大象传媒

I was ten when the war started and just about to start at the Northgate Grammar School. I was the youngest of eight children, with three brothers and four sisters, all of whom were helping with the war effort in some way.One brother was in the RAF as an armourer and the other two lived in Staines. One was a draughtsman designing tanks and the other was making shells.
I lived in a terraced house , with three up and three down. I lived with my parents and my three sisters. One sister was a driver on the trolley buses and the other was a conductress. My youngest sister was still at school. My father was too old to be called up and he worked as a storeman at a motor company and had to do firewatch duties.
I joined the Air training Cadets. Our school was large enough to have it's own 786 squadron. Most of the young teachers had been called up and many retired teachers came back to teach. Two of the younger teachers helped in the ATC teaching things like Morse codes and aircraft recognition.
For me the war was very exciting . One weekend our ATC section camped at Felixstowe, near the Languard Fort, where there was an air sea rescue station, which had Catalina flying boats. Across the Stour was the port of Harwich and the naval base was nearby, so there was a lot to see.There were about fifty of us there and each morning we were marched up to the fort for breakfast, followed by instruction.
Whilst I was there I was able to go out on a motor torpedo boat , on a practice torpedo run. It was thrilling to be racing past Felixstowe at about 35 knots. One day walking back to camp, we saw one of our bomberscoming back from a raid. It was trailing smoke from and engine. It circled round and crashed into the sea about 300 yards from the beach. It seemed long time before they were rescued.
The most thrilling thing for me during the war was my first flight.This was at an American Airforce base that our ATC786 squadron visited one weekend.I had problems with my bike and arrived late at the aerodrome, which was about eight miles from Ipswich . Of course we were all in uniform and i wandered around this huge aerodrome looking for the others. i was determined to get on a flight and had a letter from my mother giving permissions. Some american aircrew took pity on me. About half and hour later I was sitting in the bomb aimers seat with a perfect view throught the transparent nose of a B17 Flying Fortress. I had been given a helmet and earphones and a parachute with instructions to keep my eyes open and report any enemy aircraft I saw. Afterall this was 1944 , I was only fifteen, the war was still on ahd there was a chance we could be shot down.Imagine my excitement as we took of down the runway. I was like a dog with two tails . I had no fear at all. I just thought of the things i would be able to tell my friends and family.The B17 had had it's engines repaired and our flight over Lincolnshire was to run in the engines.We didn't fly very high, probably about five thousand feet, so I had a good view of the countryside. I didn't see any enemy aircraft and just sat and listened to the strange american conversations through my earphones. We landed back at base about three hours later and leaving the aircraft I made sure to get the commander to sign my air log with details of the flight.
After I got back the first problem was to find my bicycle.The aircrew gave me a lift backl. Then I had to cycle the eight miles home without lights.I was so jubilant I didn't care.
Before the war ended I had two more short flights, this time from an English aerodrome, but nothing will ever come up to my first ever flight and I have had a soft spot for Americans ever since.

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