大象传媒

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I was ten at the time of the war. I remember the Germans dropping incendiary bombs around Town fields in Audley. My school, Ravens Lane School, was nearby. I was looking through my bedroom window and saw that the school playground was on fire. It was incendiary bombs burning. I said to my mum "Oh good, the school's on fire - I don't have to go to school tomorrow"!
At the weekend, me and my friends went to Town fields to look where they'd dropped the bombs. We looked in some of the holes and picked up bits of shrapnel. We kept it for a bit and showed it to our friends.
I remember seeing the homeguard (our headmaster, Mr Barber was the captain) marching at the top of Town fields carrying mop sticks on their shoulders for guns.
We learned to tell the sound of the German bombers and also saw searchlights for the first time.
I remember a Lancaster bomber going towards Talke, on fire. Me and my mates started running after it, hoping to catch up with it!! It crashed the other side of Harecastle Tunnel. By the time we got there, the fields were full of debris - it just looked like a scrapyard. I don't know if anyone got killed.

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