大象传媒

One Saturday, I think it was August 1940, in the early afternoon a squadron of German Bombers attacked the Sugar beet factory at Allscott near Wellington. It was a bright clear day and the Observers on duty had a clear view of the whole raid (approximately six miles away from Hadnall).

We understood that in 1938 - prior to the war, a German manufacturer had installed new refining machinery made in Germany. The Luftwaffe knew the exact location of this factory and that we in this country relied to a great extent on cane sugar imported from the West Indies and now severely rationed. These Luftwaffe bombers had flown at low level in broad daylight with the specific mission of destroying our sugar supplies.

The raid was extremely successful, but the sugar beet harvest does not start until mid- September and being Saturday afternoon very few people were in the factory, so the loss of life was minimal. However we lost all the sugar production for that season!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Thomas M. Needham and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Needham fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Mr Needham's stories:

• Evacuation of Schoolchildren from Urban Areas - 1939
• The Observer Corps (Later the Royal Observer Corps)

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