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This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Marion McLaren of Blue Anchor Library on behalf of Eileen Barker and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Two Sides of the Coin. A True Story. The Year 1941

by Eileen Barker

We were taking a walk over Earlswood Common
My two little nieces and I, when
Suddenly a German reconnaissance plane
Swooped down from a cloudless sky,
Pelting us at eye level with tracer bullets;
I threw the little girls into a ditch
Screaming ‘don’t move’
I lay on top of the infants
Facing Pilot and machine,
And within a few seconds, this small sad heap
On England’s ever green land, transferred
This Pilot, from a boy to a man.
We three are still alive and kicking.

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