A MOVING, yet extremely tragic story was recalled on Skylon Park, Hereford (A lasting tribute to family, Hereford Times, December 4), relating to the Hursey family.

Ken Hursey was 15 when he had to dig himself out of the rubble of his family home, after a lone German aircraft targeted the wartime Rotherwas munitions factory, now Skylon Park.

This was on July 27, 1942 and 22 people died including Police Supt Hursey and his wife Vera, Ken Hursey’s father and mother.

Sadly, lone fighter bomber strikes also happened in other areas.

At Rolls Royce in Derby, where Merlin engines were made for Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters etc, the same sort of incident occurred during a change of shift. My own parents had to dive into a rose garden to escape the bombing and strafing and approximately 60 people were killed or injured.

The same happened at Rolls Royce in Crewe. On each occasion the Rolls Royce factories had anti-aircraft guns on the roof, but they were unmanned due to the change of shifts.

It occurs to me that these two incidents and the one at Hereford may be linked and involved the same German squadron, possibly even the same pilot and aeroplane. I suspect they came from Kampf- gruppe 100 based in Brittany.

Over many years I have been investigating such incidents linked with Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) operating under cover in Britain.

The head of such a spy ring was a German businessman from Cardiff. It is well documented that he left Wales three days before war was declared, leaving sub-agents, one of whom lived on Barry Island, overlooking the docks. Was there another sub-agent in Hereford at the time of the Rotherwas attack?

We will never know the full story but I am pleased Ken Hursey and his son Ron have lived to see Hursey Road dedicated to his family and the sacrifices made by the others to keep our nation free.

CHRISTOPHER SHORT Ex-RAF regiment Aberystwyth Crescent, Barry