WW2: A Civilian in the Second World War: 1st February 1944

1st February 1944

Tuesday

Strong S.W. gale, with low swirling clouds. As I was going by St. John’s Church, a small observation plane came over from the direction of Fordham, at no very great height. Over Parsons Heath it turned as if to go back, but the wind was so strong it remained almost motionless for some moments, until the wind pressure blew it clean over, like a dead leaf. This happened four times, and I expected ever minute to see it crash, but somehow the pilot succeeded in bringing it onto a level keel again. However, nothing he could do would make any headway against the wind, so at last he turned and fled before it, heading N.E. perhaps to try to work round on another tack.

Alarmed to hear on the radio that enemy aircraft were “off the coast of E. Anglia” at noon yesterday, in thick cloud. Hope they are not going to begin cloud-raiding again.

Tremendous gale tonight, blew me back to Higham in 35 minutes. No beacon.

2 comments:

Robin King said...: Catherine! I suspect that this Capcha identification is not working correctely: for yesterday's comment I had to try at least 10 (I didn't count them!) tries before it passed the comment on to you. Admittedly some of the letters were sometimes a little unclear, but on several occasions there was no doubt at all, and still it gave a rejection. I wonder how many good comments you may have lost through this?; 1 February 2014 at 13:01
E J Rudsdale said...: Hi Robin,
Sorry you had all this trouble in sending your comments. I was unaware of the problem and as you say other people who wished to comment on the blog may well have given up before their comment got through. Unfortunately, I am at the mercy of the system but thank you for persevering, your comments are greatly appreciated!
Best wishes, Catherine; 6 February 2014 at 14:14