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Our fathers' dream was to go back to his home, which he'd left as a young man, buy a piece of land and build a bungalow.

One month after the war started we moved into our new home. Just a year later the army called to say that if the Germans invaded, the site would make a good gun implacement. The bungalow would be demolished.

Later on the air raids started on Bristol, so decoy fires were built across the valley and the bombs fell all around us. When the bombing stopped an air field was built to train pilots from all over the world. However the first plane to land was a German Heinkel 111 which had lost its way after raiding a place in the north. The crew were shocked to learn they were in England and were upset to be taken prisoners. The school children from my brothers' school were taken around it before it was flown away. An American Flying Fortress also landed without its undercarriage as it had been damaged on a raid over Germany.

This is now Bristol International Airport.

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