| Low-level attacks by enemy planes were supposed to be
prevented by barrage balloons and anti-aircraft fire. Pilots who engaged in
this type of thing were reviled as cowards, machine-gunning defenceless
civilians who they could actually see as individual people. Such attacks did
take place on occasion. As a child Alexander Hook witnessed a plane flying
up the North Warwickshire Line at low level:
We had been shopping
in Acocks Green ‘village’ my mother and I, and we were meandering along the
Warwick Road towards home. We stopped at one point whilst mother chatted to
a friend. It was while I was waiting to continue the walk home that I
glimpsed a very dark coloured aircraft flying extremely low and fast. It was
only a glimpse because my view of it was obstructed by buildings and
houses.
As a nine year old in
wartime, warplane spotting was naturally a hobby of mine and all my pals,
and you could obtain booklets to help you identify war planes by their
silhouettes. I knew that the one I had just seen was not one of ours because
of the colour, but the air-raid warning sirens had not sounded.
Mother and I resumed
our walk home, and again I had a glimpse of this low flying plane, and I
mentioned it to my mother. Mom remarked that “It must be one of ours because
the sirens haven’t sounded,” and we carried on our way.
Soon we were on the
Warwick road bridge over the Stratford
upon Avon railway branch line. Immediately after crossing the bridge we were
to turn left into Tyseley Lane. When
we were halfway across the bridge things really began to happen.
We saw this enemy
war-plane, I think twin engined, heading for us at a tremendous speed from
the direction of Small Heath. It had opened fire and was shooting up the
railway track in its low level attack. We were too shocked to move for a
second or two, and then we decided to run for cover. As we turned the corner
into Tyseley Lane some workmen were standing in the entrance of an air-raid
shelter belonging to the Methylated Spirit Company. Some of the men shouted
for us to run to them in the shelter, and some shouted for us to lie
flat. We ran for the shelter. I think Mom and I probably hold jointly the
world record for the thirty yards sprint.
We regained our
breath, and as we stood in the doorway of the shelter we saw the plane gain
height rapidly and seconds later the local ack-ack battery, probably at
Stockfield Barracks, opened up and scared the attacker away. We had to wait
a while for the shrapnel to fall before it was safe enough for us to say
goodbye to our new friends and walk home rather shaken. But what a story to
tell Dad when we arrived home!
A similar incident, perhaps the same one, was witnessed by
Mrs Patricia Smith, who was brought up on Ryde Grove.
I remember walking with my mum
over York Road bridge, where the railway goes. There was just one plane.
There were some little kids just in front of us, and my Mum went and grabbed
them and ran them up an entry with me, because he was coming down and
machine-gunning the railway. She just grabbed us, and fortunately we were
just over the railway bridge, and there was a house with an entry, and she
ran us up there.
Joan Tyler recalled this incident: I remember when working at the sweet
shop on the corner of Severne Road that there was gunfire. The plane came
down - how we ran for shelter.
In addition, we were told of an
occasion where a man on
Hazelwood Road had just got his car out of the garage, when it was
machine-gunned by a low-flying plane.
Some incidents of machine-gunning may have happened
accidentally in aerial dogfights. |
