大象传媒

In 1939 I was 14yrs old, had left school and was working at Acro Engineers. This was war work, civil engineering. I started by sweeping the floor, learnt milling and drilling and ended up making Mosquito engine mountings. Acro's was near the water tower in the village and one day we heard the air raid siren and we made our way to the shelter. As we did this an aeroplane came overhead - flying low enough for us to see both pilots. It was a Heinkel, and it went on to drop bombs at Audley End Station about 7 miles away. There was damage to one of the steam engines but luckily not much else.
I was living at home at this time and remember three occasions when Mosquitos crashed from Castle camps in Suffolk. One came down about 300yds from home. He never got above the trees. Two of us went to have a look and we collected some souvenirs. We shouldn't have done it really, but we were young and foolish. We did at least wait until the bodies were removed and the area cleared. I took one piece of ammunition home and was polishing it on a lathe at Acro's. Somebody came over and told me it was probably live and dangerous so I very quickly got rid of it. I never told my mother!
In 1945 I was conscripted into the army - The Royal Signals - and started at Catterick for training before being posted to Villac in Austria and then to Trieste in Italy. Egypt was next, before coming home in 1948.

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