大象传媒

This story was contributed by Tom Worsfold on behalf of Gerald Morris.

"Signing up"
Early in 1938, after I had left school, I went to work as a carpenters mate on a housing estate, where my dad worked at Pinner, Middlesex.
This entailed a 32 mile round trip cycle ride from wood green where we lived. This was 5 陆 days a week for the generous wage of 14 shillings.
One Saturday lunch time, Dad told me to tell mum "I'll be half and hour late". In Stanmore he stopped off at the H.Q of the Royal aux air force.
When Dad arrived home, he told us that he had "signed up".
This event prompted me to join the Royal Cadets.

WAR!
When the war broke out, I lived in North London. I was 14, and at the time was visiting my father in Regent's Park.
When I first heard, I had mixed emotions, but mainly of anxiety and patriotism.
As mentioned before, I joined up with the Army Cadets in early 1939.
It was such a big lifestyle change, and something I remember are the air raids. There was lots of noise, where I lived in the suburbs. Our next door neighbours had an Anderson shelter, which we shared. Sometimes we had to stay there all night. I was so nervous when the bombs dropped. Later on, we had a 'Morrison' in door shelter, with thick wire mesh and mattresses.

In the Cadets, generally I did training with the army, and being a young lad, I was pleased to get a gun!
Our cadet unit worked closely with the home guard. My day time job became a welder in a nearby factory.
I also remember the rations. They weren't as bad as people said, I thought they were adequate.

I joined the army in 1942 at the age of 18.
One Significant memory I remember that stands out was once when we had returned from the front-line in Europe, to get rested up in a rural area in Germany.
We were at a farm, and I was just waiting around when I saw and young German boy tugging on my trousers, speaking German.
"Come with me!" He said "Injured!"
I followed him to another farm and I saw his sister dead in the courtyard. He led me down to a cellar where the rest of his family had all been injured with shrapnel wounds.
I went to my Officer, and we managed to help them. I felt really good about what I had done.

Doris
During the New Year, 7th January 1943, I met Doris Miller. All her 5 brothers were in the navy. We got to know each other and she eventually became my wife.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.