page 59 — August 1940

We began to pack. …

[See note]

to Glatting

Friday 16^th

Mommy drove Daddy, Tinker and me to the station. The journey to London was uneventful but crowded. … As we went out of Purley or somewhere, the air raid siren went, we pulled down the blinds but nothing happened. … We got to Glatting at 3 o’clock. … ztv zar zfl

After tea I was upstairs when I heard rat-at-at-tat. Machine guns! We went out, and after many short bursts and zooms, heard a long burst and a dive bomber, smoke and flames pouring from its port engine, crashed down over by East Dean. We got 144 down yesterday. zam

Saturday 17^th

Apparently there were some parachutists from the plane we saw; about 5 mins. after, they got three down at Petworth, all in the same field! 76 altogether. … zam

Sunday 18^th

In the morning we went for a long walk to look for the wreckage of the plane, which, we were told, was this side of the road between Littleton Farm and Upwaltham. We didn’t find it, because it was on the other side. The RAF had taken the engines but left the rest. Several village children had bits. We came back by the Willow Herb patch, and heard the sirens. Several fighters about, but no Germans. Then  we went to lunch with the Armstrongs, after which there was a lot of AA and/or bombs and machine gunfire, but we saw nothing. We couldn’t find a place in the stream where there was enough water to cover ourselves with, so we lay in the garden. zwk zar zfl