大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Kathleen Lockett from Crawley Library on behalf of Derek Swannick with his permssion and he fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Battle of Britain over Stanmore

In 1940, I was evacuated to Edgeware from my job in Gordon Square. Living at Stanmore at the time, I cycled to work from then on. My route was Stanmore Hill to London Road and thence to Cannons Park and Edgeware. On this particular morning I was halfway along London Road, Stanmore and I saw a chap throw himself in the ditch. I thought, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a silly thing to do鈥�, but then pedalled like fury when I heard a plane fly nearby. I then heard three explosions in the area. I cycled on to Edgeware and my work. Having finished my job at 5 o鈥檆lock in the evening, I cycled home along the same route and found that three bombs had dropped beside the road I had been along that morning! I then found out a Fokker Hit and Run bomber had been flying over Edgeware that morning, but had made it safely back to base. We decided it had probably been looking for Bentley Priory Fighter Command HQ, but thank goodness he didn鈥檛 find it.

And then in Normandy鈥�.

In July 1944 I was in Normandy as a driver for 5352 Airfield Construction Wing. One day I was travelling along the New England Road from Caen to Bayeux. Passing Colombes Quarry, I heard machine gun fire and pulled in to the side. Looking up I saw a Messerschmitt 109 overhead being attacked by two Lockheed Lightnings (P38). Whereupon, the Messerschmitt was shot down. One more lucky escape for me!

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