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until morning. Mr. Shipham would come and visit me now and then, just to check in and make sure everything was alright. It was a lovely sunny day; the village was bustling with daily life. The men were drying out their fishing nets on the ‘arbour wall ready for tanning. I was ‘anging out the washing, a woman’s work is never done is it? Each day a trip to the market and a rummage through the allotment and I wasn’t expecting Robin until the morning.
     
    I remember one morning there was a terrible commotion by the front door, I was still in bed and Robin ‘ad come in with a couple of other lads and some injured chap who was ‘alf drowned and ‘alf naked, unconscious too. They explained they’d pulled him from a life raft a few miles out. We reported this to the town ‘all but they didn’t really seem to take much of an interest, believing him to just be another refugee and, I’ll always remember this, they gave us ‘permission to do as our conscience and the current circumstances see fit’.
    ‘e was a young man, more of a child really, ‘e ‘ad a lovely smile on him. We nursed this man back to ‘ealth in the spare bedroom, over several weeks, ‘e couldn’t say more than thank you to us, bless ‘is ‘eart. ‘ere is the thing though, we eventually realized, he was a Jerry, if you can believe it! ‘e couldn’t communicate with us and no one in the village spoke German. Robin didn’t know what to do, ‘e reported it again to the town ‘all but again, for reasons I’ll never understand, they didn’t seem interested, they suggested giving him a row-boat to make ‘is way back across the Channel but the poor blighter was in no condition for that. We nicknamed him Jerry and despite what was going on, we trusted him, he helped out with the allotment and was always willing to work. The neighbours thought it odd that we ‘ad ‘im, like some sort of pet, but we explained we had reported it and were waiting to be told what to do, we thought the army would come to collect him at some point but they never did.
    I remember one day Mr. Shipham came over, ‘e thought the whole thing was quite amusing really, and brought round some paper and pencils. I think Jerry must ‘ave knocked ‘is ‘ead though or was still ill as ‘e never seemed quite there. Mr. Shipham gave Jerry the pencil in the ‘ope ‘e could draw or explain what ‘ad ‘appened to him. Eventually Jerry drew what we could tell was the English Channel, with a big boat where we were. ‘e then drew a line around the map with the words ‘Ring Aus Stahl’ and what we think were battleships and landmines. An arrow pointed to one of the battleships near us.
    ‘Well that’s it’ Robin said, ‘e’s obviously from the German navy. I don’t think we’d be doing ourselves any favours if anything happens to Jerry, we should return ‘im. Who knows, we might even get rewarded.’ Mr. Shipham and Robin had a ‘eated debate about the blockade, but Robin thought, if he took ‘im out, in a rowing vessel, with a big white flag, everything would be ok. Jerry was obviously oblivious to this conversation. Eventually, Mr. Shipham agreed to let Robin take one of ‘is rowing boats out.
    Robin didn’t waste any time, ‘e dressed Jerry up for the journey and took ‘im to the ‘arbour and out into the boat, ‘e’d brought with ‘im a white-bed sheet as a flag and Mr. Shipham and I saw ‘im off. Mr. Shipham said ‘e’d stay at mine that night to make sure I was ok until Robin returned.
     
    What happened next?
    I don’t know really. As they set off, Jerry seemed to be protesting and trying to grab the oars as if to turn round but Robin overpowered ‘im; then I remember the drone of a fighter plane some minutes later. Robin and Jerry were soon turning into a dot on the ‘orizon but I remember the plane circled several times, we guessed ‘e was checking out the boat but then, would you believe it, it began firing its machine guns onto the boat!