The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 51 No.4 | March 2025

Member’s article

was the winter of 1944, when we were beginning to think that we are winning and it would soon be over. But then suddenly the Germans caught the Americans napping in the Ardennes, and put in a great counter attack. At first, they seemed to be driving the Americans and the British right back, back to where we started. At Ford Aerodrome where I was, we watched the Dakotas, twin-engine planes, one every 2 minutes bringing back the wounded, and this went on all day for about 2 weeks. They took over our dining hall to lay out the wounded before they were put on the train to send them off to various hospitals throughout the country. But this time too people began to talk of mysterious explosions with no warning. Hitler was sending over rockets. One fell on a crowded market in Lewisham killing over 400 people. My family were lucky. Although most of them lived in Portsmouth throughout the bombing not one was hurt. My younger brother was a pilot in the RAF and fortunately survived. I had a comparatively easy time as a radar

technician with a fighter interception unit, a boffin unit which developed airborne radar for intercepting enemy bombers at night. I only went up on test flights in Beaufighters or Mosquitoes and these flights I usually enjoyed. Not all families were lucky, however. Many of my school friends were killed. A friend of mine lost all three of her brothers in the space of three months. War was horrible. Nothing could really justify it, but in these days when everyone is out for number one, people of my generation look back at a time when there was a marvellous spirit of comradeship and of belonging together. What a pity that it takes a war to bring people together. From time to time, I was able to continue with my studies. Near the end of the war I went on a number of courses about education and teaching. Later, I had an interview, and was selected to go to college to train as a teacher. But that is another story. Jacky Searle Member #16760

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