a number of large anti-aircraft guns (known as Ack Ack guns) situated on this site which were there to fire at the German bombers as they came over the top of the Medway area. They were using the River Medway and River Thames as navigational guidance points for London. There were quite a number of these gun sites all around the Medway area. As a young boy, I lived a quarter of a mile from the site and these guns were extremely powerful, noisy and hard on the ears. They frequently broke the windows in the houses nearest to them. I lived at number 291 Hempstead Road and the glass in our windows was often shattered. The surrounding fields were disguised as a dummy airfield to distract the German bombers from real airfields. There were also barrage balloons which to me as a small boy looked like elephants in the sky.
The gun crews (that is the soldiers that were based there) gave us children a party. This would be at the latter part of World War II. This was greatly appreciated by the children as parties with goodies were few and far between at that time. Outside on the corner of the Elm Court site as it now is were several elm trees which in later years caught Dutch Elm Disease and had to be felled which is why the site is now called Elm Court. The cover picture was drawn from memory by my school friend Ted Quy along with a number of others that are on the Rainham History website.
Roland Bird
