大象传媒

I joined the RAF in 1942, and when I was completely operational I was stationed in Yeovil.

Barrage balloons bring down an aircraft.

Barrage balloons kept the aircraft too high to find their aim and that was how he鈥檇 come down because he鈥檇 run into the set of barrage balloons and it鈥檇 brought him down in a field, two fields away from where we were. He was on the wrong side of the aerodrome so he couldn鈥檛 have done any damage to the 鈥榙rome because he was on the other side but if he鈥檇 been on the other side of us he鈥檇 have been on the flight path of the Westland Lysander aircraft field. That was an experience I didn鈥檛 want to have very often.
There was always two on duty all the time so that if you did have to fetch the balloon down or put it up or whatever during the night, we could. Mostly we had it flying between 500ft up to 3000 feet.

One night we was on duty 10-2pm and about 11.30 the phone rang and answering it the man said,
鈥淏e careful, keep watch out we鈥檝e brought an aircraft down two fields away and the pilot seems to have got out. What shall you do?鈥�
And I says 鈥淲e鈥檒l lock ourselves in the hut.鈥�
What could we do with a whistle and a truncheon? If we鈥檇 been a man we鈥檇 have had a gun but he鈥檇 got a gun and we鈥檇 only got a whistle. So we decided to stop inside and view from the windows. Then the phone rang again to say, 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry we鈥檝e caught the man and you鈥檙e OK鈥� so we went back outside on duty.

The proofing on the balloons affected my skin and gave me dermatitis. Later on, in 1944 they said It was actually cancer and I had lots of radiotherapy.

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