A random memory: Was on a train to London via Coventry c1992. The train was full of little old Welsh geezers chatting away & slagging each other & the carriage was v pleasant & I was regularly asked if I was alright. They were all ex-WWII soldiers & the train chuntered along

For some reason on a hot summers day the train kept stopping & after random pauses moving again. We stopped at one place & some strange earth mounds were visible. It turned out they were where fighter planes like spitfires were made. The carriage hushed.

Then in North Welsh accents the old soldiers began to talk of the planes & fighter aces & it turned out they were mostly RAF ground crews. They talked of the bravery of the boys, the rolling out of the planes & counting them out...

And counting them back in. The sun was high in the sky, the landscape was green & scattered with English oaks. And after the last reminiscence of young lads who would never come back, the silence was total as they gazed. It was a moment that will stay with me forever