Meet the Family (Part 4)

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So you now know that Mum had a miserable life as a child thanks to my grandma but that things improved when she began attending the local village school and joining the Brownies. When the Second World War began it seemed that it wouldn't really affect the small broadland village of Coltishall. The only thing that altered as far as Mum was concerned was the fact that, over a few months, Spitfire planes began to arrive at the airfield which had recently been constructed but during the summer of 1940 things changed and the war suddenly switched up a gear in this sleepy little village. Grandma and Granddad used to listen to the news on the wireless each night after Mum had gone to bed but but she could remember hearing Winston Churchill's voice regularly during the programme. Then, one evening that summer Mum awoke to the drone of planes flying above the house. She got up and looked out of the window and watched them flying low and in formation. She saw Grandma and Granddad out in the garden looking overhead and called to them from the window. Grandma, in her usual peevish fashion, instantly told her to be quiet and go back to bed or she'd have no breakfast the following day but Granddad went over and picked her up through the window so she could see. Granddad asked if she could count the number of planes, which she did. Once the planes had flown into the distance and could no longer be heard Granddad made Mum a cup of hot milk and tucked her up in bed. Mum went back to sleep but, as dawn broke, she was awoken again by planes flying overhead. She could hear Granddad getting ready to go to work so she crept through. He explained that the planes were now returning from their 'operations'. He stood outside holding Mum's hand and they counted them as they returned to base. Sadly, two were missing and one obviously had engine problems. It didn't occur to Mum at the innocent age of 10 that it wasn't just the metal and fuel that hadn't returned but it was their human crew too. The planes had been part of the Battle of Britain down in the south of England. Mum came to understand the reality of war - that these men went out and died so she could have a life. They lived next door to the Railway Inn pub and this was the place that many of the airmen came to let off steam. Mum got to know some of the boys as they'd happily chat to her if she happened to be in the orchard but she realised that some of the boys she chatted to suddenly didn't appear any more and new ones took their place. One of the pilots that Mum was fascinated by was an airman who had artificial legs She'd never seen anything like it before but, a few years later after the war had ended she realised it had been Sir Douglas Bader. As Mum put it when she was older, 'he went in legless and came out legless in a different way!' Douglas Bader had been in a flying accident before the war and had had both legs amputated but he was determined he'd get back to flying when the war started and, after more than a little persistence, he got his wish. He wasn't at RAF Coltishall for very long and, in fact, he didn't get to do as many flying missions as he would have liked as he was shot down over Europe and became a prisoner of war. But in true Douglas Bader style, he didn't give up trying to escape! He was such a hero that the school that was built at the airfield in the 1970's was named the Douglas Bader School. Mum can recall one night when Granddad had been to pick her up from a long day out with the Patterson sisters, It must have been late autumn or winter as it was very dark. Granddad and Mum had just got to the village when they heard planes coming towards them, they could see the boys from the village bakery standing outside smoking cigarettes, presumably to see what was going on in the air. Granddad said good night as he and Mum passed and headed up Station Road to their home. They'd just got indoors when there was an almighty bang. Granddad said a bomb must have dropped somewhere near the village but, as the village was so small, it was unlikely to have hit anyone and had probably dropped on the surrounding marshes. The next day when Mum went to school she noticed that there was a lot of glass lying around the road in the village and the top of the war memorial had been shattered. It seemed enemy planes had been looking for RAF Coltishall but had missed it by a mile or two. One poor woman, Mrs Pye, had been showered with glass and had to have her eye removed. She lived in a cottage opposite the bakery. Thankfully nobody was killed but there was less bread available that day as shards of glass and pieces of stone from the war memorial had to be cleared away before baking could start. Unfortunately, nobody thought to contact the poor boy who cycled three miles or so over steep hills and dips (known as Belaugh Hills & Holes) to pick up bread for people who lived too far away to get to a shop. The poor lad had to return again after school. At least he got plenty of exercise! After a while the villagers got into a routine as the enemy were determined to wipe out the aerodrome but it survived the war and is still there today, although sadly it closed a few years back and a lot of it has been built on. Not only was it sad for the villagers, it was sad for the whole country as it was the last Battle of Britain airfield in existence. One thing that Mum was grateful for during the war ... there was never a lack of food living where she did. They had an orchard so there was normally plenty of fresh fruit which grandma sometimes made into jam. They kept chickens in their orchard so they always had eggs and Granddad had a lovely big vegetable plot so there was plenty of salad in the summer and other veg in the winter. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to tell you about Mum's teen years!