大象传媒

My earliest memories of the war relate back to my time as a pupil at Cranleigh Prep School when teachers began to be called up into the army and we had to practice putting on gas masks. The 1st Battalion the Gloucester regiment were based in Cranleigh and following a visit from the billeting officers we had two sergeants staying with us as a constant reminder of the conflict. I was amazed to see Bren gun carriers parked in The Drive and field kitchens were set up in the streets to feed 500 men.
In the first World War my father joined the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry and then the RFC where he became a balloon observer in Salonica. In WW2 he joined the Local Defence Volunteers, later to become the Home Guard. The unit was under the control of Colonel Hopewell and our garage was used as the armoury. Their principal role was guarding bridges and initially they were armed with shotguns and later with .300 calibre rifles which were supplied by the US and said to have been used in the Civil War! They spent many hours practising throwing hand grenades and to assist in this a Northover projector was supplied but this proved to be totally useless.
A platoon based on Cranleigh School, staffed by the masters as NCO鈥檚 and a Sten gun was dropped on a boy which killed him.
Our first experience of bombing was in the winter of 1941 when a string of bombs fell on the village. The first exploded in Avenue Road and the second in The Drive which blew the Bren gun carrier into the air. The third impacted into the side of a building in Mount Road and was not exploded until 2 weeks later.
On another occasion an oil bomb caused damage to the cottages in Mead Road opposite the forge.
The flying bombs or V1鈥檚 were most feared as you could hear them until their engines cut out. I remember returning from a trip to Guildford on the train and noticing that the gas- holder had been blown up. Fortunately it was empty at the time but I later heard that a lady had been killed outside her cottage when she looked out to see the flying bomb.
My friend Don Nunnerley and I were obsessed with aeroplanes and as soon as we heard of a crash we would cycle to the wreckage to see if we could collect any souvenirs. We became avid spotters and kept a log and after the Battle of Britain on one occasion we recorded many as 900 Lancaster bombers and later flying Fortresses.
In 1942 Dunsfold aerodrome was being built and many Canadian soldiers were drafted in to complete the work. They joined in the life of the village and some even married local girls. The first plane was eagerly awaited and plane spotters were rather disappointed when this turned out to be a Tiger Moth. Later three squadrons of Mitchell Bombers arrived, two for the USAF and one for the Dutch Navy.
One plane crashed on landing and the bombs exploded blowing up the plane. Another came down in Lashmere on the Elmbridge Road and another near Dunsfold Church. On the whole these incidents were not reported to the general public. We used to cycle to the aerodrome when the soldiers gave us candy and at the end of 1944 they moved out..
We approached the end of the war with mixed feelings. Many a wounded soldier could be seen and prisoner of war camps were set up in different locations. Bombs were shipped in to Cranleigh Station and the troops were amassed on Albury Heath. I do not recall any great celebration on VE day except for the Thanksgiving in the church.
Just after the war some planes were burnt which was a cause of great sadness to me and my plane spotting pals.

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