Tom Grapes
Wartime Memories of a secret Radio
When I was a boy of 12 Frank Thrower and I, with two
younger boys, were fishing near St Benet's when it
came on to rain heavy so we headed into the Abbey for
shelter.
Under a pile of sacking and a painting of a hunt on
horseback, we found a radio transmitter so we went to
tell the police. It was Mr Edmonds' day off so he told
us to tell the army. They told us to go home and
have our lunch and then come back. We were back
in about ten minutes so we took the adjutant to the
spot and showed him what we'd found.
We were on our bikes and it was really muddy so he
weren't best pleased that his polished leather boots
were all dirty, and on top of that he ripped the seam
of his trousers as he climbed over the spiked fence
into the Abbey. Anyhow, he told us not to tell a soul,
so we didn't.
The army kept watch, saw two men walk up to the abbey
and closed in on all sides. But what they didn't
know was there was a rubber dinghy hidden in the reeds
and they paddled across the river and escaped.
They were picked up two weeks later at Wroxham,
but I never heard what happened to them after that.
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