HATCHING CHICKS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 90, 12 August 1942, Page 2

HATCHING CHICKS

ON ENGLISH FARM NEAREST TO' HITLER'S GUNS

Chicks are hatching, ewes lamb-

ing and cows calA'ing on a farm on

the Dover eliPts Avsnei) is resell arlv shelled by Hitlers guns, only 22

miles away

Shells have fallen in anil around

the farmyard. Use -nearest in Britain to the Nazi artillery, a barrage balloon over it has been shot down <50 times and often all hands have had to shelter under their tractors and implements from machine gunners in the sky overhead. But the farmer and his people s'ubbornly refuse to Leave. These defiant farmers. Mr Gilbert Mitchell, his wife and sister-in-IaAV, took over Reach Court Farm, St. Margarets-at-Clifi'e, near Dover, a year before the war with a dajr.v herd of 34 cows. In 19159 they ploughed up a large proportion ol the 120 acres of permanent pasture to groAV the feeding studs no longer so easily obtainable from overseas. Defence Avorks Ave re put up all round their farm, but during the Battle of Britain they steadfastly refused to leave, gathering iiv not only their OAvn harvest but rescuing crops on other farms which had to be evacuated . Further defence works have now been erected and most of Reach Court' Farm is being taken over by the military. But they are carrying on Avith Avhat is left, and Mr Mitchell is managing for the Kent A A ar Agricultural Committee an extensive area of surrounding farmland Avhich

would otlicrwi.se have borne no crop this year. Ills 1!) year old sister-in-law, Miss Grace Harrison, has joined the Women's Land Army, and is now driving tractors, whilst .Mrs Mitchell is hatching chicks in the most vulnerable incubaLors in Britain.