大象传媒

In The buildup to D Day the ladies of the area around High Street South, Norman Road, Londsdale Road, all gathered on the parade of shops and made great urns of Tea which was poured into jam jars and were passed up to the backs of the army trucks to provide what must have been much needed refreshment. The stronger ladies and any men passed up the jam jars in wooden bakers trays. The childrens job was to go to the top of the hill where the high street crossd the A13 and collect the empty jars, which nearly always contained money towards the costs, and rush them back down the hill to be rinsed and used again.
My second memory is of standing in the back garden of 71, Hameway, East Ham, London E.6.. A Doodlebug was passing over, we usually stood and watched as there was not sufficient time to dive down the Anderson Shelter, suddenly two Spitfires (I think) came alongside the flying bomb, one either side. They were so low I could see the faces of the pilots. They slowed down and each put their wingtips under the Doodlebug, lifted it up and slowly turned if round and dropped it into the allotments alongside the A13 Arterial Road.
I ran along with others the half mile or so to the allotments to see the damage. Obviously there a large crater but it appeared that the only other damage was that a piece of schrapnel had gone through the rear tyre of a passing RAF crew truck. Had it been just slightly higher it would have injured or killed the crews sitting in the back. They certainly had a lucky escape. I wish I knew who the two pilots were They must have saved lots of lives.

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