大象传媒

I was aged 7 when War was declared in 1939 and 13 when it ended. I spent all my young schooldays at Coggeshall Church School and then went onto private school in Colchester at 13. These are some of the memories I have of that time:

Being pushed indoors as the bombs hit the parish church of St Peter ad Vincula.

Watching the Battle of Britain overhead in the blue skies during September/October 1940. We saw lots of dogfights including one German aircraft shot down, we cycled along the Earls Colne road to see the crash and collected souvenirs from it!

When the USAF came to Earls Colne we saw a khaki invasion of Coggeshall of over 3000 airmen 鈥� more than the total population of the village. They bought up every available bicycle in the area. In fact my first bike was bought from a US pilot whose aircraft was called 鈥淟ittle Lulu鈥� and painted blue all over like the bike!

My father worked for the MOD at Earls Colne Airfield and looked after the boiler rooms at the military hospital and 2 other sites. Several Americans asked him to light their fires/boilers in their quarters and he was repaid with cigarettes, chocolates and comics for me.

We had several bombs dropped around Coggeshall and often saw Doodlebugs flying overhead towards the end of the War.

I鈥檓 pretty certain that my Uncle Harold, who was a Special Constable during the War, was the only casualty in Coggeshall. He went outside during a raid and a tile slipped off the roof and hit him on the head.

The first aircraft at Earls Colne were the B17 Flying Fortresses and we often watched them returning from bombing raids over Germany. Some damaged planes struggled to reach the airfield. One such plane couldn鈥檛 quite make it and had to crash land at Coggeshall. My friend who was upstairs at home doing his homework (top of Grange Hill) some 2 miles from the runway when a B17 crash landed along the gardens of his house and a row of cottages. Whew what a relief no one was hurt!

The USAF fighters carried extra petrol tanks which were slung underneath the fuselage. These were discarded before landing and we used to find them and turn them into canoes. We had to cut a hole in the top and fill the base with concrete. They made great boats!!

I tasted my first ever ice cream in1945 when an American cook (a friend of my fathers) delivered a tray to the house. I鈥檒l always remember that!

The USAF gave us super Christmas parties both in the Coggeshall PX (hall) and at Earls Colne airfield.

I remember my father coming home one day and he said 鈥淚鈥檝e just seen Bob Hope, Frances Langford and Gerry Calona鈥� 鈥� they gave a show in one of the hangars.

One outstanding memory is looking out of my bedroom window one Sunday in September 1944 to see hundreds of aircraft and gliders off to 鈥淥peration Market Garden鈥�. The aircraft were taking off from Rivenhall to the left and Earls Colne to the right and crossing each over Coggeshall.

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