Air Combat Over Southern England - 20th January 1943

My Mum witnessed a tip and run attack on Exeter, recalling the noise and gunfire and that the planes were gone almost before she realised they’d arrived. A few years ago another witness, who Mum had known, told the local paper she had been able to see the pilot laughing. But think about the combination of distance, vantage point, aircraft attitude and speed required for anyone on the ground to see a pilot’s face (let alone his expression) …

 

Fully agree. My Nan would have been about 14 at the time, so who knows how much of her own 'memory' would have been influenced by friends, the awful results of the bombing and the subsequent outcry etc.