"My Grandfather's Farm."

Bates describes the George Lucas farm of the Midlands where he spent many boyhood days, now bulldozed into a vast air-force base run by Americans.

He contemplates the resulting deep ties created between two peoples, and then reminisces about the German war-prisoner "who worked on this hillside, on our farm" from 1914 to 1918 and bemoans that his return home apparently had no effect on his country's thirst for war. Bates wrote about this prisoner, Johann, in The Vanished World (p. 95) as well as in the fictional account "The Hessian Prisoner."

Overall, this short piece is a tribute to the collaborative efforts of Allied forces in the English countryside. A year later, Bates would publish an update on the land called "They Have Left the Farm."

Twenty-nine negatives from a series of photographs (shown below) that were taken by the Air Ministry to accompany the essay are held at the IWM. These photos were most likely taken in and around R.A.F. Chelveston. The Chequers public house (whose previous boniface was Bates' aunt Matilda) and St Mary's Church in Yelden (where Bunyan preached) also feature as do Bates' young sons, Richard and Jonathan.
 

Printed in This Week Magazine (July 16, 1944, pp. 4-5, short-form version), a Sunday supplement distributed with many US newspapers including:

• New York Herald Tribune (July 16, 1944, p. F1)
• Los Angeles Times (July 16, 1944, p. F4)
• Atlanta Constitution (July 16, 1944, p. 4)
• Baltimore Sun (July 16, 1944, p. T4)
• Indianapolis Star (July 16, 1944, p. 4)
• Washington Evening Star (July 16, 1944, pp. 4-5)
   

Extended version printed in the Royal Air Force Journal (October 1944); Slipstream, A Royal Air Force Anthology (1946, pp. 105-110, attached).

Gypsies and their caravan pass a FortressA U.S. sentry checks up on the identity of gypsies at the entrance to the campLittle girls going home from school in a dog cart - a peaceful English country means of transportA typical small English farmOn their day off American G.Is walk down the main street of a quiet country village (Kimbolton)An American sergeant halts his bicycle to look down the street of an old English village (Kimbolton)"Where did you get those hats?" ask two American soldiers of boys from a neighbouring Public School"Got any gum chum?" Two small English boys (Richard & Jonathan Bates) stop and ask an AmericanAmerican soldier and airman show two small boys (Richard & Jonathan Bates) a baby rabbit caught on the airfieldBomb dump in a small copseArmourer carries fin to a 2000 lb. bombThe American Red Cross visits the bomb dump with coffee and doughnuts for the menFlying Fortress (Flak Alley Lil) and its ground crew. In the background is a small English villageGround crew at workB.17 Flying Fortresses lined up, ready to take off on a sortieThe two huge water tanks which supply this new American "city"Flying Fortresses passing over the village church (St. Mary's, Yelden) on their way to GermanyFortress landing after attacking GermanyAnother Fortress circles the airfield - passing over the peaceful English countrysideFarm workers wave to a returning FortressCrews, back from a raid, on their way to interrogationAmerican airmen stop to pet a spaniel near a picturesque old church (St. Mary's) in the village (Higham Ferrers)American airmen looking at the interior of an 11th century English country church (St. Mary's, Yelden)One looks at the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments inscribed on the wallOn Sunday, an American reads the LessonSome of the G.Is act as bellringers"Jimmie" the innkeeper of "The Chequers" - the local pub where Americans relax and mix with the country folk"Jimmie" and his wife, who welcome the Americans and make them feel at home.GI Brides: An American sergeant and his English girlfriend watch the bombers return, Chelveston, Northants, 5 May 1944