Thanks to Neil Megson for sharing the photo of his grandad, with this extract from his grandmother’s note...
‘We had our first spot of bother with the Gerry's on Friday last,3 went right over here,one dived at Eynsham, quite thought he was going to bomb us, started machine gun firing going over Eynsham station, then went to Stanton and dropped 25 bombs near the new runways but missed the runways,killed 2 men and 2 died from wounds, father Lopes is well away,they were all R Cs, Dad has had to run him over every so many times to see about the funerals, about 10 were wounded as well.
‘Mr Phipps opposite us was hit in the leg, got a lot of stitches put in,he doesn't seem to know if it was the bomb hit him or shot, as the fighters shot at them as they ran for shelter,which was a hedge,only shelter they had. They should have have hit the runway, it was bad bombing wasn't it ?’
This event, on 18 August 1940, saw one of the worst single losses of life from air attack in Oxfordshire in World War II - more details follow...