大象传媒

I lived in the village of Iddesleigh in Devon. I can remember my father was in the Home Guard, and I can remember Hookways coaches, and they would come around the village and pick them up and take them off to the firing range. And I can remember him keeping the uniform and the rifle at home. I later learned they used to go the ranges at Hele Bridge between Meeth and Hatherleigh - there are still traces of the ranges there, they actually date from the first world war. We lived near Winkleigh Airfield. I remember once being pushed to the end of the runway in a pushchair, to have a look at a plane which had overrun the runway - I think it was a Buefighter. I can also remember the planes after take off as they petrified me, becasue they were still climbing and turning back East. The other memory I have is about a mile up the road was a search-light battery, and the Norweigans that manned it used to come down to us and get eggs - because we kept chickens. The men were billeted in a little hut in Pixton Lane with a serach-light about half a mile away from the airfield.
I also remember my parents saying "Thats German planes going over head" and I learned since that it was that the they were heading over to get to South Wales, and we could tell the aircraft noise from British planes becasue the propellers weren't syncronised.
I also remember some Americans who were stationed near by and one day - when I was in a pram - they stopped in jeep to give us sweets, one of the things that sticks in my mind was that some of them were coloured.
I also remember we always used to spend our holidays at Darmouth. I can remember the American troops, at the New Ground - which is now a carpark near the gardens, near the boat float. But then it was a grubby scrap of ground, very dusty gravel. And it was all screened off - with a massive Nissan Hut built there, and we think now it was stores for the D Day landings. My father was challenged becasue he peeked through a slit in the canvas, and a bit of a shouting match went on. Another memory I have was going to visit some one who I think was called Shepheard. Part of their land was near Slaption Sands. And they had been told to move out of the land - and they lived in corner of a field - in a little green challet. I can also remember I was always asking question as a kid. And I can remember my uncle, Fred Shattock, was in the Home guard - I think he was Captain Mainwaring rank. One night there was a hell of a lot of gunfire in the night. I can always remember him saying at the time they thought it was an attempted raiding party. He was told to go and look and he said there was a lot of dead bodies on the water. (It turned out it was the friendly fire incident Exercise Tiger). But even the Home Guard thought at the time it had been an attempted invasion.
When we were children we used to come across Hatherleigh Moor, my mother and my aunt used to wheel us in push chairs to go across. In the winter time it would be dark, and they were bombing Plymouth, and the searchlights were gong off, and you could see them - 30 miles away. Lots of people used to go up - not to watch, but to sympathise.

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