大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of Jean Fitzpatrick and has been added to the site with his permission. Jean Fitzpatrick fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

When I was about 2 or 3 I heard a tremendous noise and was very frightened. My grandma picked me up and took me to the window and in the sky was what looked like a big firey cross. It came down in the field behind the house. It was one of the big bomber aircraft that the Canadians flew from the airforce base at Middleton-St-George. It turned out that the pilot had decided to stay with the plane to guide it over the houses to prevent it crashing into them after instructing his crew to bale out. All the crew survived and were rescued but the pilot died. After the war, the town council invited the pilot's family - Macmillan - to come over from Canada and the town had a big opening ceremony for a new road beyond the field, and they named it Macmillan Road after the pilot. I can remember the pomp and ceremony and the pilot's father, who was crying. And that is my most vivid memory of the war. After that it was just queuing up for sweeties!

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