大象传媒

1943
The summer of 1943 was particularly hot and sunny. (Yes, we did have hot summers before Global Warming!) I remember being in the garden one August morning. The sky was a clear, cloudless blue. I became aware of a faint humming sound, which was growing louder. It sounded like a swarm of bees, but I couldn't see anything at ground level. I looked up into the sky and very high up I could see a column of planes flying towards the coast. They were so high and so tiny they looked like a parade of ants on the march. I called my Mother to come out and see and, as we watched, we spotted another column coming down from the north and later a third column coming from the opposite direction. All three columns joined up above us and headed out to sea. There must have been several hundred planes - a veritable armada. This was something big! News was delayed in these days, but gradually information came through that the Allies had introduced a "carpet-bombing" campaign over the Occupied Countries to prepare for the invasion. These were the "Thousand Bomber Raids", which are now history.
During this time we would frequently see bombers limping back from these raids. In the summer of '42, the Canadian Forestry Corps had arrived in the area and started clearing a large tract of pine forest a couple of miles inland from the coast. The Canadians were all skilled lumberjacks who had been recruited into the army and formed into a corps for such operations as this. They were building an airfield in the middle of the forest, presumably as a forward base for the forthcoming invasion. However, as soon as the runways were completed they were used as an emergency landing strip for returning crippled planes that had made it back to the English coast. Many lives and aircraft must have been saved by this landing strip.
On one occasion during the summer of 1943, my mother and I heard a terrifying roar and saw a B17 bomber heading straight towards our house. We threw ourselves on the floor and prayed. We really thought our last moment had come. However, the pilot managed to lift the plane over the houses and flew on towards the airstrip.
It was only then that we saw one of the plane鈥檚 engines was hanging loose and part of the tail had been shot away. We held our breath, waiting for the inevitable crash, but all went quiet so the plane must have landed safely. It is incredible to think that the plane could have limped all the way back from Germany in that condition, probably under heavy Ack-Ack fire, and one cannot imagine the state the crew must have been in. This incident really brought home to us the horror of the air war, not only on the ground, but for the air crews as well.
When I last visited Suffolk a few years ago, the Rescue Airstrip had developed into a full-scale air base. Still held by the American Air Force, it was known as Woodbridge US Air Force Base. Although it had such traumatic beginnings, it was one of the bases that survived the war.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.