大象传媒

I was born in Romford, Essex in 1934. In 1943, to escape the bombing, my mother borrowed a lorry from my father's firm,and loaded my sister, myself ,and the dog into it. My father was working on extensions to the airfield at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire which was quite peaceful and away from the war.So my mother set off with us aboard to Upper Heyford. We stopped at Wembley to borrow a quite sophisticated domestic tent from her sister's family, and soon we were esconced in a very picturesque field alongside the airfield. My astonished father, although unprepared for our arrival, soon accepted us, and there we stayed for about 10 months.Upper Heyford became a USAF base, and today is maintained partially as a war museum.

My ever resourceful mother then heard that there was a very primitive cottage for rent, and we found ourselves living in "Queenies Cottage" in Juniper near to Brackley, and there we stayed until the end of the war. We discovered then that "Queenie's" was quite famous,being featured in "Lark Rise to Candleford" by Flora Thompson.

The nearby airfield of RAF Croughton was the base for the training of Glider crews for the pending D Day, and the everyday sight of these spectacular activities became familiar to us.Even the event of an aborted glider landing, ending in a hedgerow became commonplace. It was'nt until many years later that we realised how we had been witnessing the birth of such extraordinarily innovative tool of WW2, and was so important in the D Day landings.

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