大象传媒

When they built a machine gun post in a pill box on the island just down the road it brought the reality of the war much nearer to us in our rural village.

I remember the winter of 1940 it was very cold with snow on the ground for weeks. There was an RAF aeroplane grounded near our school in Franche. It was an Avro Anson twin engine used for leaflet drops that had been forced to land. I remember the warrant officer telling me they hadn鈥檛 got enough run way to take off again.

I was fascinated by them and the plane and the excitement of it all. They used to light a fire to keep warm and they slept in tents with the snow billowing around them.. I spent hours going to see them, in fact I didn鈥檛 go to school for three days. I was too busy hanging around, chatting to them and watching them.

As luck would have it I was there when they took off and I remember the wheels of the plane clipped the top of the nearby hedge. I was very sad to see them go. It had all been so exciting and I鈥檇 never seen an aeroplane so close.

Just through our village was a huge old Victorian country house called The Woodlands. There was a Royal Signals Corp there, I think it was the Essex Regiment doing training. I spent hours talking to the soldiers in the sentry box. They were my heroes.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sue Broome of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Ron Jennings and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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