大象传媒

When I was about 13 years of age I went with my sister Judy along to a flat she was cleaning for an old lady. She stopped work and told me to come and look out of the window. From there you could see the red flow of London night bombing. The whole sky was lit up 50 miles away. This was in about 1946 when they had stopped day time raids and concentrated on night bombing. I could not believe it, I started thinking about how bad it really was and literally just up the road. I realised then how close the Germans really were to us and it made me want to join up. I joined the ATC, 176 squadron soon after.

Another day I was doing my paper round, I must have been about 14, in Valance Road, Hove. Suddenly out of the sea mist came a Junkers 88, it was so low (to get under the radar)as it moved over me, that I could see the rear gunner starting to move towards his gun. I think he was taken by surprise as well as me, coming out of the mist so suddenly. I moved back against the wall, it frightened the life out of me to see it so close up. There was a Orleken gun on the top of Viceroy Lodge (the block of flats) on the corner of Valance Road but it happened so quickly that they did not have time to start firing on the plane. I still finished my paper round - I needed the money!

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