Christopher Miles

In 1939 when war broke out, an Agricultural Committee was set up – they wanted more food and produce. All land was brought into productíon and the meadows round the farm (Hill Farm) were ploughed up. We had 187 acres and 14 men working for us – they were good chaps. We hired some of Shrublands land at Lime Kilns and close by, where Ivy Upson used to live, there was a briar wood. It was so nice and on different levels and was used for scout camping. During the war I was there working with Percy Prentice, taking the chalk out and loading it on to the lorry. We heard this plane coming from the Longe Plantation. I said to Percy, “Sounds like a Gerry”, so we stood behind the back of the lorry. It came across just in front of us. We were in the pit and fortunately the front gunner didn’t see us, but the one in the back did. He actually machine gunned us as he went over the edge of the pit and shattered the roof of a small brick building. Luckily, he had got far enough so we were out of his sights. In those days we grew 30 acres of sprouts and my father was machine gunned whilst picking them. My brother, Ken, was machine gunned in his tractor whilst ploughing – a line of bullets went up the plough and up the tractor. He managed to get out and crouch beside the mudguard.

We had several German planes come over because we weren’t far from Wattisham or Mendlesham. There were Dorniers, Messerschmitts, Heinkels. Once there was a string of bombs across the Norwich Road – they started releasing the bombs at Needham Market and we could hear them coming louder and louder. The last one dropped on the piece of ground between the two roads. We were under the kitchen table!”