大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from CSV Berkshire on behalf of John Fish and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Fish fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I lived in Cromwell Road, Shaw and was in my early teens during the war. My father was a signalman with the railways, based in the Thatcham level crossing signal box. One day he had a couple of work men friends in the box with him, when he suddenly saw a German bomber flying along the railway track heading towards the signal box. Each box had its own one man air raid shelter; father and his friends dived for cover in the shelter. It would have been a very tight squeeze for three, but as the shelter was being used as a store for cleaning materials it was even more difficult to get in.

It was around tea-time when the plane passed over the signal box, following the railway line past Thatcham and on to Newbury. When the plane got to Newbury, on seeing what the pilot thought were barracks he bombed the area. He hit the Council School near Blackboys Bridge, the almshouses and the Church. There were a number of casualties particularly in the school. Although most of the pupils had left; teachers, cleaners and some children in taking part in after school activities were among those killed or injured.

Greenham Common was a glider base during the war, huge boxes of glider parts came from the United States and were assembled on the airfield. Elliots of Newbury manufactured components for wartime aircraft including hawsers for the gliders. They continued to manufacture gliders after the war. I remember when a glider came down in a field alongside the Hermitage Road near the cemetery. They came along and put up 2 poles with wire between. A Dakota came along, flying very low , caught the wire and snatched the glider and pilot back into the air and towed it back to Greenham Common.

One night when I was in bed a Doodle-bug came over. It was about midnight and I was lying in bed awake. I heard the drone of the engine, then it stopped. A few minutes later there was an almighty bang and the house shook. The bomb had landed in a field near the old showground where Vodaphone is now. The next day I went out to see where it had landed. The corn was all scorched and flattened over a large radius and the chimneys had come off the farmhouse. Looking around later I found a bit of metal from the Doodle- bug and as boys do, kept it for years. Sadly I don鈥檛 know where it is now; I think it was eventually thrown out.

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