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Tom Grapes

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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