Оглавление
Doreen Galvin. Arts to Intelligence
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A NEAR MISS
THE VILLAGE OF PETT
THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1940
JOINING UP
R.A.F. SPEKE - LIVERPOOL
LEARNING PHOTO INTERPRETATION
LIFE AT MEDMENHAM C.I.U. (Central Interpretation Unit)
WYMESWOLD & BOMBER COMMAND
R.A.F. FELTWELL
The Royal Observer Corps
MAY 3, 1943 - A DAY TO REMEMBER
Marking Time
R.A.F. TEMPSFORD
A COLD WINTER
SPRING 1944
D-DAY
A NOISY NIGHT
THE END IN SIGHT
SUMMER AND AUTUMN 1944
Once in a Lifetime
R.A.F. WATERBEACH
VE-DAY AND AFTER
Preparing for Civvy Street
"Bombs Away!"
“Lost Him!”
The First Jet
Surprise Sortie
LEAVING THE RAF
Отрывок из книги
The German Air Force bombers crossing the East Sussex coast were passing over our village. They flew in continuous waves as they droned on their way to London. It was late October, 1940, and it was going to be another of those nights of which we had experienced so many lately.
I lay in my bed waiting to hear the last of them so that I could get an hour's sleep before their return. Tonight the Luftwaffe were out in force - for nearly half an hour they had been flying above us heading north - it was obvious that London was in for a bad time again. My mother, lying awake in her room, told me later that she was thinking exactly the same thing.
.....
From the kitchen window, my mother and I watched the first trophy being carried cautiously by two privates - one clutching the nose cone and the other man holding the end containing the remnants of the tail fins, as they walked with care down a long flight of steps behind our house to the patio area outside the kitchen door. They crossed the patio and continued down another equally long flight of steps to the garden gate. This opened into the sheep field. From then on, their progress was even more treacherous as they clambered down a particularly steep slope covered with a mass of ant hills, many of them over a foot high. Eventually, they laid the bomb down in the open field some way from us until the time for its detonation. The sergeant had promised that he would warn my mother and me before they began blowing things up. As I watched one of several more 100-pounders being carried past the kitchen window, a missile in the distant field went up with a tremendous explosion, vibrating throughout the house. Before the explosion, a thick cook book and a bowl of beef dripping, a small addition to our meagre fat ration, were on the kitchen table. During the blast, the bowl of dripping jumped in the air, and landed intact on top of the cook book. It was an amusing incident to an otherwise scary moment.
I then noticed the two soldiers outside putting down the bomb rather quickly beside the kitchen door. I wondered what had happened, when the private in charge of carrying the nose cone put his arms around the shoulders of his companion, hauled him into the kitchen, and sat him down on the nearest chair. "I thought we were going to be warned when you began to blow these things up,” I said. "So did I!" said my friend in khaki with great emphasis. "What's wrong with your pal?" I asked. "I'm not sure," was the reply, "but I thought he was about to faint - so I made him put the thing down." His co-helper did not pass out, but his complexion was ashen and he sat there rigid, staring into space, comprehending nothing around him. We were not sure what to do.
.....
