Although there was a war on, we used to get about all over the place. Out Bouldnor, there were troops out there.   We used to go over Thorley Copse a lot, play down the marsh and up the Rec, on the beaches, anywhere; it was amazing really.
I remember towards the end of the war we went over Sandhard and found an airman’s glove on the beach.  We picked it up and 2 fingers fell out of it.  I remember that ever so well.
One day 2 or 3 of us older boys went up Red Lake where the old sewer pipe was and were walking along it. We got machine gunned by a Messerschmidt and we all leapt off it. We reckoned at the time they thought it was part of Pluto. Nick Chandler b 1937