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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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My Childhood in Totternhoe, Bedfordshire

by Dunstable Town Centre

Contributed byÌý
Dunstable Town Centre
People in story:Ìý
Alan Wilsher
Location of story:Ìý
Bedfordshire
Background to story:Ìý
Civilian
Article ID:Ìý
A7999825
Contributed on:Ìý
23 December 2005

This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Dunstable At War Team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was seven years old when the war started and one of my earliest memories is going to school with a biscuit tin sealed with tape. This contained a supply of biscuits and other food, just in case we were stranded at school during an air-raid. This had to be taken and kept at Totternhoe Church School, Castle Hill Road, until the end of the war. In those early stages we also had to carry a gas mask. I can remember my baby brother’s gas protector which was shaped like a large carry cot; this was placed on the table.

One morning I was walking to see my father who was employed at the Chalk Pits when the air raid warning sounded. A few minutes later I saw German bombers in the sky. You could tell the difference between our planes and theirs by the drone of their engines. I ran home and we (the family) took cover in the pantry, the safest place in the house.

I can remember two planes crashing in the village; one was a Blenheim Bomber that crashed on the right-hand side of Eaton Bray Road in Costin's field. I remember going down to the area soon afterwards. I believe the pilot was in the Womens Royal Airforce WRAF. She had been ferrying the bomber to another destination.

Later on in the war I vividly remember standing in my back garden at 32 Castle Hill Road watching a Spitfire, which was in trouble flying from the direction of Dunstable. It flew over my house, circled over the church, returned and came down in Tom Turvey’s field, at the rear of Dunstable Cricket Club. I understand the pilot was Polish and escaped uninjured. He made his way to what we used to call Bates Houses at the bottom of Lancot Hill. The Spitfire was there for 3 — 4 days before it was taken away. I was there when they removed the machine guns and bullets from the wings.

I also remember one night when bombs landed in the middle of the road just past the Memorial Hall. Years later, we could still see where the road had been repaired and the telegraph wires were joined. That same night bombs fell in Totternhoe chalk pits near the lane to Sewell. Incendiary bombs also set Jessie Bird’s chicken house on fire and a bomb fell near Middle Path at Eaton Bray. I always believed it was caused by a lone bomber who had got lost and was dumping his bombs before heading home.

I remember sledging up on Coxen hill, and night after night seeing the flashes of guns and explosions from London. Around this time, 5 or 6 lads from the village were awarded a certificate for putting out an incendiary bomb at the back of the Chalk Pits. I can remember in 1944, the hundreds of troops we had in the area. We had guns at the back of us in Castle Hill Road and there were also guns in the front of us in Sid bates field. We even had troops in the school playing field which was only an acre in size. A family had a dog which was always chasing Bren gun carriers as they went through the village. The whole area was a mass of troops. They used to fire the guns and practice firing into the chalk pits on the right hand side where the lane went down the incline. There were also a lot of troops down the Baulk and once a petrol truck was set on fire. The search light was down there. When D-Day came all the troops disappeared.

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