Sunday afternoon Sport WW2 fashion.

[Flying10uk]

While driving his Ford van near Colchester, Essex my grandfather was attacked by a German fighter firing machine guns and 20mm cannon. This one hit his van but failed to explode and so he kept it as a souvenir. It has since been made completely safe including the cap by having all explosive material removed. My family referred to being shot at on the ground by German fighters as Sunday afternoon sport although it could happen any day of the week. It started happening after the fall of France and it was normally a lone German fighter flying from a French air field which would fly low over the channel to avoid radar and would have enough fuel for about 10 minutes of flying over Essex before having to return home.


In a separate but similar incident my father who was a child at the time was playing in the garden when a German fighter came in at no more than tree top level and opened fire with machine guns. I don't believe that my father was the target but it was in fact the British solders, camped near by, who were; they returned fire with their rifles. They pilot couldn't care less that there was a child, my father, between his guns and his target. My father well remembers seeing the outline of the German pilot through the persplex canopy. Fortunately, my father wasn't hit but I don't know about the soldiers.

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