大象传媒

Having escaped from France to Jersey in June 1940 the platoon of soldiers of which I was a member were given defence duties at the state of Jersey airport. We were poorly equipped having only one antiquated Lewis machine gun. As I stood on duty scanning the sky for any possible German planes, a naval officer left the queue of passengers boarding the last civilian plane to leave Jersey. He pointed to a small biplane which was parked about a hundred yards away. "This is my plane", he said. "Please destroy it before the Germans come." I promised I would do as he asked when I was relieved from my post. A few minutes later I was approached by a farmer who had been working in a nearby field. He asked if he might buy the plane from me and I replied that he could take it with pleasure providing he could hide it from the Germans. Before he towed away the biplane behind his tractor the farmer thanked me and gave me a packet of Woodbine cigarettes. As these only cost one old penny it might rightly be thought of as a huge bargain.

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