Submitted by Henry Chandler, Teesdale u3a
Born in 1938 I was "brought up" in a village between Reading and Newbury on the A4.
1. Aged about 4 several of us, children that is, watched US Convoys heading towards Newbury. We were amazed and impressed when we saw that US soldiers could drive while asleep. We discovered sometime later that the Americans drove on the wrong side like the French.
2. Later in the war I heard the dreaded throbbing noise of a Doodlebug - V1. It stopped suddenly and there was a massive explosion, luckily in a nearby wood.
3. Also as children we became quite friendly with Italian and German War Prisoners from a local camp just west of the village. They introduced me to the pleasures of real Coffee. Also, their rations seemed better than ours.