WHILE the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain is rightly marked with a series of TV documentaries, there is a local anniversary that also deserves a mention.

On September 4, 1940, bombs landed in Malvern, causing damage to property and making the series of drills and preparation worthwhile.

Readers of the Malvern Gazette would not have had much detail to read about the raid, the paper's edition of September 7 did not directly allude to it. Tucked away inside was a column reporting raids in the region, but not even the names of the places were reported, nothing beyond a "Midland country town".

The following is typical: "A few high explosive bombs, including one of the whistling type, and numerous incendiary bombs were dropped on another town. Homes in a residential area were damaged, some seriously, and in many others windows were shattered and doors blown out. There were craters in two or three thoroughfares."

One paragraph - under the strapline 'Canaries always sing' - reported a bomb landing in a garden and failing to break windows, behind which four birds chirped merrily on.

Instead the front page was dominated by news of the Malverns Spitfire Fund, launched three days earlier and already standing at nearly £1,400. The target was £5,000 and prominent donors included Mr and Mrs Dyson Perrins, and Mssrs George, Ernest and Frederick Wilesmith, both giving 100 guineas. Mr Dyson Perrins had already funded the Worcester Fighter Fund to the tune of £500.

One paragraph tells how a "domestic servant" unexpectedly getting a pound postal order had given it to the owner of the house for the fund.

Reports of a sign outside The Lygon Arms, Worcester Road, were typical of the spirit of the piece - "An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but Spitfires help keep Hitler away".