A German Bombing Raid

On Sunday evening, 29th September 1940, in broad daylight,I looked out of our front room window, while dad was playing the piano, and saw a low flying German aircraft, which I later learned was aJunkers 88. The pilot was looking for Boulton Paul Aircraft factory, where my father worked on building Defiants and other wartime aircraft. The pilot had obviously followed the route of the Staffordshire canal, but had taken the wrong fork at Brewood. All of a sudden he saw the factory, which was heavily camouflaged. over to his right and banked over to drop his four bombs. he scored a direst hit on the adjacent sewage works.

Apparently the camouflage of the factory and a dummy factory built a mile away, were not successes, the latter even being shown on German bombing maps. William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), the British traitor and German propaganda broadcaster, congratulated the company on their camouflage in one of his broadcasts, but pointed out that they had forgotten the little white cottage on the top of the hill behind the factory. The cottage was hastily camouflaged the following day.

This is my lasting childhood memory of World War Two.

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