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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Radio Suffolk on behalf of Margaret Ling and has been added to the site with her permission. She understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Just after war was declared, we returned home to Stoke by Clare after our short holiday in Dovercourt. We were told we might have some evacuees to stay with us but it didn鈥檛 happen. Some came to stay with relatives in the village. One family would not go back to London after the war and they stayed in Suffolk.

Mrs Barnes, the vicar鈥檚 wife, asked the ladies of the village to go to the vicarage to knit balaclavas, socks, scarves and mittens for the crews of the minesweepers to protect them from the cold at sea. The ladies also made jam with the local produce to sell in the local shops and were allowed extra sugar for this.

The meat was allocated at the slaughter house in Clare, which Dad had to collect and some of it was in a poor condition. I can remember Mother washing the pork in vinegar before it was made into sausages. One customer remarked to Dad 鈥淗ow good the sausages are this week鈥�! It must have been the vinegar flavour. We never had food poisoning then! The sausages had to have the right amount of meat in them and not too much rusk. The food inspectors came into the shop to take away a sample of the sausage meat to check if the ingredients were alright.

When the Americans came to Ridgewell, they bought bicycles from anyone who had one to sell. It was their means of transport to get them to the local pubs and most of the pubs sold out of beer. Their other form of transport was the railway which passed through Stoke by Clare, so when they had time off they went to Cambridge and London by train. They also collected the bombs in lorries from the railway station. The American Red Cross girls were at the base to serve coffee and ring doughnuts. Bing Crosby was one of the well known stars who entertained the men at the base. In the early hours of the morning we would hear the 鈥榝lying fortresses鈥� go over the house and not so many came back. We got used to them. The German planes had a dull drone and so did the doodlebugs. One of them was shot down and landed at Baythorne End near The Swan public house. My father was delivering meat at the time and had to duck under a customer鈥檚 kitchen table as the bomb landed close by.

We had a 鈥榙ug out鈥� at the bottom of the garden. It was made out of railway sleepers and corrugated iron. It was only used once when there was a 鈥榙og fight鈥� overhead in the village. Grandad made a dive for the shelter but left Grandma in the house! The bullets from the fight shattered the green houses in Stoke College grounds.

Soldiers were based in Baythrone End Park. One of them would visit a French lady at night wearing carpet slippers. The villagers suspected that this lady was a spy and Mr Pizzy, who lived next door at "The Traveller's Rest" and was an Air Raid Warden and Special Constable, reported their suspicions to the Police. The soldiers moved on and the next day a bomb was dropped in the park.

We were the first to hear that the war had ended. John came home from the airbase where he had been working and told us the good news. We then put all the flags out.

I hope the future generation will realise just how lucky we are that young men and women risked their lives to save us and our country.

On August 28, 1982, the men of the 381st Bomb Group returned with their wives to the old aerodrome at Ridgewell to attend the Memorial Service and Dedication of the War Memorial. The Chaplain, James Good Brown, who served at Ridgewell during the war, was there in his original uniform.

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