We were thrilled to see a feature story in the current issue of Flight Journal from longtime MAN contributor Jim Newman! He notes, “Throughout my 43 years in the U.S., on finding that I grew up in England during the war years, people will ask ‘What was it like? Did you see German aeroplanes?’ Even FJ editor Budd Davisson was no exception. To satisfy his curiosity, I launched into what was to be a brief email … but once I started, the memories just kept coming.” Look inside the issue and read Jim’s full story — and listen to the audio embed! — by clicking here.
Jim Newman: WW II through the eyes of a youth
I too grew up during ww2 being age 3 at the start in september 1939 .We lived in south london and were at home during the heavy bombing one night when about 10 or more incendiary bombs landed on our roof .breaking tiles but not all burning so my Grand father whose house it was climbed up his long ladder and picked up the dud ones and threw them onto the wet area of the garden which was soft earth.The others he could reach he picked up by the fins and threw them down also.None of them had penetrated through the lathe and plaster/cement ceiling after breaking the slate tiles so did only minor singe damage before they were dealt.Us kids my .older brother and 2 girl cousins were watching the sky above and could clearly see bombers caught in the searchlights being fired at by local anti aircraft gunners.It was at this point my nan and mother shouted to get into our Anderson shelter because of falling shrapnel from exploding shells and aircraft parts.We would collect these bits of shell and plane parts and swap them with schoolmates the next day. Our verdict on all this as kids was “oh what a lovely war”.We had these kind of events untill 1944 after which no German aircraft flew over British territory.We also endured V1 doolebugs and V2 rockets.