Last Saturday, March 24, marked the 75th anniversary of a deadly attack on the town by German planes during the Second World War.

The Southern Railway works was the main target for the enemy but surrounding areas were also badly hit, including Dover Place, Stanhays in Godinton Road, Beaver Road School and residential streets such as Hardinge Road, Kent Avenue and New Street.

Dozens of people were killed or injured in these attacks and many homes and businesses were destroyed in the worst raid on the town.

Two survivors of the bombings, who are still residents of Ashford today, have shared their memories of the attack.

Harry Salmons was just 15 when the bombings took place.

He was working at an engineer apprentice in Stanhays, along with more than 100 other employees, when the bombs hit the town.

Mr Salmons, now 90, said: "Earlier on in the morning the German fighter bombers got turned back before they got to Ashford. They came in again, at low level with the sun, so nobody knew they were there.

"You used to have two warnings in Ashford, the ordinary siren and the gasworks used to have a steam hooter. When that used to go, that was imminent danger so we knew we had to take cover.

"That particular day, I was busy drilling – someone came through shouting: "Spotters, spotters". The siren went, I dropped what I was doing and ran like hell. I'd just got down into the air raid shelter, into the entrance, and there was this almighty bang, the blast blew us down."

Amazingly, he wasn't injured.

"We picked ourselves up and sat in the air raid shelter until the all clear came on.

"We didn't realise what had happened until we got out, our factory was just blown to pieces. It took all the roof off and it was all mangled up because the aircraft had blown up over the top.

"Unfortunately, 14 of my workmates were killed."

The sound of the explosions was heard for miles around Ashford.

Mr Salmons added: "We lived at Great Chart and my parents heard the bang. My dad was an East Kent bus driver, he was lucky and was allowed petrol in his car to go to and from work. He came to pick me up and the mess along Godinton Road was horrible. It was terrible.

"The next day I went back to work to start clearing up the mess. That was when it hit me. I had to go home and I was off work for about a month.

"When I went back it was awful, we had these big green canvas sheets covering the roof because we had to carry on working.

"That was the worst part of the war, when we was really struggling. It was a terrible feeling to think that people want to come here and smash our place up, but what could we do about it? We could only fight back."

Mr Salmons, who now lives in Bilsington, added: "After a while, after things settled down and started turning our way, we didn't have so many air raids and we didn't really notice it so much. We just used to get on with it, take it in our stride and didn't seem to be frightened any more. I suppose we got so used to the fighting over the top of us.

"I used to bike to work and several times, the siren went so I had to dive into a hedge - I don't know what good that would have done but as a youngster, in some ways, we thought it was exciting.

"But it stayed with me for the rest of my life. Its something I could never forget."

Another Ashford resident who vividly remembers the attack is David Webb, who was just nine when it happened.

Mr Webb, who now lives in South Ashford but lived in South Willesborough during the war, said: "I joined the Beaver Road Boys Junior School midway through term so my desk was at the back of the classroom. This meant I was always the last one out on a drill.

"On the day of the attack the first siren went and we all stood up but our teacher Mrs Williams, immediately told us to sit down. We were missing too many lessons so we were only allowed to vacate on the final warning. As she was speaking the final warning was heard.

"We all immediately stood up and scarpered from the building, across the playground, to our shelter. There was no shouting or screaming, it was all very orderly but we knew it was serious.

"Just as I was going into the shelter, it was like somebody lifted me up under my arms and I was thrown in by the blast along with rubbish, rubble and thick dust.

He added: "We were in the shelter for quite a while, we didn't know what was happening. The lights went out so we were in semi-darkness, but the teachers were really good and tried to keep us calm.

"When we were finally let out, the top of the school building had virtually disappeared, the playground was covered in bricks and rubble. The shelter was covered in bricks and debris and was sagging under the weight.

"We got counted up and sent off home. There were mums running up Beaver Road really worried about us but we were just over the moon that we got a day off school."

All of the teachers and children at the school survived the attack.

"There were mums running up Beaver Road really worried about us but we were just over the moon that we got a day off school" - David Webb

Mr Webb added: "I was in trouble with mum because I had lost my school cap in the blast, we got all our clothes on coupons then so it was very hard to get another one.

"We received neither counselling or sympathy. I just remember being greatly disappointed the next day when we had to go back to school at the South Central Boys School to resume lessons."