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IoW Mick

World War 2 on the Isle of Wight

When WW2 started I was 7years old living in Sandown IoW. My first inkling of what war meant was being taken on a walk toward Culver cliffs because ‘something exciting was going to happen’ I was told. I think that must have been 1939.

What happened was that the gun batteries that were placed on the point of Culver cliffs were practicing. The sound of the guns was enormous, but my parents seemed somehow to feel comforted by it.

After that there were no more holiday-makers who, until then, had flocked to Sandown via the boats that crossed from Portsmouth to Ryde and the train that ran from Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor.

I suppose it must also have been the time when coastal defences were being constructed. Along the beach at Sandown (and I was told all round the coast) scaffold tubes had been assembled into two rows of barriers. Also the beaches had been mined except for a small strip which could still be used by local people and military personnel. During the war I remember we had a lot of fun using the scaffold tube barriers as diving platforms when the tide was in.

In 1940 the war really came to mean something much more serious. I had moved from infant school to our local junior school which involved a walk from one end of town to the other. My recollection is that there were no school dinners so I walked there and back twice a day.

About this time I was given a gas mask in a cardboard box and it had a label on it saying something about evacuation to Canada. However I was not evacuated to Canada and one day the label disappeared.

When the air raid sirens sounded at school we all had to assemble outside and walk in crocodile up the hill to brick shelters which had been built in a leisure garden. One day we were doing this and watching an air battle overhead as we walked up the road. That was terribly exciting for small children. Later metal shelters with mesh walls were built in our classrooms.

When the sirens sounded at night time, my parents would wake me and put me under the stairs. Later brick shelters were built a few yards up the road and we all went there until the ‘all clear’ sounded.

Early in the War there was a big air raid at Ventnor when the radar masts there were destroyed. This was the beginning of what is known as 'The Battle of Britain'

In the IoW we were always seeing spectacular air battles going on with vapour trails all over the sky. One day (about 1943 I think)I was with some friends standing under the railway bridge at the bottom of the road and watched an aeroplane coming down in what seemed only a few fields away. Of course we ran as fast as we could to the crash site but it was much further than we expected. When we finally arrived we saw the aeroplane was smoking but apparently mostly in one piece. From the markings we could see that it was German but much to our disappointment no pilot. The local policeman had by then cordoned off the site and told us to go home.

One thing I remember was the buses were fitted with trailers which carried large bags filled with gas. This was the fuel used to run the engine.

My father was in the Home Guard. He had been asoldier in WW1 fighting in the Middle East against the Turks. He told us his guard post was on the top of the Gas Holder at the Gas Works which used to be at the end of our road.

One day a German aeroplane came low along our road firing its machine guns. Luckily no one was killed but some houses had bullet holes to show for it.

The IoW was like a sort of prison during the war because a pass was needed to leave the Island. When my mother was called to my Grandmother on the mainland she had to apply for a pass.

Toward the end of the war the Island was used as a training ground for troops who were to carry out raids involving beach landings and cliff climbing. My sister met a Royal Marine Commando then and eventually married him. He was later injured in a raid in Jugoslavia and, as a result, lived the rest of his life with a terrible blood disorder which caused him to have frequent nose bleeds. Sadly he died after the war from this.

During this period when troops were training we had the experience of watching a platoon of german soldiers marching up our road. Being children we ran behind them jeering and cat calling. Orders were being given in German until the platoon reached the Library where they halted and 'fell out'. Only when they were all speaking in English did we realise they were training to go behind German lines.

Toward the end of the war the Island was in the path of the dreaded 'doodle bugs'. These were the German secret weapons of unmanned flying bombs. First were the V1. You could hear these coming because they were powered by a 'pulse jet'. We breathed a sigh of relief when they kept going although it meant they would come down somewhere else. One did stop overhead one day. We waited for the explosion. When it came we knew it was not far away. In fact it was in the next town and caused extensive damage to houses.

Just before the Allied invasion of France it was ovious to us that something momentous was happening because some of our local roads were closed off and there was considerable work being done in the old 'Granite Fort' which was by the coast. Later we found out that the fort was being used as a pumping station for the pipe line which carried fuel for the advancing troops in Normandy. This was part of PLUTO (Pipeline Under the Ocean). See picture

Of course, during the war the Amusement Arcades were closed. They were put to good use though. One was used for the partial construction of the wooden aircraft (Mosquito).

A big news event at the beginning of the war was the arrest and prosecution for spying, of the wife of one of our local doctors. Unfortunately she was used to wandering along the cliffs and she was an Irish national. She was put in prison.

One of my Uncles had Swiss nationality. He was detained for some time.

At Grammar School we were expected to belong to the ACF (Army Cadet Force). We were traing to be soldiers but the war ended before we were old enough to be conscripted.

One of my Aunts had a son who was a soldier. He was killed coming home on leave. He was on one of the paddle steamers which plied between Portsmouth and Ryde. It hit a mine and blew up, killing many of the people who were down below.

I also had a cousin who was married to a soldier in a tank regiment. He was killed in North Africa.

As a child many of these things went over our heads. I do not recall being terribly frightened and my mother always seemed to find us food and clothing inspite of rationing. In some respects we children had a good time because we could roam about freely as there were no summer visitors and little traffic on the roads.

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