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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Jeanette Smeeton, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was 9 at the beginning of the War, living on a farm. There was an aerodrome beside us, Fearn, where the “flying coffins” (Swordfish) planes flew from.

The servicemen used to call to get eggs, then my Mother would invite them in for tea or a meal, she would always send them away with something. The Americans used to bring chocolate and rich biscuits, they were very showy.

One day one of them said “have you got two needles?” My Mother gave him two, and he put them on the floor, stood on his hands, and lowered himself to the floor to pick up the needles with his eyelids.
He boasted that he was from Barnum and Bailey’s 3-ring Circus before he became a soldier.

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