大象传媒

I was 12 when the war started and was living in a small town called Henfield in West Sussex.

In 1940 during the Battle Britain I used to watch the dog-fights overhead. All the fighting was done way up high and you'd see the con trails twisting and swirling around in the sky and maybe the faint tic tic tic of machine gun fire.

Once, a Spitfire crashed into the back garden of 'Cat House' a well known land mark cottage near the church. All the salvaged pieces of the aircraft were taken across the road to a larger piece of ground ready for collection by the RAF,

Henfield was never a target for the German bombers but occasionally bombs would be jettisoned over the fields. Us kids used to collect machine gun bullets and pieces of shrapnel. If you had a nice piece of nose cone from a bomb you could trade it for a few cigarette cards or a couple of comics.

Later in the war I moved to Faygate and worked in a munitions factory in Ifield, near Crawley. It was actually a garage that had been converted. Most of the machinery was done by women with a few men setting the machines. One day a canister carrying incendiary bombs was dropped near us but it landed in a hedge and none of the bombs went off. Each incendiary was about eight inches long and about two inches diameter. Our manager decided he'd turn one of the incendiaries on a lathe to make a cigarette lighter. But they were made of phosphorus and it got very hot and caught fire! Ruined the lathe too.

Another time, probably late 1942, the sirens went off at the end of the day warning us that doodlebugs (V1's) were coming over. The girls left the building and I was just off on my bike, when I heard this doodlebug - it sounded like an old motorbike. Then I heard a plane - a Spitfire - approaching. The pilot machine-gunned the doodlebug but in doing so he sent two or three rows of bullet holes up the drive and up the walls of the factory. Thankfully, no-one was hurt. It happened so fast that I didnt have time to be scared. I was just watching it all happen. In fact, I couldnt wait to get home to tell everyone about it.

Also around this time, I came out of our house one Sunday morning and heard this awful noise. I loked up and saw an American B17 bomber at almost rooftop height, obviously coming back from a raid. It was in a hell of a state and flying at a 30 degree angle. Half its tail was missing, one of the engines had stopped and a huge piece of wing was hanging down. I think it came down near Crawley. I have no idea if anyone survived.

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