大象传媒

I was evacuated to Dorsetshire in 1941. I took to the countryside pretty well and felt safe after enduring days and nights of bombing through the London blitz. Although Dorsetshire was peaceful there were plenty of aeroplanes about and I got quite profficient at aircraft recognition. One day whilst walking down to the river with a couple of my evacuee friends an aeroplane passed overhead quite low and I could see that although it was a twin engined aircraft only one engine was working. I recognised it as a Bristol Beaufighter and it disappeared from view over the hedge. Some seconds later there was a crashing sound and I looked across the field to see the plane appear through the hedge. It had gone under the telephone wires along the adjacent lane and was skidding on its belly across the field topwards us. It skewed right around and crashed backwards into the hedge some 30 yards from us. We ran towards the plane to see if we could help but the pilot waved us away and was banging on the side window with his fist and elbow. The window dropped out and he and his fellow airman scrambled out and jumped to the ground. Both men proved to be Polish and we took them to our home, the Old Rectory in the village of Pulham which was a mere 200 yards away from where they were able to contact their unit via the telephone and within hours army and RAF personel were there and had the aircraft dismantled and taken away on trailers. I believe that at that time the Beaufighter, a nightfighter, was quite secret. I now know that the two airmen in the plane were Sergeant Pilot R.Sniezkowski and Sergeant observer Z.Domanski of 307 Lwowski Polish Squadron from RAF Exeter.

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