大象传媒

I was born in Stratford, East London in January 1927. During The late 30's, when I was about 12 years old, i remember how news of the war was very prominent in people's lives and most were aware that war was inevitable. In those days people went to the cinema about 2 or 3 times a week and we saw the news on the newsreels.

At about the age of 15 I joined Paterson's Engineering Company, Bow, East London to learn a trade. William Paterson, the owner of the company, was the inventor of the Anderson Shelter, which the majority of London people had erected in their back yards. Anderson was the Home Secretary at the time. These were corrugated iron sheets bolted together to form a small dome-shaped room, which was partially buried with front left open for easy access. There was also an emergency exit door at the back of it. Most people put sand bags as an extra barricade in the front entrance area. Each family prepared the shelters according to their own comfort. From 1940 onwards the 'London Blitz' started in earnest and the shelters were used more and more regularly, almost nightly and often during the day. This started to tail off during 1942, with continued occasional raids thereafter until about 1944 when the pilotless planes, commonly called "Doodlebugs" started coming over during the days or nights. They travelled at about 200mph+ and had a distinctive, loud drone, which everybody got to know well, especially at night when you could see the flame coming from the tail engine, which would cut out, and sometimes glide precariously for some time before actually exploding on eventual contact with the ground, which was often a fairly large area including peoples homes. When these craft reached the south coast, the sound of the wailing air raid sirens would go off.

Then came the swift v2 rockets which came with no warning, fired mostly from holland, and the first indication was when they exploded indistcriminately. I remember one night, walking home as I had missed the last bus, a V2 bomb fell and exploded on some houses 300-400 yards up the road from where I was. The impact from the blast blew me off my feet and I landed up against a shop window on the opposite side of the road, without injury, but not knowing how I got there! The aim seemed to be to demoralize the people of Britain. Winston Churchill boosted the morale of the people with regular radio broadcasts. People's spirits were very much bonded because we were all in the same boat. Comeraderie was wonderful and people helped one another. Food was rationed, but people seemed well enough and managed quite well.

I did one night a week fire watch duty at Paterson's premises at Bow, which was near the dock area, for which I was paid 3 half crowns (7/6d) a shift. I remember that it was on one of these nights that the first "Doodlebug" came over, and we thought that it was our artillery hitting these planes as they came over. Quite a few "Doodlebugs" were intercepted at the coast by our fighter pilots, who first tried to shoot them down and on occasions had been known to fly alongside and wing-tip them and throw them off course. They actually came over every few seconds, many getting through to London.

From the age of 16 to 17 I was a Naval Cadet with the specific reasoning that when i became 18 and got called up I could go into the Royal Navy, which, of course did not transpire. I got my papers for The Army instead, joining the West Kent Regiment at Canterbury for the 6 Weeks' preliminary training which all recruits had to go through. Most of my fellow recruits were from different walks of life and backgrounds and from different parts of Britain. During this period of time we were given weaponry and physical training and lived in barracks. After the 6 week period all the recruits were then interviewed and from their backgrounds and schooling were given postings to various regiments. In my case it was The Royal Artillery at Aldershot to be trained as a driver/operator, which incorporated learning to drive a vehicle, signalling, using RT wireless sets, radio telecommunication, including learning Morse Code, which was used extensively during the war. The driver/operator training also included learning the 6 positions of the 25-pounder gun, either mounted on vehicles or towed, on which we were trained.

To be continued...

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