大象传媒

One summers day in 1944, my friends and I watched a glider being towed from Easton Lodge. I was eleven years old at the time, and these things were fascinating to watch. We realised that the rope had parted from the towing plane before it was high enough to be safe. We watched the glider go to left and release its rope, whilst the plane veered to the right to get out of the path of the glider. The glider landed safely in a field near Elsenham station. We all ran over to see the glider and saw the discarded rope on the way. We met the pilot and co-pilot which was obviously extremely exciting to a group of children. They were fortunately uninjured. We took the co-pilot to where the rope had fallen to check for damage.

About a week later we watched whilst the glider was snatched: this involved a plane lassoing the glider from the ground and towing it to its base. It took several unsuccessful attempts and looking back was mind-boggling to see; I wondered, for example how the gliders wings didn't break off!

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