Was it Star Wars

As a young boy aged around seven, I lived with my parents in Suffolk — in a very small village called “One House” and it really was almost that! The village was around two miles from Stowmarket and I believe that there was a factory there that manufactured munitions — hence the fact that the area was a possible target for enemy activity. The factory was that of the manufacturer of well known lawnmowers.

As I said earlier, I was around seven but remember the events quite vividly even nowadays. The first incident occurred as I was walking to school (about half a mile from home) and with other children. Why we acted as we did I know not but an aeroplane flew very low and started shouting at us. It was so low that it was possible to see the pilot. Our reaction ….child-like yet aware of danger, was to jump into a nearby ditch (I don’t think there was any water in) and we all survived.

The next happening was when my Father and I visited a nearby farm, the farmer was Mr Bloomfield. Dad was talking to the farmer on a ridged potato patch. As an inquisitive small boy I espied two silver coloured objects — one broken in two. I picked up the intact item and carried it to Dad and the farmer. They were absolutely terrified and yelled at me to put it down. I dropped it promptly onto the soft (fortunately) earth. It was an unexploded incendiary bomb.

The third memory was of bomb disposal men, who arrived to dig up an unexploded anti-aircraft shell that had narrowly missed our house and landed in the field behind. I think it was fired at a passing bomber that was bound for an aerodrome. I believe it was called Rattlesden aerodrome. How I can still remember so well is a mystery to me.

Life became a little less worrying shortly afterwards because we moved to Sedbergh — in the Yorkshire Dales —the hills offered protection and the nearest target would have been the shipyards in Barrow-in-Furness.

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