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This story, by Eric Boucher, is one of a series submitted by 大象传媒 Radio Cornwal listeners and collated and edited by Euan Mahy. The author is aware of the legal issues surrounding publishing material on this site.

An ecounter with the enemy by Eric Boucher

On 7th September 1940 wave after wave of German bombers were attacking the docks in the east end of London. Hearing the Luftwaffe overhead, I had no idea that within a few hours I would be face to face with one of the crew of an enemy bomber. I spent the evening in a North London Control Centre where I worked as a messenger for Air Raid Precautions, later known as Civil Defence. We were busy ordering fire tenders to the docks. I was 16 at the time.

At 5am the next morning I accompanied a bread van heading for the mobile canteens at the docks. As we passed through Hackney we were stopped by a wartime reserve policemen. He told us a German airman was caught in a tree by his parachute and he had been spotted by a group of locals who were becoming hostile. The policemen was there to protect the airman but as he couldn't speak German he asked me to try to talk with him. I went into the park and saw the man had drawn his pistol, but he was injured and kept passing out from the pain. I used my schoolboy German to tell the man the Army had been called.

By this time the crowd was angry. Many had lost relations in the blitz and wanted revenge. I pointed out that the airman would probably use his gun to defend himself and this seemed to calm them. An RAMC ambulance arrived with six soldiers and a young officer who had to draw his pistol to keep the crowd away. His men surrounded the tree and helped the airman to the ground from where he was taken to hospital.

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