The Night the Bombs Fell

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"Sunday mornings was the big day. We used to take the vehicle from Hewell down to Redditch station where they were loaded onto flat cars (railway wagons with no side). The vehicles were then taken away on the train, we didn't know where they were going, but looking back this must have been part of the build-up to D-Day. We thought we were the bees knees.”


“We sat there in our cadet uniforms and it was a case of 'Hullo! girls' 'Every Friday night it was up into Redditch in the army transport vehicle chatting up the girls. 'The usual place to hang out was at the back of the Royal Hotel, (now the Litten Tree) where Wilson's had a fairground. The fair couldn't travel around in the wartime so it was in a big yard at the back of the hotel on a permanent basis. The whole yard was covered over with huge sheets of canvas to stop the lights showing because of the black-out. They were strung across from rooftop to rooftop. There was tarpaulin over everything and the roundabouts had screens round. The fairground was operating on Friday and Saturday nights. That's where I met Dot Dudley, June and Betty Berry, Dot Lewis and other Redditch ladies including my wife's.”

Remembered by Peter Humphreys

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