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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Geoffrey Redman from Crawley Library and has been added to the website on behalf of Mr R. Barber with his permission and he fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

In 1944, I was delivering some Lights (meat) for the local butcher on his trades bike. I was on my way from the outskirts of Biggin Hill to Tatsfield, which is about 3 miles out of Biggin Hill, to where I was making the delivery to a lady in Tatsfield.
I was terrified to hear the distinctive sound of a Flying Bomb and I could see it overhead at about 1,000 feet. I dropped the trades bike and the meat fell out onto the gravel at the side of the road. When the flying bomb had passed (it probably came down in Purley or Croydon area), I picked myself up out of the bushes and discovered where the meat had fallen! But I did my best to clean off the dust and dirt.
When I got to Tatsfield and met the lady, she remarked what a funny colour the Lights were — they were grey instead of white. So she phoned the butcher and complained, and the butcher said to send it back, so I had to take it back and explain to the butcher how it had got that colour. When he asked me why I hadn’t said anything, I explained that I didn’t think she’d notice and that I was trying to make the best of the circumstances with supplies being so short.

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