大象传媒

This is less of a story, more of an anecdote. It concerns what I believe is the first night the flying bombs came over. I was about 13 at the time, evacuated and attending Bruckley Central Boy's School which was billeted in a large housein Dorman's Park, Surrey. The house belonged to a Naval Captain who was away at war. We all lived in the house as in a boarding school.

The boys were put on rota to act as "firewatchers" to locate, and I suppose, deal with any incendiary bombs.

The night in question I was one of the firewatchers and I and some other boys were in the "Captain's Room" at the top of the house with large windows giving a view over the grounds down tot he lake. We were the first, I believe, to see and hear the doodle bugs, one or two as I recall, belching flames and emitting a terrible noise.

My memory tells that they were at window height but I suppose this is not possible unless they were running out of fuel. There was no panic, we were not frightened, it was rather exciting !

The authorities moved quickly and arranged to send us all to Wales possibly within a day or two. I recall lying on my back in the grounds watching a Hurricane or a Spitfire trying to tip over one the intruders over, but we were soon all on the train in Maesteg in Glamorgan where we spent the rest of the war.

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