"In October 1940, I was at de Havilland's in Hatfield when it was bombed," Mr Ansell told me. It was a misty morning, so visibility wasn't very good. It was between 11 and 11.30am. "I could see this plane flying over the admin block and I could hear its machine guns firing."

"I think it was a Heinkel.

"I ran like hell to the air raid shelter.

"I could hear the bullets striking the factory.

"Afterwards I walked over to the sheet metal department, where there were bodies lying on stretchers.

"I spoke to one or two people.

"Twenty-nine people had been killed, including Mr Dawson, the supervisor, and a man I knew named Allan.

"We just kicked our heels for a bit and then they said we could go home.

"My parents just said: 'I'm glad you're all right.'

"Father was used to it, working on the railway."

I find it hard to imagine anyone being so phlegmatic today. Mr Ansell was 16 years old at the time.

"That department got transferred over to Welwyn Garden City.

"The department I was in just carried on working the next day.

"Shortly after that I joined the Home Guard.

"At first I was in a platoon at The Mile House.

"We used to do bayonet practice and the Canadian diamond formation attack on Verulam Golf Course on London Road.

"The old boys used to fall in the bunkers. They always used to finish up at the pub it was like a military objective.

"Then I got transferred to the platoon at Bernard's Heath.

"All the other men were First World War or even Boer War veterans, so it was quite an education.

"Most of them went down The Jolly Sailor afterwards, but I was too young.

"We had the Ross rifle they were First World War relics from the Canadian army.

"I used to keep it in my bedroom with my bayonet and my belt, but we never had any ammunition.

"The only time we had any was when we went to the rifle range near Sandridge.

"It was somewhere round the back of Woodcock Hill.

"We got taken there by lorry, and there was a sort of canteen there.

"We did fire watching at night from Bernards Heath School either ten till two, or two to six.

"The caretaker, Mr Smith, used to come in and have a chat with us if we were on early.

"There were a couple of blankets to keep warm.

"We used to walk round Upper Culver Road, Boundary Road and parts of Sandridge Road, and back to the school.

"Sometimes an ARP warden would check to see we were there.

"We had stirrup pumps for small fires, but our prime role was to check for incendiary bombs and alert the nearest ARP post, which was a a dug-out on Bernards Heath.

"It never happened on my shift, though."

June 14, 2002 14:00