I REFER to the photograph of Littlemore Army Cadets (Memory Lane, July 13).

I, too, am in the picture, in the middle of the second row. Many good times were spent in the cadets.

Our commanding officer was Captain W Pettit, who lived in Littlemore.

We learned a lot of worthwhile crafts, which came in very handy five years later when I was called up for National Service with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

DAVID HUTTON
Sycamore Drive
Thame

WHEN I was about six years old, my mates and I – we lived in St Ebbe’s, Oxford – noticed there were a lot of American servicemen about.

They parked their lorries by the cattle market in Oxpens. We were cheeky and said to them: “Got any gum, chum?” If they told us off, we sang a song to them: “It wasn’t the Yanks that won the war, parlez-vous I wasn’t the Yanks that won the war, parlez-vous It wasn’t the Yanks that won the war The Ox and Bucks were there before Inky, pinky, parlez-vous.”

To be fair, we didn’t have to sing it many times and when we did, I don’t think they could hear us very well.

RON TOMBS
Formerly of Farm Road
Abingdon