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I was living in Claybrooke Magna when the war announcement was made. I was about 8 at the time. When the German planes came over you could always tell that they were Gerries because the planes made a low throbbing noise. Folk used to shout ‘here comes gerry’. We could see the planes going over or coming back from Coventry. Once I was on top of a bank and a plane came down really low, I could see the swastika and the pilot really clearly. It later crashed somewhere between Long Eaton and Leicester. I think it went in to some power lines. We had dummy airfields near here (Lutterworth) about 6 miles from Magna Park to try and confuse the Gerri’s.

We were ok for food, because you can’t ration wild rabbits, so we used to go rabitting. We also had a sweet ration and you could get them on the first Sunday in the month and the Broughton Astley shop. We used to make our own fun, but sometimes we played whip and top. We used to have gardening lessons at school then, so you would learn how to grow your own food.

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