UNDER FIRE – HOME AND AWAY
It was, I think, New Years Day 1945 and I was doing a duty-watch on top of the fort when a German jet fighter plane came swooping over the road dbridge and along the river.
It flew past the fort at the same height as my position and at breathtaking speed; the pilot was easily seen. The jet followed the course of the river in the direction of the German border until soaring skywards. This was the first jet I had seen: if they had had these in Normandyit would have been a different story.
On this day the Luftwaffe had launched a tremendous attack – including the use of jet aircraft – on allied installations and to gain air superiority. The operation was codenamed Bodenplatte (Baseplate): the operation failed in it’s objective but the sight of a jet fighter was most impressive.
Shortly after this I was lucky that my name was drawn from a ‘unit raffle’ to have a week’s leave at home in the UK. My home in Malpas Road, London at that time in January 1945 was under bombardment by V2 rockets and had recently sustained damage from a nearby V2 explosion.
So I had switched from avoiding the shelling from the Arnhem area to an Anderson air raid shelter in the garden for a week!