READING a recent ‘Back through the pages’ – August 16, 1940 ‘Hampshire town bomber’ – it brought back memories.

My mother with my younger brother in his pushchair and I as a five-year-old were out for a walk with my aunt and my cousin, who was six months older than me.

The siren on McDougalls sounded while we were in Weyhill Road.

I was hastily put in the pushchair, my cousin tucked under his mother’s arm and we turned back.

On the corner of The Drove and Weyhill Road, where Tesco Express is, which was then Co-op, stood an airraid Warden. Giving our addresses as Mylen Road and Orchard Road, he said it was “too far away” – we were to go to the first house on the left in The Drove and tell his wife he sent us.

Looking out of the back window we witnessed the dog fight over Andover Aerodrome.

Our host decided it was dangerous and we all sat at the bottom of the stairs until the all-clear sounded.

Then in the evening we went to see the crater on Charlton Hill beside the road opposite the Harroway.

The bigger lads were climbing in to recover shrapnel for souvenirs.

My aunt’s windows were shattered, as many were in Tollgate Road.

John Goulding, Shakespeare Avenue, Andover