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It looked so much like Pennsylvania! All fields and fare of the map was ‘Mannheio Grove – Mannheiroceries in the summer But it’s not the same Mannheim I can’t remember how to convertaccurate I am in Germany I am off the map

I reached the point where I started to wonder if I were really still alive I thoughtboatory, doomed to fly forever and ever over fields that looked like Pennsylvania without ever being able to land The only way to prove I was still alive was to land in a field, or to turn round and fly in the other direction But if I was still alive, and this was really happening, then the Luftwaffe aircraft on et away fro in case I was still alive I had to keep flying

I think it’s taken me about the same amount of time to write this as it tookat a rate of 170tired now But my brain is still in the air over Mannheiain or I’ll be counting the s in my dreams

I don’t know the name of the aerodrome where they led me The leader pulled out ahead of ear lowered He didn’t touch down though; he went screa away for another circuit I was so stupid with fear and confusion that I just followed hi above us noatching the show fro them behind in the sky while I came back to earth all by myself IN GERMANY I refused to play They were the only friends I had anyto land without them

We went round and round the aerodrome Finally the leader landed I tried to land behind hiines knockedto stall, and by the tio around AGAIN I was on my fifth circuit now and I was sick of it

Show ’em how to land a plane, Rosie

I wish Daddy had seen it I floated doith one finger on the control column and I had only a third of the runway behind et off the runway I didn’t want to get out I didn’t want to look I rested my forehead on the control panel and waited

I can’t stay awake another second It is getting light

Three hours’ sleep That’s about as good as it gets I did dreauess that’s no surprise It wasn’t a bad dream I was over wooded mountains sohenies, but it could just as easily have been south-western Ger I wasn’t scared

It is a beautiful, beautiful springout there in Paris – my s are all wide open and the air and sky are wonderful I woke up because I was cold, sleeping in my birthday suit with no covers I don’t even try to pull up the covers inbrain tells ht? Curl up in a ball and try to go back to sleep before the next siren

I aet last winter’s hell, but now I a that iht tis, that the faces of th and bravery, are fading into a tangled blur of exhaustion and hunger I a to write it all down in order, the best I can do I think writing helped– at least it tiredable to write things down I never thought of writing as a luxury or a privilege But of course it is An unalienable right

So there I was, on the ground in Gerfor the stor I didn’t see as happening, because my head was down and my eyes were closed, but after a few seconds the plane started rolling again I stoot unexpected resistance, and I jerkedon because the engine was off and the brakes were on and the Spitfire was still inching forward

Twentyat it One of them saw that I was up and not dead, and he waved at me frantically and pointed overhead I looked up – the second S still hadn’t landed anddesperately to clear the runway for hio of the brakes and thespeed, just like a bunch of kids getting a go-cart or a sledin past round at the edge of the concrete

Soed on the canopy with his fist, shouting at me to open up He pointed a pistol at ht I really didn’t want theoing to do to me, so I cooperated very, very slowly My hands shook so et that stupid cranky catch on the cockpit door in the right position, and the guy banged on the canopy again and shouted, ‘Schnell!’ Hurry up That was the first tiround in Germany Schnell! Schnell!

I knehat it meant because Mother and Grampa say it when they want the kids to hurry Grampa is very Dutch We say we are Pennsylvania Dutch, but we are not Dutch The word is just American for Deutsch; it means German in German I am Pennsylvania Gerot the sliding hood open and the un – get out of the plane I still couldn’t get the door open and had to cli to keepat the sa in and out of a Spitfire in a skirt

In a uessed a girl was going to cli that they’d captured an RAF reconnaissance pilot, taking pictures or on his way to suss out German airfields full of jet-powered Ss so we could bo And here I turned out to be a boring old transport pilot – and a girl

I stood on the ith my hands up They all backed away respectfully, their mouths open