FOR most people the thoughts and memories of war are something that can run chills down the spine, but for John Wicks through all of the tragedy it was still a time of excitement and childhood fun.

Mr Wicks, who was born in 1936 and is now 82, has lived in High Garrett his entire life, and can recall a number of wartime events, from bombings to celebrations in Halstead, Braintree and Coggeshall.

Some of his earliest memories are are of him and younger brother James spending time with their aunts Margery and Pauline Potter and their boyfriends Andy and Dusty, who were both American airmen.

Mr Wicks smiled as he reminisced: “My two aunts each had American boyfriends, which in those days was considered not to do.

“We used to visit our grandma in Coggeshall quite often and they used to come round and give us little treats, cocoa with sugar in a packet, and they used to let us play with their firearms.”

The thought of young children playing with guns doesn’t bear thinking about today, but Mr Wicks chuckled as he recalled these carefree games.

Memories turned to a particular day in Coggeshall on March 24, 1945.

Operation Varsity was an Allied airborne assault over the Rhine River at Wesel, Germany.

The daring collaboration between British and American airborne divisions played a vital role in the final attack on Germany – known as the Rhine Crossings.

It was day which Mr Wicks remembers well.

He cast his mind back to being eight years old on the morning after Operation Varsity, when 43 of the 440-strong glider armada took off from Earls Colne.

“On this particular morning our aunts’ American boyfriends came round,” he said.

“Varsity had happened the day before and we had seen all of the gliders. One had broken free and had its cable trailing behind it.

“So they came and picked us up in a Jeep and took us to the Earls Colne road and stopped at a gap in the hedge which was obviously well-used.

“They took us in and there was this glider there, a Horsa, and we just got in it and played about with the controls.

“It still had all its power connected because there was a landing light and we turned it on when we were messing about with the lever that moves it up and down.

“There were some chaps walking across and they came over and said ‘What’s going on?’ and we were allowed to release the cables off the wing.

“It really was an ever so interesting day.”

After the end of the war Mr Wicks was still enchanted by the airfields pilots used to fly from, regularly cycling from High Garrett to Coggeshall.

He said: “Marks Hall was our playground after the war.

“Once the military left we were there every Sunday and going in all the buildings and everything because in those days its was not uncommon for kids to go off all day.”

Mr Wicks said his earliest memory of wartime was being told: “The Germans are coming.”

He said: “We picked it up from our parents.

“I could have only been coming up to four but that was what we were told.

“It didn’t really mean anything to us, and of course they didn’t come.

“So the rest of time, if I’m honest, the whole war seemed very exciting to a child.

“We knew every aircraft we saw, especially getting into the second and third years of the war when they built them around Earls Colne and Gosfield, and we often knew what was going on.”

Mr Wicks recalled a other memories from his childhood during the Second World War, including the White Hart being bombed in Braintree, which he went to see the next day, his neighbour sheltering him during an air-raid, and the celebrations at the end of the war.

As John got older his passion for flying remained with him and he became a pilot.

His study is now plastered with what he calls his “wall of fame” showing him proudly holding a number of trophies for flying.