大象传媒

Early in the 1940s after Dunkirk and the Home Guard or L.D.V. as they were then known had been formed, me and a cowman were feeding cattle beet from a horse and cart on a meadow next to a big Army camp. It was a terrible day weather-wise with very low cloud. The cowman who was official plane spotter in the local Home Guard was driving the horse while I was unloading the cattle beet when over the Army camp a twin-engined plane dropped out of the clouds. The Home Guard spotter then said he recognised it as a Blenheim fighter bomber and he said "Fancy a Blenheim being out in this weather." I thought that don't sound like a British plane to me when I saw tufts of grass flying up from the meadow and I dived over and under the cart as I realized we were being machine gunned by a German Junker's 88. I was closely followed under the cart by the Home Guard after I heard a bullet hit the cattle beet in the cart. And he said to me "Do you know thats what they call in wartime friendly fire." The only thing I could say was "It didn't seem very friendly to me, that was a b....y Jerry." After throwing out the rest of the cattle beet I found the bullet in the bottom of the cart which I kept during the war. I kept a good look out in case our so called friendly plane didn't come back. I learnt afterwards he went on to machine gun the Area School playground at Beccles. Luckily no one was hit but like us the children were pretty scared. The next day there was a new Home Guard plane spotter on the lookout post.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Michael Huskisson of Suffolk Libraries on behalf of Charles R.H. Aldred and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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