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An Infantryman鈥檚 memories Part One - Wartime memories of Bedford

Part One of an oral history interview with Mr. Arthur Keech conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚 was born 22nd June 1926. I lived at the back of Goldington Green School, Bedford. I went to Goldington Green school at the start and then I moved up to Goldington Road school. I was 13 when war was declared. It was the fact that it was in the papers, everybody was talking about it. It was a big discussion all the time, what was going to happen. I mean for some considerable time there was nothing happened as far as we were concerned. I mean all the troops were over in France until 鈥楧unkirk鈥� occurred. I mean that was sort of the finish of my school days because I left school at 14 and started work straight away.

We saw all the war films and the Pathe News. I suppose the other thing was the radio that kept everyone informed. What we had was a crystal set with earphones. We had the wire going to the middle of the mantlepiece and there were two connections and you put them in and did your screws up like that and one set one side and one set the other, you put the headphones on. Mum and dad had that, we didn鈥檛. Laughter! Then we had one with a big horn, a big shaped horn like that so then we could all hear it after the crackles and one thing and another.

I used to make blackout screens. They were lino. I used to make a wooden frame and tack the lino to it and then put them up with screws with buttons to fix it to, that鈥檚 how I used to do it. A lot of people used to do in the inside. I made all ours at home, made the next door neighbours and so forth. We were always doing things like that. We always used to carry a gas mask of course, we all carried those. The headlights on the cars had those funny little things on, like a tin with slots in. But there weren鈥檛 many cars and there weren鈥檛 many people with petrol to run about, only the people on special service, special jobs, ARP and Home Guard, those sort of people they got petrol for that sort of thing.

And then a little later on we did get air raids during the evenings and nights. And on one particular occasion, you could always tell a Dornier when it came over you could tell by the throb of the engine, the plane came over and it droned and droned, it circled and it droned and droned. All of a sudden it dropped a stick of bombs across from Putnoe right the away across the fields right the way through to Melvin鈥檚 and in Melvin鈥檚 field there were two, but they didn鈥檛 explode. The ones over Putnoe did and at the same time they killed Laxton. And these two were in the middle of this field, just round holes. Well being inquisitive I went and had a look, stuck my head down this hole and you could hear it ticking. So I came away from there pretty quick and then the Bomb Disposal Squad came and they wouldn鈥檛 look at it for a bit and then eventually they did dig them out, defused them and took them away.

Then on another occasion there was another, I think it was a Dornier came over. This is on another night (29/30th July 1942) and it dropped a row of incendiary bombs right the way round from Kempston over Summerhouse Hill up the top there by the sewage farm and right the way through. Through Russell Park and all those houses through there, they all get these bombs in. But they were a new one to us. They were an incendiary bomb with a large explosive device on the bottom end, like a grena de. We were always taught to put sandbags over the top of them to prevent them from burning but when we did this these things exploded. Lots of them did and lots of them didn鈥檛 go off. But they came from what they called a 鈥楳olotoff Breadbasket鈥� which was dropped by parachute and it was like two big mudguards that opened up and every so far on it鈥檚 way down it showered these grenade鈥檚 out so they covered a large area. They caused quite a bit of damage and there were lots of damage done down Dudley Street and George Street and those places.

My father was in the Home Guard and he was up at Summerhouse Hill at that particular time when they dropped. That was about the last raid. Oh, no there was one more lot that dropped on morning, early going to work (on 23rd July 1942 at 9.00 hours). They tried for the railway down at Midland Road. They dropped the bombs along there and part of it damaged the old County Theatre and the other thing it blew all the windows out everywhere of course, and it blew a piece of railway line right up Midland Road, right up there. I had started work and I was actually working at County Theatre but not at the time of the air raid. We used to do a lot of the maintenance there at the County Theatre, any odd and ends, bits and pieces. But at this particular time we had been there the day previous and when we went back there the following day it had happened. It wasn鈥檛 all demolished. It was only a part of it on the dressing room side. They soon did something about it because that didn鈥檛 catch the full blast of it. That was on the Grafton Hotel, right on the corner. I did my plumbing apprentice work with Alan Ball, 22 St. Cuthbert鈥檚. I worked there until I was called-up in the Forces. We used to do a lot of work round various businesses when I worked for a firm you see.

In the mean time I was in the Army Cadet Force at Goldington Road School. All us lads at that particular time joined something. I was 14 or 15, just after I鈥檇 started work. Some joined the Naval Cadets, some joined the Air Cadets and others joined the Army Cadets. The Army Cadets appealed to me more than anything else although I had a Naval medical but they wouldn鈥檛 let me go because I had what they called a war certificate 鈥楢鈥�. It meant that you were three parts trained, you had your certificate to prove that you鈥檇 done so many things, you鈥檇 handled rifles, you鈥檇 handled guns, you鈥檇 fired them, you鈥檇 done everything, that was before I joined the Army you see. We used to do Parades and various things, camps, things like that. I suppose we thought we were enjoying ourselves but actually we were preparing ourselves for the Forces.

One of them was Ibbett, an old school master. He was also on the group when we did fire watching at Goldington Road School. Barrett, I believe he was another one, he was the Headmaster. Then we had a Sergeant Major Blinko that used to take us - he was in charge of the Cadet Force at Bedford School and we used to go up there and parade on their parade ground and he used to take us there. We used to go to Kempston Barracks and we used to be drilled there. We used to take part in the local parades and things like that, all down the Embankment and up the High Street, various things like that.

There used to be a rifle range belonged to the Bedford Modern School, I don鈥檛 know whether it鈥檚 still there, at the back of the swimming pool up Clarendon Street. Brigadier Frost used to take us a lot there. He was an ex-Army chappie but he was a school teacher, what was his name, I can see him but his name won鈥檛 come to me, they used to take us for rifle shooting and various other things too, over there. I was a good shot. I used to win a lot of money off of the old Brigadier. I was always shooting anyway at one time. I was a sniper too in the Forces. I was a sniper, I used to wear Cross Guns, I did on there on that uniform too, the ATC uniform before I went in to the Forces. We used to shot cartridge cases on a stick at 25 yards. II used to have my own rifle that I gave to the Women鈥檚 Police Rifle Club when I鈥檇 finished with it.

You all had to do it, you all had to do something. If you weren鈥檛 doing something of National importance, I mean like me I could have gone on an airfield or something like that, my boss did, he wanted to. There were about 30 men there at one time and I was the last one before I was called up but he went on the airfield and was given exemption, he didn鈥檛 have to go but I did.鈥�

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