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This story was submitted to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of the author who fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was eleven years old in 1939 and I went to Wymondham Secondary Modern School (on Norwich Road). The school was opened in 1937 and the head teacher was Miss Dorothy Clarke. Mr Purchase was a senior teacher.

I remember a German plane coming from Norwich, machine gunning all the way — the bullets just missed the school. I also remember loads of wounded being taken by bus to the Military Hospital at Morley. There were several attempts to bomb the railway line but it was missed, with the bombs falling at The Lizard and at Silfield.

The Army used a hut beside Norwich Road as a barracks, which later became the W.I. hut.

One day I had to wait one and a half hours when the troops were moving south to prepare for D-Day. This made me late for school.

One very sad wartime memory was seeing an American bomber return from a raid, landing at Old Buckenham and then bursting into flames with no survivors.

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