The Doodlebug at Lord's — RAF v Army, 29 July 1944

Lord's had been heavily adapted for wartime use: the Nursery Ground was a barrage-balloon site, the Long Room a cloakroom for RAF aircrew billeted in St John's Wood, and the practice ground had been turned over to the National Fire Service. A 1,000lb bomb had landed on the Nursery Ground in October 1940, scattering debris across the playing surface.

Despite all this, MCC and Warner kept a continuous programme of one-day matches running through every summer of the war, raising significant sums for service charities and the Red Cross.

On 29 July 1944 the V-1 campaign was at its peak; 'Diver Belt' — the anti-aircraft and balloon defences arrayed across south-east England — was shooting down or deflecting roughly half the incoming weapons, but plenty still reached London. Several had already exploded within a mile of Lord's that week.

By the summer of 1944 over 8,000 V-1 flying bombs had been launched at southern England, with around 2,600 reaching their targets. London — and St John's Wood in particular — was within the impact zone, and several V-1s had already fallen near Lord's, blowing in windows of the pavilion and damaging the Mound Stand roof.

The charity match between the Army and the RAF, both fielding sides packed with first-class cricketers, was part of the Lord's wartime programme that also featured 'England v Dominions', 'Public Schools v Lord's XI' and other one-day fixtures put on by Pelham 'Plum' Warner to keep the ground in use. Hammond, then a Squadron Leader in the RAF, captained his side. The Army included Middlesex's Jack Robertson and the former England captain Bob Wyatt, who was himself bowling.

Around midday spectators heard the unmistakable buzzsaw of a doodlebug. The motor cut, then silence — the warning of imminent dive. Wyatt, in mid-run-up, dropped to the ground; Robertson did the same at the crease; the umpires and the crowd followed. The bomb fell into open ground roughly 200 yards short of the pavilion. Pieces of debris pattered down on the outfield.

Wyatt rose, dusted himself down, walked back to his mark and bowled. Robertson — by his own account simply wanting to do the right thing — moved into a drive and lifted the ball over square leg into the Grand Stand for six. The crowd roared. Play continued without further interruption. Warner is said to have remarked that Goebbels would have crowed had the Luftwaffe stopped cricket at Lord's; nobody had given him the chance.

“Goebbels would have made much of it had he been able to broadcast that the Luftwaffe had stopped cricket at Lord's.”

“Smoke from a doodlebug rises over Lord's during a wartime match — Cricket, Army v RAF.”

Press coverage was muted by the wartime censor — V-1 impacts were not openly reported by location to deny the Germans aiming data — but the story circulated widely in cricket circles. The match itself ended in an Army win.

Within weeks the V-1 launch sites in the Pas-de-Calais were overrun by the Allied advance, and the doodlebug threat to London largely receded by September 1944.