大象传媒

At the start of the war my mother decided to send me, my brother and sister to Blackpool from our home in Salford as evacuees.
Instead, we all went to stay with our maternal grandmother in Fairfield, Worcestershire.
We all attended the Weal village school, involving a walk of about two miles (4 in total).
On the walls of the classroom of standards 3 and 4 were pictures of enemy aircraft so that we would know which were "ours" and "theirs". Having spent a little time at school after classes, I was walking home alone, at about 4pm on a fine summer's afternoon.
I heard an aeroplane approaching from the direction of Birmingham with the sound of machine gun fire. I had been told by my mother that if I saw a German plane I was to dive into the nearest ditch.
The plane was flying quite low, and I could see that it was a Junkers 89 ( a heavy, four-engined bomber). It was learned later that it had bombed the Austin motor works (now Rover/MG) and was involved in allowing the rear gunner a bit of target practice on a herd of cows!
Obeying instructions, I dived in to the nearest ditch. Now,it had been a very dry summer, but this particular ditch was full of smelly, stagnent water.
I emerged, stinking and soaked, and made my soggy way home having observed the Junkers being pursued by two Spitfires.
My mother took one look at me and gave a really good hiding. Hindsight made me realise that she was under a great deal of stress as a nurse at the time of a lot of day and night raids in the Birmingham area, plus the fact that in the days of clothing rationing, I only had the jacket and trousers I stood up in.
I was early to bed, while my clothes were scrubbed and "possed" and hung in front of a fire which had to be lit using up part of our limited coal ration to be ready for school the next day.
A small incident, but one which imbued in me a tendency to question instructions, which had lasted me over 60 years.

PS. The Spitfires returned, and did a "victory roll" over the village.

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