Terror in the Park

It was a warm May afternoon in 1944. My sister,Margaret aged 12, and I were playing ball in the local Park.
Suddenly the familiar sound of the air-raid sirens sounded followed by the sound of aircraft and anti-aircraft guns.
I remember vividly looking up and seeing this ME109, 7 year old boys knew their aircraft in those days, and it being so low I could see the pilot and the swastika markings. It banked over and immediately another appeared.This time, to our horror, it's guns started firing and to this day I can see the bullets striking the grass to our left.
We ran for our lives to a railway bridge some 30yards away and sheltered beneath it. I can recall my sister and I clinging to each other.
Everything died down eventually and we went, or should I say, ran home to a frantic mother.
We learnt later that 17 people had been killed.

The reason for these hit-and-run raids was the build up of ships in Torbay prior to D-Day, not that we knew this of course at that time.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.