The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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205382 David Theaker Civilian I was born in February 1939 in Hirst Courtney but moved with my parents to Barlow soon after. We lived on Barlow Common Road next door to the farm there. The house lay directly under the flightpath for Burn. I remember as a small child watching the planes go off on their bombing missions so it would be 1944 and the planes were Halifax. I remember three aircraft crashes from that time. On one occasion two bombers crashed on the same night. It was said that they collided as they were returning to Burn. One fell just to the south side of Barlow Common Road between where we lived and our school which at that time was on the right as you entered Barlow vilage. I remember large holes filled with oil/oily water at the crash site, people removing wreckage and also us collecting live cannon shells which we endeavoured to split open and then set fire to the cordite we extracted. The second plane fell a short distance away on the south side of the railway. My father and I went by bicycle to look at this crash site and I remember the emergency crews carrying bodybags to the awaiting ambulances. The third aircraft fell in a wooded area to the south side of Thief Lane about half a mile from the Selby to Snaith road. I don't know much about this site other than finding a circular magnet from a magnito which I had for many years. I am now living in Gloucestershire, and from time to time, when visiting the area I drive past these sites which remain untouched as they were in 1944. I hope these few words will be on interest to someone. David Theaker Related Content: Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.