AT Christmas we took a nostalgic look back to a dramatic winter’s night when Knutsford almost fell foul of a German missile – now another Knutsford resident shares her experience.

Ruth Cowper, of Tabley Road, was a young girl of 15 when a German bomb was dropped on Ollerton on Christmas Eve 1944.

When the siren went off, she tried to rouse her father to go to the air raid shelter, but thinking it was a false alarm, he told her not to worry and stay put.

Ruth, who was home for the holidays from boarding school, went to the window of her Legh Road home only to see a flaming rocket whizz past, towards Leicester Road, across Goughs Lane and over the top of the Toft Road.

“There was an almighty bang,” she recalled. “If it had been a little more to the left it would have gone straight through our house – we were so lucky.

“We all thought the war was coming to an end and it was like the sting in Hitler’s tail. It was certainly a night to remember.”

Ruth has many memories of the war. Her mother was in the British Red Cross and every time the siren went off she grabbed her gas mask and rushed to a first aid post on Parkfield Road.

“She had to go and wait in case there were any casualties but no-one ever came,” she said. “My father was in the army but was too old for active service and he was very worried about her but she said she didn’t mind.”

She also remembers American soldiers coming to the town and one Colonel Brent Wallace, from Philadelphia, resided with her family for a short time.

“Their uniforms were so nice and not at all like the British uniforms, which were dreadful,” she said.

Do you have memories of Knutsford in the war? Get in touch; knutsford@guardiangrp.co.uk or call 01606 813 623.