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My dad was the head Gardener of the estate owned by the Gregson family called Ends Place,after Dunkirk,when the Germans threatened to Invade,the call went out for
volunteers to form 'The Local Defence Volunteers) The LDV,later to become the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard. I was about 5 years old and lived with my mum and Dad in the middle of three tied houses on the Estate we had Mr Foran The groom and his family on one side and Mr Padwick the Chauffer and his family on the other, in front of us was the large yard with the water pump in the centre and on the other 3 sides were The Garages (for Two'Hispano Suiza's, His & Hers)the Stables for the Hunters and the Tack room.At the rear of our house was the paddock which led on to a game wood and on to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Farm, where it was my job to collect the daily milk and eggs.(the setting for another Story)
Because the boss had served in the 1st WW as a commisioned officer he retained his Rank and Title of Captain and he was appointed Head of the Warnham ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard. as my Dad was Head gardener with the largest number of men to manage ,he was appointed Sergeant.He had absolutely no military experience, but knew his way around guns(shotguns)again another story,as the fear of invasion and the likelyhood of it being a south coast landing.The LDV armbands were soon replaced by full battledress and 303 rifles with live ammo tin hats and all the pouches and webbing. The preparation of the rag, tag & Bobtail group of over 40's and later 16 & 17 yr olds
plus veterans of 65's and over, was an all consuming exercise. Weapons training manoevres, guard duties Church parades, aircraft recognition Makeshift roadblocks
manufacturing Phosphorous Grenades,
no shortage of wine bottles for that purpose (Another story).
Now we have set the background here's the story:
The village was rife with stories of 5th columnists being dropped by parachute secretly at night and sneaking ashore from submarines in rubber boats,Captain Gregson gathered his unit together to explain the Rules of engagement if faced with any infiltrators, capture them alive wherever possible march them to
the big house where they would be held for initial Interogation by himself, Field telephones were set up at strategic points
our house being the main one, andn it was dads duty to muster his men to effect the action if there were reports of infiltrators.
One night the phone rang A lone Dornier Fighter Bomber had been forced away from the main squadron and was damaged with an engine on fire and it was soon going to crash it was seen flying toward home farm and looking to crashland. Dad grabbed his helmet his jacket with 3 stripes his webbing Ammo pouches and his 303 his group
gathered on the quad and they could plainly see the aircraft now with one wing entirely ablaze directly above the Game wood.
The group fanned out with Dad as the spear head and ran across the paddock trying to get their tackle on as they ran. Their ammo was in clips of 5 bullets, Dad was running
shouting orders for everyone to keep up and load up at that point the Germans didnt fancy being bar-b-q'd so bailed out they could see 5 parachutes dad deployed his men
wherever possible to 2or3 men per chute, in went his clip one up the spout and foot in a rabbit hole bang went the gun , he scrambled up in time to see the Germans Land and immediatly put their arms in the air and surrender, The plane eventually crashed at a spot known as slaughter Bridge.the crew were quickly rounded up all looking very frightened they provided absolutely no resistance and surrendered all
their weapons Their officer demanded in perfect english that my Dad should take him to see the british commanding officer, so he could register a serious official complaint that he had been fired at whilst defencless and descending by parachute, a direct breach of the Geneva convention.
The prisoners were marched into the Billiard room where Capt Gregson took their details name rank and number. The German officer shook hands and saluted the capt and forcefully delivered his complaint, the Captain duly recorded the incident and examined the scoring on the flying boot and the hole in his flying suit.
He then ordered my dad to thoroughly investigate the incident and interview every member of the group involved and check all the ammo issued ,Needless to say he never got to the bottom of the incident and the incident has remained unsolved until today.In the early 80's I visited RAF. Tangmere whilst on holiday and was amazed to find in their museum the engine and other bits and peices
recovered from the site near slaughter bridge where the damaged german plane had crashed and the accompanying information gave all the details of the luftwaffe crew I wish I had taken notes.

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