大象传媒

I have a very vivid memory of one summers day when I was between 5 and 6 years old. We lived in Paddock Wood , my mother used to do farm work and this particular day she took me out strawberry picking. The adults were working and the children, including myself were playing at the edge of the field. There were aeroplanes overhead firing at each other when suddenly a German aircraft came down flying very low with smoke coming from the back. I remember distinctly how pretty the colour of the aircraft was, the adults were saying it was a Dornier.
For a short while we all stood and just watched it, then suddenly it started to machine gun us as it came in lower and lower. We could hear the bullets hitting the ground around us, my mother picked me up and threw me under a nearby hedge and then, along with everybody else , lay down as near to the hedge as possible.
We heard the aeroplane crash and then everything was very very quiet.

That night my father, who was in the home guard, had to stand sentry duty over the crashed plane and I remember how ill he was when he came home. The pilot had been decapitated by the hop wires as the plane crashed.

Whilst out in the fruit and hop fields we were fired on many times during those early years of the war and all of us children became quite adept at jumping into nearby ditches or squeezing under hedges. Strangely enough, looking back, despite the overhead dog fights and hearing the bombs falling and the sound of guns I always felt very secure and safe because all adults seemed to look after all children

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.