The story as told by Mrs Myrtle Racliff

Updated April 2021: Transcibed and image

During the last war, a German plane was coming from Stowmarket towards Needham Market, probably following the railway line on its way out to the coast.
My father and I were at Needham Market and were watching as searchlights were playing on a plane which was on fire. We saw something dropping from it and my father immediately pushed me into a deep ditch of stinging nettles. The bombs dropped quite near but did not explode. We had also seen a parachute floating down and a few minutes later a German, wearing all the trappings from the chute, came up to us with his hands in the air in surrender. My father took him home to our house and I remember my mother saying, “The boy only looks about 16 or 18”. He was shaking. He put his revolver on the table and my father picked it up and put it in his pocket. My mother then gave him a cup of cocoa, which he soon drank.

My father called a neighbour and the three of them set out to take the airman to Needham Market Police Station. He was walking between the two of them and on the way, they passed groups of Home Guard, who took no notice of the German whose harness clinked as he walked. All they said was “Evening Fred” as they passed. Mr Stevens handed his prisoner and the revolver over to the Needham Market police.

On his return, my father looked in the field in which the airman had landed and collected the parachute and brought it home with him. My father was trying to bundle the parachute in through the door and my mother was trying to push it out, saying it did not belong to them. My father won the battle, saying that as clothing was strictly rationed the parachute would be very useful to supplement the ration. A court dressmaker evacuated to Ipswich from London was found and she made a ball gown for me with it. Dancing one evening, the gown caught in a soldier’s hobnail boot and I was dragged from my partner onto the floor. The silk of the garment did not even tear it was so strong.

Original Text