THE Adver’s latest article in its series Remember When (SA, February 2) certainly brought back memories to me, not of the 1950s, but a decade earlier, July 27, 1942 to be exact.

On that day it was my brother’s 14th birthday, he was to begin work at Shorts aircraft factory in Blunsdon, I had worked there for the past year.

The air raid siren had sounded before we caught the bus in Cricklade Road and we were travelling along Whitworth Road approaching the Rodbourne Arms when from the top deck we heard an explosion and saw flames shooting from the GWR gas tank in Iffley Road.

The bus carried on and turned into The Street, Moredon and on to the top of the hill going into Haydon Wick one or two bombs fell in the fields behind the High Street, the craters were still smoking when the bus passed them on the way to the factory.

Arriving at the factory I took my brother to the tunnel by the side of the main gate to the security office and told them he was starting work.

At the end of the tunnel was an area of open ground to the main entrance to the factory, I had just emerged when turning to look right I saw a German bomber coming over the Abbey, strafing the area, turning back I had to dive over a person crouched in the tunnel entrance, landing at the feet of my brother and the police.

Returning to the photo of the Ferndale area in the paper, the railway workshops shown running alongside the Rodbourne Rec had at that time been taken over by Shorts to build the wings of the Stirling bomber, the fuselage and tail sections were made at Blunsdon.

M J WARNER Groundwell Road Swindon