大象传媒

One beautiful Summer's evening in 1940, I was playing near the swings and slides in the local recreation ground with a few friends. As if from nowhere 3 aircraft suddenly appeared flying very low. One of the boys shouted 'Hey look they're Jerries!' and sure enough there were the notorious black crosses on the wings. Hearing a sudden burst of gunfire, we all moved at a great rate of knots and ducked behind the one and only park seat, to watch in awe as the planes swept across the grass. Seconds later, looking westwards, the planes gained height, and we saw a stick of bombs leave one aircraft, and the rather extraordinary sight of smoke and debris silhouetted against a perfect sunset. It had all happened so quickly that there had been no time to feel frightened. We were not sure if anyone had been killed, there was no tv in those days, and new was sometimes withheld. We did hear that the Germans had dropped what was known as a Molotov breadbasket, so called because it contained both high explosive and incendiary bombs. I realised that my mother would bw worried sick, so hurried home to find her in a highly nervous state as my father had been out as well. He had been out to tend his allotment, and had been almost directly beneath the aircraft. He had thrown himself flat on the ground, but was quite excited about the fact that he had had a clear picture of the rear gunner!

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