大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Allan Price on behalf of James Traquain and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I remember very clearly planes flying west high in the sky. The search lights had them lit up and there was a small formation of them. A friend who lived two miles east of us, Andrew Anderson, of Treaton Shaw Farm, said they came over his farm as well - so they must have been a lot of them!

The search lights were on the neighbours farm, Sherifhall Mains, half a mile up the road. Our farm was called Longthorn Farm.

We were just outside the farm house, my grandfather (William Traquain) and dad (J Traquain) were leaning on the gate watching them go overhead. It was early in the evening, just after dark.

Longthorn Farm was about two miles away from Dalkeith and the field nearest Dalkeith was taken over. About four acres of concrete pads were layed in the area. The plan was to set fire to those pads to draw the enemy planes. They were never used. Part of the road to these pads still remains today.

All the fields in our area had 15 foot poles put in to stop gliders from landing.

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