At about this time we made another move to a field near Maidstone, asmall city southeast of London. We always were closer to the Channel hereand the field was entirely different. Some one else flew my planedown here and I went by train with the rest of the group. It isinteresting to note that we went through the village of Sittingbournewhere my mother was born. The train didn't stop so I had no chance tovisit there. 0ur living conditions at Maidstone were different: in atent with a dirt floor in the middle of an apple orchard. There werefour of us in each tent sleeping on army cots with a stove in themiddle for heat. 0n warm days we could role up the sides of the tentfor ventilation. Another tent was the mess hall and we ate sitting onthe ground under the apple trees. We ate with our army mess kits andrinsed them out in a barrel of hot water.

This was much different from the beautiful place where Len Pierce wasstationed. The runway at Maidstone was a grass field surrounded bytrees. They put very heavy wire mesh in the ground to keep us from sinkingin when the field was muddy. It was a bumpy field to begin with! Thefield was not somewhat long and you had to get down before running intothe trees at the and of the runway. 0ne time I came back from amission and the wind was blowing across the runway. (Planes alwayslanded into the wind and took off the same way) I was not lined upcorrectly with the runway and was drifting to the right. It was toolate to pull up and go around again as I was down to landing speed.This decision had to be made quickly and I decided to land. When mywheels touched the ground I began to bounce to the right and by usingbrakes and all the other controls I kept from crashing, managing tostop Just before hitting the trees at the end of the runway. It wasthe worst landing I over made, but I was relieved not to have damagedmy plane. I was somewhat embarrassed when I got out in front of my crew.