大象传媒

In July 1944 my mother decided to join my father in Norfolk as she was unsettled by the VI "Doodlebugs". My father was employed initially building airfields and then on the maintenance. However, instead of returning in September for school we stayed on until the Spring of 1945. My father tried to get me into Thetford or Norwich Grammar Schools but they were full and as I was 14 I was over compulsory school age. To keep me occupied, my father had me nominally employed by the Air Ministry at the Old Buckenham airfield which was part of the U.S. 8th Air Force.

Throughout those months I spent much of my time on the airfield where I was "adopted" by two American sergeants, Schultz and Riley, who spoiled me by taking me into their mess and feeding me on all those delights that the rest of the civilian population were denied.
Most days I would watch as the Liberators took off on a bombing mission, first the lead plane "Wham Bam" would take off and circle while the others became airborne. "Wham Bam" was a stripped down Liberator with just pilot and top navigator whose job it was to see the bombers got to the right point on the enemy coast after which they were on their own and "Wham Bam" would head for home as fast as possible being totally defenseless. Later the planes would return some firing red Very lights to signal they had wounded on board, occasionally one would fire lights of every shade in a great profusion indicating that they had successfully completed their tour of duty and would be going "State side". From time-to-time a badly damaged plane would fail to make a safe landing and the ambulances and fire engines would rush to the scene. On one tragic occasion a badly damaged plane tried to 1and going over the top of another plane which was just feet from the landing strip. The nose of the second plane struck the tail plane of the first and both planes crashed bursting into a mass of flames and killing the crews.
A rather different incident was when a badly damaged Lancaster made a forced landing having had the misfortune to be under another Lancaster over the target and had a bomb go right through its fuselage. The hole was so big the tail gunner was trapped and he had a most uncomfortable trip home. To the astonishment of the Americans, the RAF replaced the damaged section and the plane was once more airworthy.
On another occasion, unfortunately, some of the Americans had chosen to make fun of an RAF crew claiming they were afraid to fly during the day. On take off, the Lancaster turned and proceeded to "beat up" the airfield "climbing" the Control Tower and the water tower and zooming low over the ground. The Americans were greatly impressed by this display of flying although occasionally their language was rather ripe as the plane made a low pass making everyone dive to the ground.
-----------------------------------------

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.