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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Catherine Garvie, Learning Project Manager at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland on behalf of E Flynn from Kilmarnock and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was a young boy during the War but I still have three vivid memories…..

I remember when a German fighter plane was shot down in Kilmarnock. I think it was a Messerschmitt. It landed in what used to be the old Town Green. I remember the plane sitting there and everyone went to look at it. It caused great excitement.

At the end of the War, the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock was used as a billet for Italian Prisoners of War. As a young boy I regularly walked past the Hall on my way to school. I could look down and see where they stayed.

At the end of the War I remember I went with my family to Mass and there was a young German prisoner at the service. He was 18 years old and came from Cologne. My dad spoke to him and brought him home and we fed him and we got friendly with him. When he went back to Germany my dad wrote to him for a number of years.

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