- Contributed by听
- threecountiesaction
- People in story:听
- Audrey Bennett (nee Chastey) Peter Bennett
- Location of story:听
- Devon
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A5519577
- Contributed on:听
- 04 September 2005
This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Joan Smith for Three Counties Action on behalf of Peter Bennett, a visitor to the Glenn Miller Festival on 28th August 2005, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
My mother remembers working on the family farm in rural mid-Devon when she was sixteen years old, and the day when she looked up and saw the sky filled with planes pulling gliders. There were so many that the sky went dark. Of course she didn't know at the time what they were doing, and learned later that it was the Canadian raid on Dieppe - which was unsuccessful, and all those pilots died.
She remembers also hearing Lord Haw-Haw saying : 'Tonight we will bomb Crediton Church'. The church was hit by bombs that night, and she lived only about one hundred yards away from it. At that time she was working as a nanny for the vicar of Crediton, and there was a Polish Air Base nearby. She remembers also lying in bed and hearing the sounds of Glenn Miller's music playing at the nearby Gaumont theatre.
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