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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mr Derrick Littleworth and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Derrick Littleworth fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

It was in the Autumn, I Derrick Littleworth, aged about thirteen years, was standing in the farm yard at East Farm Belchford with three or four lads when we heard aeroplane engines, we saw s spitfire climb up and swoop down firing machine guns at a German bomber then we saw part of the tail of the German plane fall to the ground in the corner of a field from where we stood it would have been about a mile and a half.

The German Bomber was hedge hopping to avoid the anti aircraft guns. We then got on our cycles to locate the tail part on The Fuletby road, we then cycled in the direction of where the plane came down at Aswardby.

The airmen were taken prisoner by a local searchlight company.

We also had a Hampden Bomber land on the hillside near East Farm, Belchford, as it had run out of fuel. When the conditions were right the hedges were chopped down to allow it to take of successfully.

On another occasion, in 1942, we heard a large bang. A Beaufighter Bomber crashed into the hillside at East Farm, Belchford. Two Polish crew were killed. There was a lot of ammunition going off.

Over the years, as we worked the fields, we picked up empty bullet cases. It could have been a worse disaster if it had hit the searchlight camp about 400 yards away with many soldiers in the camp at that time.

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