大象传媒

I was hop picking with my family at Ham Farm. I was twelve years old. Myself and two ladies went into the field next to the hop garden and saw the sky was black with German bombers.

There were fighters and dog-fights going on all over the place. Then I saw this piece of map floating down, I went into the middle of the field, between the hop garden and the river to retrieve it. On looking round to see where it came from I saw a parachute coming down and a German fighter firing at the pilot. One of our fighters saw him off and circled the pilot until he was down. It seemed he came down over Blackham way.
On getting back to the fence facing the Farm House a plane came down very low from behind the house, and being so low and coming straight towards us, we thought it was one of ours and started waving. We soon found out it must have been the one firing at the pilot because he started firing at us!

I learnt about forty five years later that the pilot was P.O.W. Tower-Perkins of 238 Squadron from Middle Wallop. The Hurricane was P3096 and it crashed on Withyham Post Office. He was taken to Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells after combat with Ju 88's. He was transferred to East Grinstead Hospital, badly burned. Released from the R.A.F. in 1946, he was still alive as of 1989.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of Les Chapman with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.