German POW in Kent

In 1944 my mother was 16 and working on a farm in Kent, she watched the dog fights in the air, listened to the news on the radio and followed the war through newpapers. Then one morning the forman told her and her work mates that some prisoners, german prisoners were going to be working on the farm also. This brought the war to a new and personal level for my mother, she quite often told me these stories which I delighted in. The farm had dairy cows, fruit and vegetables.

When working in the fields harvesting vegetables, the German POW's were made to start at one end of the field, while the regular workers at the other, they were never allowed to meet in the middle, there was always a 10 foot strip of 'no mans land' which the forman normally done himself.
My mother remembers that the prisoners were divided by thier strong political direction, she saw on one occasion the regular german soldiers spit on a group of 4 nazi's who only mixed with each other. She recalls being scared of them, not just the nazi's but all of them, but looking back now she see's that the 'normal' germans were of little threat at all but when your 16 and in the middle of a world war life if very different.

One particular story she tells always makes me laugh, although at the time she says that she was terrified, its was the end of their lunch break, (cold tea and some bread and cheese no doubt),Mother had to walk through a small wooded area from their cottage to get back to the farm, she says that this part of the walk always made her nervous, anyway all of a sudden she hears footsteps behind her, they were running fast, she looks behind her to see a german POW running at her, my mother started to run as fast as her legs could carry her, all the time he is catching her up, then, as if my mother was standing still he overtakes her, puffing he says " hurry rose we will be late" did my mum feel stupid!
Two days later she was with her mother ( my grandmother) and brothers, who also worked on the farm, they were walking along a dirt track back to their tied cottage, when a fighter plane they had been watching shot a them, my mum was on a bike, and she remembers being pushed really hard into the ditch by her mother.
The plane just went, he only had the one go.

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