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CANFORD CLIFFS -- MEMORIES

When war was declared in 1939, Adrian Crossley was only three years old, but he has vivid memories of some of the events which took place during the war years. Adrian lived in a house on Canford Cliffs near Bournemouth with his Dad, Brian and Mum, Margery.

Adrian’s Dad, Brian was Captain of the Home Guard and stored the ammunition for an anti aircraft gun, in a cupboard, under the stairs. The anti aircraft gun had been erected on the top of the cliffs just outside the Crossley’s garden. Adrian remembers finding this ammunition and putting a handful in his pocket and taking it to school to show his teacher and all his little friends. Needless to say, his teacher and his parents were not best pleased — he remembers being reprimanded!!

The anti aircraft gun was used to shoot down two German planes — one over the Purbeck hills and the other went down in Bournemouth harbour. Adrian’s Dad and his fellow Home Guard recruits waded into the water and arrested the Germans who were frantically baling out of the damaged plane. For a small boy watching from the cliff tops,
it was all terribly exciting.

All the children used to collect bits of the German Messerschmitt aircraft which had been shot down, to take to school. One day when Adrian walked to school he was faced with an eerie sight — his school had been bombed the previous night and was no longer a recognisable building.

During the war years Adrian was not allowed to play on the beach or swim in the sea — it was far too dangerous and littered with war debris and possible unexploded bombs. He does recall seeing his first black man, who was an American. Also, something called an American Duck — which was an amphibious vehicle used to transport troops from large ships to the beach.
By a strange co-incidence, Adrian was in Boston, USA, in 2002 and one of the tourist attractions was to drive one of these Ducks!! — and YES, he did have a go.

Story told by Adrian Crossley.
Written and submitted by Paula Phillips.

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