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One or two land mines were dropped in Ipswich during the war. These caused the most severe surface damage. On the morning after one raid we went on our bikes to see what had happened at Rushmere Heath. Two houses had been completely destroyed — a huge crater where they had been. The houses for yards around were badly damaged and it was a scene of devastation — something we shall never forget.

My mother belonged to the Rushmere Golf Club and sometimes she took me there and left me in charge of the Club Steward when she went out to play. One afternoon I was looking out of the window in the dining room, across the golf course, when I heard the drone of the plane, the whine of a bomb, and watched the explosion and earth reigning down. I was convinced that Mum was dead and was inconsolable. Minutes later she and her partner came running in. They had heard the plane and had time to run to a small hut where they threw themselves on the ground while the debris rattled on the roof.

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