THE graves of four women killed by Luftwaffe bombers during the Second World War have become overrun with ivy sparking calls for urgent help to clear them up.

The women, who lived in the Laindon area, were killed on the evening of Saturday, November 8, 1940.

At about 7.20 pm four bombs fell on Lower Dunton Road in the area, known then as Plotlands, which is now part of Basildon borough.

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The bombs scored direct hits on an air raid warden’s post and a residential property.

It is thought the target for the bombs was the nearby decoy airfield, one of many sites set up to deter attacks on genuine airfields.

Four of the five people killed were buried three days later in one grave at St Mary Churchyard off Lower Dunton Road: Helena Penny, 16; Alice Shaw, 21; Maude Simmons, 53, and her mother Charlotte Gladwin, 89.

Their almost-forgotten graves have been reclaimed by nature and are overrun with ivy, it has been revealed after a Basildon Heritage volunteer went looking to find them.

“Basildon may not have formally been created until after the war, but the people who lived here before that should be very proud of what they contributed to the war,” councillor Kerry Smith said.

“If there is no immediate family left to tend the graves, maybe we can look at setting up a volunteer group to help out,” he suggested.

Mrs Simmons and young Helena Penny were doing their bit to help the war effort and were working as air raid wardens when they were killed.

The deaths rocked the community, and the funeral, held on November 11, was attended by the national press.

As the families of the four victims gathered to say goodbye, overhead, “British planes were roaring away as they chased off raiders, and in the background the booming of anti-aircraft guns disturbed the silence, as stalwart wardens of the group, to which two of the victims were attached, shouldered the coffins and bore them through the ranks of uni­formed civil defence workers into the church for the service,” one report said.

The fifth victim Mrs Mundy was buried in her late husband’s grave in a London cemetery.