Raid on avenue (From York Press)

Raid on avenue

11:52am Tuesday 15th May 2012 in Letters

In response to the letter from Amy Dennis in The Press of May 10 regarding the Air Raids in Spalding Avenue, I can confirm that the avenue was indeed machine-gunned in the raids.

My father, who was 14 at the time, lived at 126 Spalding Avenue and was under the table in the front room when the house was machine-gunned. One bullet hit the radio which exploded the valve. This caused the nerves to go in his eyes and he was blinded for over a year.

I remember at a very early age being shown where the two houses that were bombed were, but I cannot remember exactly where.

David Hudson, Huntsmans Walk, York.

• I READ with interest the article mentioning Paul Theaker (The Press, May 7) and his experiences in the ATC. I was enrolled in the ATC 110 squadron on June 6, 1944 –D Day – and remember the old Woolpack Hotel which was our headquarters at the time.

To help the war effort, we went on working parties to Linton-on-Ouse making ammunition belts for the gunners and also loading window (strips of silver foil to confuse the enemy radar) into the bombers.

Strange as it was, I was an apprentice printer at the Herald printing works and we used to cut the foil up in the guillotine department and pack it in parcels. But I never mentioned that I was putting the stuff in bombers the previous day. We were so imbued with the slogan about careless talk.

I often remember the loss of two of our squadron in a midair collision; they were Robert Hall and Tony Lane.

By coincidence, three years later I joined the RAF on the same date as I had joined the ATC. My previous training came in useful as I worked in Signals.

W Feetenby, Keith Avenue, Huntington.