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This story was saved at the Bedfordshire County Show and was submitted to the People's War site by Gillian Ridley for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Malcolm Reeves and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Mum was a Haberdasher for Elliston & Caver where Debenhams is now in Oxford and she used to take me (about 13 yrs old) down to London with her to buy Haberdashery, I can remember the doodle bugs buzzing overhead, there were sand bags and arrows pointing down to the shelters under Selfridges, once the all clear had sounded we carried on shopping and then went home.

We were at the market in Banbury Oxen where my family come from, I was selling fruit and veg at the market with my Uncles & Grandfather, when I saw a ME109 (I think) a German fighter coming down the high street where the market was, he was shooting his guns down the road. When we heard a low flying plane we all instinctively ran for cover the bullets were ricocheting off the road and breaking the windows of the shops. No-body was harmed. He zoomed up and away and about 20 — 30 seconds later two Spitfires came chasing him. We saw a big flare and heard a woomf as he hit the Gasometer and later we heard that the Spitfires had shot him down.
We think he had got lost, as there was nothing around.
I do remember being without Gas, luckily we had an aga.

My sister was a technician at The Morris motor works at cowley renamed CRU (civilian repair unit) all the Morris motors site was disguised as a Village from the sky, there were two chimneys that were disguised as straight roads, there were cardboard cut out cars on the roads. My sister who was 12 years older than me used to take out the instruments from crashed aircraft and recalibrate them to be used again (she found an Airman’s foot in a boot once still in the plane)
The test pilots, a lot of them Polish, used to fly through the Chimneys sideways- they used to get told off for it.
I had a pair of roller skates which were broken she took them in and had them welded up for me.
So they didn’t bomb the place ‘cause they couldn’t see it. What they did hit, with insendry bombs, was the Bus garage and they destroyed a lot of double deckers.

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