LUFTWAFFE ATTACK ON LITTLE THETFORD

On the 18th January 1941 a German plane flew up the A10 and at 2.300 pm it attacked Little Thetford. It is reported in the Ely Standard on Friday 24th January 1941.

RAIDER MACHINE GUNS VILLAGE

Man Escapes Death by Seconds.

A quiet little East Anglian village was machine-gunned one afternoon this week by a low-flying German Plane.  Stacks and houses were sprayed with tracer bullets. One of them went through the window of a farm house, smashed the back of a chair in which a guest at the house had been sitting a few seconds previously, and ended up by setting alight the rug in front of the fire.

Mr. T. Holt was the guest. He owes his life to the face that on hearing the plane he left his seat to go out and have a look at it.

His host and hostess Mr. and Mrs. Jack Cranwell, were also in the room. Mr. Cranwell stamped on the flames started by the bullet and put them out.

Mr. and Mrs. Cranwell lived in Palisade Farm. The attack was witnessed by Mr. John Taylor when he was young. He remembers seeing the rear gunner firing and he also remembers the Church Farm Apiaries being hit. Jack Cranwell showed off his bullet hit chair to many people in the village.

Commenting on the attack Mr. Mike Petty, the local historian stated “It is a good job the attack happened on the 18th January 1941, not the 17th January 1941; otherwise it could have changed the course of British history. The King and Queen of England travelled up the A10 by car to open the R.A.F. Hospital that day.”