大象传媒

I lived at Cryers Hill about one mile from Gt. Kingshill where " Bomber " Harris resided in a country house named Springfields. I saw him regularly being driven in his Humber staff car as he journeyed between his home and Daws Hill the underground home of Bomber Command just outside High Wycombe. We had a Londoner, called George Nutley lodging with us; a clerk by trade who hobbies were photography and cycling. He could not say what he did, always responding " secret work ". When the war ended he told us he had been processing photo - reconaissance films taking during bombing raids. Every day this ordinary man cycled one mile down the hill, half a mile along the valley then walked up the hill passing Hughenden Church through the small woodlands into Hughenden Manor, the once country seat of Benjamin Disraeli, to his work.When Springfields had an Open Day for us locals I was surprised to learn that all the secret work was not conducted at Springfields but in the gardeners cottage adjacent. A very small simple brick and flint building.
I also remember George pointing down our long garden to the orange flickering glow in the sky saying " they are getting it again ". He also helped count the mass of aircraft as they overflew our house;it was one of the 1,000 bomber raids which Churchill ordered to be routed over London to boost morale.
High Wycombe was heavily involved in the war effort. The town's furniture industry was switched to making gliders and mosquito fighters. The local air compressor factory made and repaired tanks. They were often driven along the valley, up Cryers Hill and turned round outside my school. The crewmen would train the gun on us as we walked on the footpath.
There were always aircraft flying overhead. We had the Tiger Moths ( Booker Bombers )from F.T.C Booker. The crew often tried to get close to our chimney pots as a prank. I saw numerous crippled bombers with smoking feathered engines and enormous chunks missing from the planes.
One morning I missed school because I felt unwell whilst I was in bed there was a loud bang and a pall of smoke rose above the trees. I got up and walked about one and a half miles to the edge of the woodland to find a large crater where a Doodle bug had struck. I found in a hedge the intact jet pipe. I hauled it back home , an achievement as it was larger than myself. When my mother saw it she was despaired and the police were called to collect my souvenir. The bomb had exploded on the opposite side of the valley to Hughenden Church. The East window showered stained glass onto Disraeli's grave.We wondered if the bomb was 30 miles off course for London or aimed for the SECRET INTELLIGENCE PLACE.

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