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15 October 2014
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How an Enemy Pilot Unwittingly Helped My Babies in WW2

by 1949 : Baby Boomer

Contributed by听
1949 : Baby Boomer
People in story:听
Catherine and John Wrigley, James McDonald
Location of story:听
Dover and Liverpool
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A2784350
Contributed on:听
26 June 2004

How an enemy pilot unwittingly helped my babies in WW2

Account By Kitty Wrigley nee McDonald.

In 1940 the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies over the Eastern Arm of Dover Harbour. During a particular dogfight an enemy plane was shot down and the pilot parachuted into the English Channel. Men of D company of the Green Howard鈥檚 pulled the airman from the sea and brought him as a prisoner to my father Company Sergeant Major James McDonald,(who had been seconded to the Green Howards from his own regiment the Liverpool(Irish) Kings.) As the German was slightly wounded and soaking wet the men guarding him tried to treat his wounds and put him in dry blankets. The young pilot, according to my dad was a 鈥淏loody Swine鈥 who did not take kindly to any help from the men. As they cut the straps from his lifejacket the man snatched it and flung it at my dad. That part of the story ends here apart from the fact that my father kept the lifejacket and brought it home.
In 1942 I married and had my first chid Kathleen who was stillborn in 1943. My next two daughters, Pauline and Catherine were born in 1944 and 1946 .They like my first were born with Spina Bifida, a painful curvature of the spine. In those days there was little medical help or advice for such a condition and my husband John and I just had to take the girls home and get on with it. One of the most distressing aspects of Spina Bifida is that the babies could not rest, lay or sleep with any comfort .Day and night we tried to ease their pain by packing pillows around them as they lay, until my dad remembered the German lifejacket that he had brought back from Dover some years before.
When partially blown up the vest or as we called it the 鈥淢ae West鈥 was a great help in easing the babies pain and discomfort in their cots .We even managed to make the pram comfier for them to go outside. My father was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal by the King for his actions in a later conflict at Dover (See: Battle of Britain: Dads D.C.M. at Buckingham Palace) but for my children鈥檚 sake his greatest achievement, as far as I was concerned was that he brought home a German lifejacket from that horrible battle and eased their short lives before they both died in 1947 and 1948. I still have the orange 鈥淢ae West鈥 it is stamped with an inverted triangle bearing the words WETZELL GUNNMI VI-40. It is ironic that a pilot sent by the Nazi regime to terrorize, attack and kill British people unwittingly helped a young Liverpool family and eased the lives of two sick babies in WW2.

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Message 1 - touching story

Posted on: 16 April 2005 by U1496231

I WAS REALLY TOUCHED BY YOUR STORY.IT IS SO IRONIC THAT A LIFEJACKET AND THAT TO OF A NAZI GERMAN COULD EASE A CHILDS PAIN.I REGRET THE LOSS OF YOUR TWO CHILDREN BUT I WAS RELIEVED TO KNOW THAT THEY SPEND THEIR LAST DAYS IN COMFORT WITHIN THE GERMAN LIFEJACKET.IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND PLEASEDO SO AT brian.n@rediffmail.com

Message 2 - touching story

Posted on: 18 September 2005 by 1949 : Baby Boomer

Brian
thanks for your comments to my mums story of the Mae West (lifejacket).If you are interested there are 2 more stories , Battle of BRITAIN 1940 . My Dads D.C.M at Buckingham Palace and the day I saw the King. A2784332

"Hidden History in an old shed"
A2688834.
Sorry about being late to reply but still cant get to grips with this
" ELECTRICKERY"

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