Contributed by: Hughes, Geoffrey
People in story: Nellie Hughes
Location of story: Whitstable, Kent
Article ID: A2298657
Contributed on: 15 February 2004
During the time of the Battle of Britain we in Whitstable were able to follow the dog-fights very easily as they frequently took place immediately overhead.
My parents lived in Whitstable and were often to be seen out watching the air scraps taking place. I also would do this when I was home on holiday from the school where I boarded in Lancashire.
One day after watching the planes scrapping, my mother noticed a parachutist coming down in the fields behind our house. My mother ran off at great speed to where she thought that he might land. He appeared to swinging violently as he came down giving the impression that he was either hurt or not very experienced in the use of a parachute.
Several people, it later came to light, were also going to the scene. My mother was first there and she found a very young German. He was, my mother told me, very frightened and as she approached held his hands in the air. My mother spoke no German and he no English. Within a few moments a farm worker appeared with a pitchfork in his hand. The German became very agitated and the man said to my mother ” Good job you were here lady or I would have put my pitchfork through him”. My mother later said that she thought that this was said in sheer bravado.
Some soldiers appeared within a few moments from a local depot. This depot had been before the war a Holiday Home for children owned by Shaftsbury Homes. The German was taken away and later that evening an officer from the depot brought a small package round for my mother. It contained the release clip from the German parachute. My mother gave this to me and I kept it as a souveneer. To my regret this item has been lost in the course of time. I believe that this incident was recorded in the local paper but I have never found it.
WW2 People’s War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar. This contribution is published here under the ‘Fair dealing policy’. Copyright remains with the contributor.
