大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Kimberley from GMR Action Desk on behalf of Mr Joe Rodger and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands website's terms and conditions.

I joined the air force when I was 17. I was in the home guard so I told my mum I was going to camp!
After 6 weeks they still hadn't sent for me , so I wrote a letter- they replied to me, but my mother found the letter and threatened that she would tell them I am only 17, because she didn't want me to join in. I protested saying that I wanted and I would join the RAF.
At the time I was 18, I was already the sergeant air gunner. I remember many things, especially the 1st plane I shot down. Our "Muncaen gladbachreygt". We were in the aircraft, looking down at the destruction we were causing - we weren't supposed to look down, because we could loose our vision looking at the explosions. At that moment I looked up and I saw this black and red "fish" in the sky- it looked like a massive salmon! We were supposed to do the corkscrew like a butterfly pattern. Just as the fighter started coming in, the middle gunner lost his nerve- so we didn't shot it. As the plane opened fire (much stronger than ours) the middle gunner started firing - and the forth wing of the plane went down. I was so excited. I felt like Jimmy Cagney...!
A few nights after that I couldn't sleep. I would have nightmares about the plane going down - whether it was guilt or not- I don鈥檛 know.

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