大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Essex on behalf of Bill Mortimer and has been added to the site with his permission. Bill understands the site's terms and conditions. Bill's story was shared at a village WW2 event held in Radwinter on 28 May 2005 and was also displayed at the event.

On 26 August 1940, we were in school in Radwinter when several large bangs were heard and we were told to get under our desks. The Germans were raiding nearby Deban!

Mother ran out of the house to see what was going on and saw four parachutes going over the village - much panic - she could not move! These chaps had come out of a Dornier 17, shot down over Cole End. They went over onto Sampford Road near Claywood. Three of the Germanss gave themselves up to Nobby Clark who ran the Waterworks pump at Claywood. The fourth was later found dead in the wood. His companions did not reveal his death or his location presumably hoping to tie up troops hunting for him.

An interesting addition to this memorable event was made by David Haylock whose mother recounted to him that the three surviving Germans had some difficulty finding someone to surrender to until Nobby Clark arrived at the Waterworks!!

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