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This is the account of an incident that took place in 1941. It happened on a Saturday morning, just before midday. I had been sent to the local shops by the lady with whom I was staying in Elm Road to fetch a loaf of bread.
My parents, due to staff shortages, were working long and unpredictable hours. My Father was a Tram Driver and my Mother a Hospital Ward Sister. On my way back on my roller skates coming along Elm Road, I heard the sound of an aircraft which seemed very loud, I looked up, and to my surprise I saw a German Dornier 215 plane. It was so low I saw the crew in the cockpit. I dived under the nearest hedge, and I could hear the sound of machine guns.
The aircraft had flown undetected over Birmingham as we had no Air-Raid Warning. It鈥檚 purpose to take reconnaissance photographs. The workers were just coming out of the factory at the end of the morning shift.
Some were killed, and others wounded, I cannot recall the exact figures.
Cadbury鈥檚 being a Quaker Family did not believe in war, however part of their factory was commandeered by the Government for Lucas Limited, who made shell cases, gun barrels and small arms parts.
The workers killed and wounded were mainly Lucas employees.
The pilot and crew did not escape from this incident. Fighter planes were scrambled from R.A.F. Station and the enemy aircraft was shot down in the countryside south of Birmingham. The crew became prisoners of war, and the reconnaissance photographs they had been sent to obtain did not arrive in Germany.

This story was submitted to the 鈥淧eoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Kenneth Moore and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site

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