LIKE many fellow servicemen, Bill King saw plenty of action during the Second World War.

As a member of an anti-aircraft gun crew, he defended London, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool from raids by German bombers.

He was prompted to write in after reading Derrick Holt’s account of wartime air activity over Oxford (Memory Lane, August 2).

Mr King, of Church Lane, Harwell, was born in Oxford in 1919 and was living with his parents, brother and sister in Morrell Avenue when war broke out in 1939.

As a skilled mechanic, he expected to go into the Royal Army Service Corps, which was responsible for repairing military vehicles and equipment.

Instead, he was posted to the Royal Artillery and trained as a heavy vehicle driver towing 3.7-inch, 10-ton Ack-Ack guns.

He writes: “In April 1940, I was able to take a trade test and a gun course and became a gun fitter, with extra trade pay.

“During the Battle of Britain, we were stationed in the London area under canvas and were up all night and every night firing at enemy aircraft. We also had to cope with daytime bombing raids.”

He and his colleagues had half a day off every three weeks and often had to give up their two-and-a-half-hour afternoon siesta to repair guns ready for action again that night.

Mr King, who later became a member of a gun crew, recalls: “This was a very hectic period in the war, which ended only when we won the Battle of Britain.”

The reward was promotion to sergeant and two years later, to staff sergeant.

After the Battle of Britain, he moved on to defend Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool from air raids during the Blitz.

Mr King, whose wartime exploits left him permanently deaf in his right ear, recalls one incident in the autumn of 1943 when he was on a gun site next to grain silo on the southern edge of Kidlington.

“When the sirens went one evening at about 9pm, we manned the guns as an aircraft was overhead.

“Most of us were pretty certain that it was a plane from Kidlington Airport, where RAF pilots were trained.

“I was in the command post where the duty officer was trying to cope with the emergency.

“No friendly signals were being received by our radar so he gave the order to open fire. We continued to fire until the aircraft was out of range.

“We then received an irate phone call from the Officer Commanding at Kidlington Airport telling us that a very shaken pilot had just landed, with a well peppered aircraft.

“Unfortunately, such incidents did happen during the war.”

Any other wartime memories to share with Memory Lane readers? Write and let me know.