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Growing up in wartime Colmworth, Bedfordshire Part Two 鈥� Surrounded by airfields and aircraft. Little Staughton and Pathfinder Group No.8.

Part two of an oral history interview with Mr. John Hughes conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in planes I suppose because we were brought up with them all round us. Oh, yes all sorts were, not only by looking at them but mainly by the sound as well. You could differentiate the German bombers at nights when it was quiet, you would know which was the German bomber by the different sounds and our own. Because when I was that age there used to be a gang of us of lads, we used to congregate on the crossroads just out there. Well, me and my friend we were the youngest two but they were older than us and left school but we all used to congregate there because it seemed there was always something happening. Planes going over and flashes here and there and everywhere. If they thought there was a German bomber the search lights would be on and you鈥檇 see them darting across the sky trying to pick them out. It was a search light for finding them and then they鈥檇 send the planes up you see once they鈥檇 found them. Because radar wasn鈥檛 then what it is, or even what it was at the end of the war, there was nothing for a start to compare.

There were air raid sirens but there wasn鈥檛 actually much bombing in this area the only bombs we got mainly was when planes were being chased, the German planes were being chased home, they just wanted to lighten the load and they dropped here, there and anywhere. The RAF planes had gone up to intercept them, to fetch them down hopefully.

Little Staughton was built originally as a RAF base I believe but then when the Americans came into the war they were stationed up there a while but it was mainly RAF and they went onto bigger bases, the Americans and then it went back to the RAF again.

We didn鈥檛 go to Thurleigh because it was transport getting there and that and that was a very big base and they were very active in the wartime, we didn鈥檛 have too much to do with that. But I mean we were always seeing the planes and they were up in the skies obviously, full of aeroplanes at times. I remember, as lads we used to stand there because the Americans used to bomb in daylight they used to take off in daylight and they鈥檇 come home in daylight. And you鈥檇 see them coming home with engines stopped and bullet holes through them and that all sort of thing because they were quite low because the base was close you see. They were always quite low so we could see quite easily. They would have been the Flying Fortresses mainly. But it was a Bomber Base.

I鈥檝e told you about this gang of boys and one night we were out there and we heard this plane making a funny noise and we looked out the way of the noise and all of a sudden there was a great flash and somebody said, 鈥淒rop down!鈥� And we all dropped down and then there was the explosion. It turned out (because you always see the flash before you hear the sound) it turned out that it was a Mosquito aircraft - that was a two engined light bomber - fighter bomber from Little Staughton with a 4000 pound bomb on, it had crashed in a field at Little Staughton. And on take-off it couldn鈥檛 get up and it crashed and the bomb went off. I suppose it killed the people and it also killed a couple of cows in Mr. Whitlock鈥檚 field, that was one of the incidents. It struggled to get off and it didn鈥檛 make it and that one went off. But the Mosquitoes up there mainly were Pathfinder Squadron (No.8) that usually go and drop incendiaries for a start for the Lancasters and whatever at night time to go and bomb but they were up there for quite a time. There is a memorial up there now just outside the airfield for the Pathfinder Squadron. And I think this year is going to be the last year - they have been having an annual get together from the Pathfinder Squadron every year 鈥� and this year is going to be the last because there is hardly any of them left now unfortunately. The local pub down the bottom had all, well still has all photographs of the Pathfinder Squadron and the Lancasters at the bottom of Little Staughton, 鈥楾he Crown鈥� that is at Little Staughton.

One other thing - we used to ride our cycles - because our aeroplanes used to take off at night and come back early morning and we used to ride our cycles up to Little Staughton. And the police used to close the road because one side of the road had three dispersal points. That鈥檚 where they used to park the aircraft when they were on rest. We used to go up there and used to see these Lancasters come over the road. It is only a little two lane road - you鈥檇 get two motors wide on it - and these Lancasters used to cross over the road coming back from a journey and we鈥檇 see all bullet holes and all the names on them and the roar of the engines and the smell of them. To us it was great! I don鈥檛 think it was to those poor lads in them. But I鈥檒l always remember they had their name on the side; 鈥楩鈥� for Freddie is one I remember clearly and 鈥楯鈥� for Johnnie, they all had names like that on their sides. Yes, that was something different that was. You could see the people in them, yes because, I mean we were close, they didn鈥檛 stop us, we weren鈥檛 far away from them. These great lumbering aircraft used to come over the road in front of us. But strange now when you go up that road and think what you used to see over there.

When they used to take off for a raid - mind you this was when the Americans were there - we used to go up and if they were taking off the other way (they used to take off then according to which way the wind was) - and if they used to be taking off the other way they鈥檇 come near the road and turn round and face the other way and bring their engines up to full power and you鈥檇 get all the wind blowing through the hedge and all of a sudden they鈥檇 release them and away they鈥檇 go. We used to see that as well which was very interesting. I鈥檝e already said about how we used to see the sky full of the Fortresses from Thurleigh when they used to congregate and they used to meet up with other Squadrons. But they鈥檇 circle round at different heights, keep circling round and then they鈥檇 go off. I don鈥檛 know how many they had at Little Staughton but I know they lost what 鈥� Thurleigh this is 鈥� they lost 728 men from Thurleigh I believe. That was something to see all those aeroplanes in the sky like that. Also from Little Staughton there was a Lockheed Lightning, that鈥檚 an American plane. A twin bodied plane that was. We鈥檝e had a British Lightning but that was after. This was a Lockheed Lightning and it went to take off and it touched the roof of the old chapel, an old chapel just near the drome, only one storey high it was and it took the tiles off the top of the roof as it took off. We went to see that.

One night these bombs must have dropped, I think that was when they were chasing one of the bombers home and he just released them anywhere. Manor Farm just down the road on a corner near the Church, we had to walk to school of course and this bomb had dropped overnight and as we went down there was all these clumps of mud all over the road and the path. Well there wasn鈥檛 a path then, just grass, and we had to walk and step over, we never thought nothing of it really, though it was very unusual all this dirt and a damned great hole. But apparently they had dropped two in the area that night another one up the other end of the village, I suppose from the same aeroplane. But funnily enough although that one dropped and exploded I never heard a thing - until next morning!

I remember a particular incident yes that stuck in my mind to this day, actually. I was a kid at the time (October 1940) as I say I must have only been seven, I鈥檇 gone to bed in the old farmhouse where we lived and woken up or hadn鈥檛 gone to sleep and I heard this screeching noise outside. And I jumped out the bed and drew the curtains back and there was this plane coming down and the flame and the horrible noise. It鈥檚 engines were roaring and all flames and it crashed just down the road from where lived, about a mile as the crow flies, about a mile away. So the next morning we went down and of course it was RAF personnel, it had been roped off - still smouldering, horrible smell, acrid smell. I can remember seeing this hand in a glove and it frightened us a bit really. It started making you think, just an ordinary hand, it could have been anybody鈥檚. Horrible!

I can remember the night when they bombed Coventry, I鈥檒l never forget that night. I told you before we knew when it was a German plane and they kept coming over and over and over. When they bombed Coventry that night they, oh dear, it went on forever it seemed. We didn鈥檛 know of course until the next day where they were going or what had happened but we soon found out. You just heard that there had been a massive raid on Coventry that night. So you knew that鈥檚 where they鈥檇 gone to and Coventry, as the crow flies, is not so far away from here I suppose.

When these Yanks as we called them were at Little Staughton the lorries used to come by here as well and us kids outside we used to call out to the Yanks, 鈥楢ny gum, chum?鈥� And they鈥檇 throw us some as well. The fag packets they used to have as well, because the older boys they used to throw cigarettes to. There were these long Pall Mall I think they were called and Camel all in these posh packets what they used to sling to the lads because they seemed to have plenty of everything. Saying plenty of everything I can remember as well when we were kids, because there wasn鈥檛 any sweets about or anything like that or fruit, hardly any fruit as well. Apparently down at the 鈥極ld White Swan鈥�, that鈥檚 a pub just down the road they had some evacuees from London staying there and I was friendly with a boy there. And of course the Yanks used to use this pub a bit and I can remember 鈥榚m inviting us down once, just before Christmas one evening to look at the tree. And we went in and there was this tree in the corner lit up and there was candy hanging on it, sweets as we know them but we thought that was wonderful, we could all have a piece of candy each. We thought, wow, that was something else.

Another thing we used to see round when they鈥檇 trained these pilots and what have you was the Harvard - they are an American trainer. They used to have yellow stripes on the wings so that you knew they were training aircraft and they used to fly around quite a lot as well and you always knew them because they had a certain sound with them that no other aeroplane had got. As soon as you heard one you knew what it was, miles away before it got anywhere near you.

Also, another plane crashed. This was a Liberator, that was a four engined American plane, that crashed on the way home between here and St.Neots, half way down and I can remember going down on our bikes to that one as well. One thing we did see, we did get quite near that really and there was all this toffee I suppose the Yanks used to have a lot of toffee. It had melted and it had all gelled together this toffee and we were looking, dare we have it or daren鈥檛 we - and no we didn鈥檛. There wasn鈥檛 the smell, whether the chaps had baled out and everything was alright - you know just the plane had crashed.

Then there was another one, this was a Flying Fortress that crashed on the way to Bedford, just at the other end of the village and that was in daylight. We鈥檇 see that come round with one engine feathered, that is with one engine stopped and one of them was on fire and the other was making a funny noise. And we rode our bikes to the Church, you could get up to the battlements then, half way up, we hadn鈥檛 got binoculars, but we flew up the Church there because they used to undone then, of course you could just walk in and go up the stairs. We went up there and we could see where it had crashed so we run down again and got our bikes and rode up the road, about a mile and a half. And the police were then and they had roped it off and wouldn鈥檛 let us anywhere near it. But it was burning furiously, it was like a firework display really because they had tracer bullets, they were going all ways just like a firework display for quite a long time. I suppose the blokes lost their lives in that as well which we didn鈥檛 realise so much at the time.

One other thing, we did see a dog fight. That was looking down out to the east, that was over Wyboston where it happened. Our Spitfires and a German fighter I suppose it was and there was all this noise and planes going this way and that way and they did shoot one down over Wyboston. And of course we thought that was great, we were egging them on, 鈥榞o on, get him!鈥�
Like I said there always seemed to be something going on in the wartime.

I think the only time I was really frightened was when you did hear a siren from wherever and knew there were bombers about somewhere and we used to get under the stairs. My mum used to put us under the stairs until it was 鈥榓ll clear鈥� but you would hear the bomber, the sound of it, and you would think 鈥榠s it coming near?鈥� Or if you were lying in bed sometimes you would hear the same noise and you wouldn鈥檛 go to sleep and you think, 鈥榠s it getting nearer or not?鈥� that sort of thing, but that was the frightening bits. But seeing ours around, I wasn鈥檛 frightened.鈥�

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