Clive Branch (article in Suffolk Free Press June 21 2007):

During the war Clive lived in Waldingfield Road, Sudbury, and he and his brother saw the airmen regularly. Clive said, “ I was only six years old at the time, but I have vivid memories of it.

The airmen used to give us sweets and things like that. Lifesavers (American fruit sweets) were about the only sweets I got at the time. One gave me my first orange, and I had my first banana from an American, too.”

Clive, now of Felixstowe, added, “My brother brought a machine gun home once on his bicycle. Dad went mad. He buried it in the garden – I expect it’s still there.”

 

English and American staff who worked at the Red Cross Club in East Street

Clive’s mother did her bit for the war effort, working at the US Red Cross Service Club which stood in East Street. The family also had a lodger in the form of Wing Commander Horton, the British RAF officer who oversaw the American camp.