Daylight raid

When the war started, my Mother and I evacuated from Portsmouth away from such targets as the Dockyard, staying with relatives, until our air raid shelter was built in our garden.

During a daylight raid, a lone Messerschmitt swooped across the area when my Uncle, my cousins and I were in the garden. He rushed us between rows of runner beans out of sight as the plane machine gunned across the gardens. We heard that a lady in her garden at the end of the road was killed.

A Spitfire appeared and chased the German plane and, after a short 'dog fight,' shot it down and we saw its pilot bale out.

Then, my father, a Naval Gunnery Officer, arrived from Whale Island in Portsmouth. He wore a pistol and told us that the Messerschmitt had been so low that he could see the pilot's face. He said that, if the plane had not been over a residential area, he might have been able to shoot the pilot and bring it down himself.

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