大象传媒

On an otherwise quiet afternoon, shops closed on a midweek half day, a Heinkel was chased over the town by RAF fighter plane as it disgorged its bomb load on the town's main thoroughfare (Broad Street) 49 people died in a restaurant known as the Peoples Pantry, wrecking adjoining buildings.
I was returning home from school, changing buses when the bombing occurred. Windows blew out, fire service water tanks were riddled with bullets, chaos amidst shattered glass and other debris. It was my only brush with first-hand action, aged 8 circa 1942). As far as can be re-collected it was the only raid on Reading, just 39 miles from the capital. Ten years later I was a member of an RAF bomber crew and finally lost the traumatic memory of that incident.

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