大象传媒

A BOY鈥橲 EYE VIEW OF WORLD WAR II
OPENING SHOTS
The author of this story has agreed that it can be entered on the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War website
As a seven-year-old I had the usual small boys keen appetite for blood and gore when viewed from afar and the sound of these new words, 鈥榖ombs鈥�, 鈥榸eppelins鈥�, 鈥榤obilisation鈥�, and 鈥榞as masks鈥� captured my interest. Why on earth the adults sounded so worried and talked in hushed tones, I really did not understand. They recounted stories of the First World War, guns, uniforms, battles and heroic acts. I could not wait for the action to start, and I didn鈥檛 have to wait long.
The Munich Crisis in 1938 was upon us. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, arrived at Croydon airport fresh from Munich in Germany. As he made his descent from an Imperial Airways aircraft waving a much-valued piece of paper signed by Herr Hitler, he jubilantly announced before a receptive crowd that there would be 鈥淧eace for our Time鈥�.
Britain began reluctantly to prepare for war and we were all soon to be issued with gas masks. The gas masks for younger children were designed with a Mickey Mouse face, a new cartoon character that was a great favourite with all. The thinking at the time was this would make the mask less frightening to the small children it was designed to protect.
Shortly after that I was taken to Ewell Court House to collect my gas mask. Mine was not to shine back at me with a Mickey Mouse face, and I began to realise that this war thing probable might not be such fun after all. So slowly the preparations for war were got underway. Britain was going to war. Volunteers were recruited for Air Raid Precautions Units (ARP, Later to be re-designated Civil Defence) to be known as Air Raid Wardens. The regular Fire Brigade was supplemented with men recruited to form the Auxiliary Fire Service. ARP Rescuers were enlisted to retrieve bodies, dead or alive, which might be trapped in the rubble and debris from bombs exploding on or near buildings.
Gangs of men were to be seen in local parks constructing air raid shelters. The first Air Raid Shelters were for use by the community and were located mainly in parks. These were constructed by digging large trenches probably two meters wide and 20 meters long. The floor was concreted and the walls consisted of concrete slabs, with a concrete slab roof. All this submerged in the ground with the spoil from the excavation thrown on top. The entrance down several steps took a zigzag form to prevent any debris being blown into the safe area when the bombs fell. This space could hold maybe a hundred people, and over the next several years these shelters became a familiar part of our lives, where friendships were spawned, comradeship flourished, songs were sung, and children played.
During this time our family home was in Green Lanes West Ewell. In March 1939 our family, which consisted of my parents, my sister and myself, moved to Sutton because my father had to cycle into central London for his work as a carpenter and joiner. The journey to and from Ewell on a bicycle was proving too much for him. The irony of this was that no sooner had we arrived in Sutton, than father was promoted to a General Foreman (Site Manager) and sent to the Isle of Wight to take charge of building military camps.
On 1st September 1939 general mobilisation was ordered. My father was called up to serve with the RAF, having joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in June of that year. The following day my father left for RAF Thorney Island from where he went off to war. That very night there was a particularly noisy thunderstorm. The bolts of thunder and the flashes of lightening was a portent of things to come. My mother took my sister and I from our beds. Her fear was almost tangible as we gathered down stairs in the dining room. There were to be many nights like this. My mother along with many other mothers, with their children huddled together, facing an uncertain future, with no husband at their side to offer a comforting smile or a reassuring gesture. Our world changed and so would the women.
The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain spoke to us all via the wireless (radio) saying as from 11 o clock, on that Sunday morning 3rd September 1939, Britain would be at war with Germany. He explained that the Government had taken this decision because the Germans had not ceased their attack on Poland as requested by the British and French Governments. Almost immediately the sirens wailed. This was our first warning of an air raid, a sound we would soon get used to. This was the same Neville Chamberlain, who merely a year before had promised us 鈥楶eace鈥�. Maybe this experience sowed the seed of my life long interest in Politics, who knows? Air raid wardens ran about blowing whistles and shouting at everyone to stay in their house. All the preparation we thought we had striven to put in place, now amounted to nothing. It was most fortunate that it was a false alarm. We had no other shelter than our own homes.
It was because of this lack of shelter from air raids that we children had no schooling for several months whilst the necessary air raid shelters were constructed in the school grounds, usually on the school sports field. Once a week we had to go into school to receive fresh homework to be completed for the following week. I am afraid what homework I did was only under extreme duress. There were too many other distractions, such as riding my bike, roller-skating, and playing games. Regular schooling restarted after what would normally have been the Christmas holidays.
The first thing to change with the declaration of war with Germany was the imposition of the blackout. All streetlights were extinguished. Windows and doors were covered with black curtains so that no light could be seen from outside. The scant amount of cars, trucks and buses about had shielded front lights, so much so that they gave little or no help to the driver to see where he was going. Buses and trains had their windows covered with a cloth mesh except for a small diamond in the middle so you could see out. At night trains had blinds drawn and buses had very much reduced internal lighting. Any light would be of great help to enemy aircraft. The smallest amount of light would act as a beacon to indicate a residential area and turn it into a target for enemy aircraft. The smallest chink of light attracted a loud shout of 鈥淧ut That Light Out鈥�. This later became the standard greeting articulated by Mr. Hodges the ARP Warden in the TV series 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥�. However, there were limits to the efficacy of this strategy as it really only worked well on nights with little or no moonlight. Bright moonlit nights were said to be a 鈥渂ombers鈥� moon鈥�.
The next restriction imposed on us was the rationing of food. There was an immediate rush to the shops and tinned products were stock piled by many. Britain鈥檚 dependency on imported food left this island race vulnerable to the hardship, which was only round the corner. The German submarines soon targeted merchant ships carrying foodstuffs and food supplies became scarce. The hardy Brits responded to this by growing as much in the way of food as they could. Later some people even kept poultry in their back garden. Prized lawns were dug up and turned into vegetable plots. This became know as 鈥淒igging for Victory鈥�. The ownership of allotments grew to where almost everyone was in food production. The quantities of essential foods like meat, butter, cheese, sugar, and tea, were rationed out to where only with great care could you get through the week on your personal allocation. The larger families were a little better off because the increased total quantity allowed more flexibility in the preparation of meals.
An example of the food ration for one person per week was in the order of 2ozs butter, 4 ozs margarine, 2 ozs lard, 1 egg per fortnight, 3ozs sugar, 2 rashers of bacon (1 ozs equals approximately 28.3 grams). The butter and margarine ration could be difficult to get in the exact amount in some shops, for not all suppliers sent it out wrapped pre packed to the correct weight. The butter and margarine arrived in a large block and the shop assistant had to carve off a portion and then weigh it and after adding or subtracting small amounts to get the correct weight had to place it onto a wooden board and then pat it into a block using two wooden paddles with grooved surfaces before wrapping in grease proof paper and handing to the customer. Meat was rationed by price at 2 shillings (10p) per person per week plus a small supplement of corned beef. Even after the war bread and potatoes were rationed by the then Labour Government. The Americans through the Lease 鈥� Lend programme shipped over some foodstuffs to help us in our hour of need. Two foods that I remember are powdered egg and of course tins of Spam, which is still with us today.
Listening to the wireless [radio] was an important part of our day. Not only did it bring us news of the progression of the battles being fought in which our loved ones were sacrificing their freedom and their youth, but radio was also our main source of entertainment.
My wireless listening now centred on Jack Warner, a comedian performing as a newly enlisted soldier in a programme called 鈥淕arrison Theatre鈥�. Another favourite was comedian Tommy Handley, in a programme that started out as 鈥淚t鈥檚 That Man Again鈥� which was later shortened to ITMA. This particular programme continued throughout the war and acquired a cult following. ITMA produced a number of catch phases which one repeated and heard time and again. The one that caught my imagination was where the phone rang and was answered by Tommy, and then the German Spy at the other end would say 'Dis ist F眉nf' [鈥淭his is 5鈥�, - the equivalent of today鈥檚 007]. Another catch phase, which caught on was 鈥淐an I do you now, Sir?鈥� spoken by Mrs. Mop (the char lady). The inference of this question was considered extremely risqu茅 for its time. Later catch phrases were to grow out of TV game shows and quotes from films. But this is where it all began.
In late June 1940 following the fall of France and the British evacuation from Dunkirk my Mother, sister and I went to live with my Grandmother in West Ewell, to me this was a homecoming. For in Green Lanes there was the wide-open space, on both sides of the brook that runs down the centre, and the additional space of what we called the 鈥榃ilderness鈥�, the strip of open space that runs alongside the Hogsmill River from the railway to Ruxley Lane. The present day signs saying 鈥淣o Ball Games鈥� were not erected until well after peace had been won. I was a member of many teams that won the Ashes or the FA Cup.
After the Germans captured Dunkirk on June 4th there was a quiet period when the Luftwaffe concentrated their attacks on shipping in the English Channel. Then on Eagle Day 12th August, the Germans moved from attacking shipping in The English Channel to bombing RAF airfields trying to put them out of action by denying our fighter aircraft bases from which to operate against the Luftwaffe. The German airmen came to fear our Spitfires and RAF controllers would hear them calling to each other over their radios 鈥渁chtung spitfeuer鈥�, 鈥渓ook out spitfire.鈥�
At about this time my father had come home on leave from the RAF and he and I were in the house alone when an air raid began and we stood on the front door step watching the aerial attack on Croydon Airport, which was then an RAF fighter base. The aircraft were merely tiny specks in the sky, weaving intricate patterns with their white vapour trails, which were interspersed with puffs of black smoke from gunfire. One German bomber was chased away from the target and passed over overhead; in its flight it dropped its bombs. One fell exploding on impact in the Salesian Sports field in Old Schools Lane, Ewell, the other fell in Sunnymede Road behind our home in Green Lanes. This bomb remained there unexploded being a delayed action bomb. Being completely unaware of this occurrence, that night when the Germans returned for another raid, we secluded ourselves in the safety of our Anderson shelter at the end of our garden. This was an almost life-threatening mistake because at about half past midnight the delayed action bomb went off and our family were shaken like so many peas in a whistle being blown at full blast. We were not only shaken, but also most definitely stirred. The following morning when we recounted our experience to neighbours they were all wisely saying that the ARP had warned everyone in the neighbourhood not to use Anderson shelters in their gardens. Everyone but us had been informed, how we came to be missed out, we never knew, we only knew that our number had not been called, so it certainly wasn鈥檛 5.
An Anderson shelter was formed from heavy corrugated galvanized steel plates, which bolted together, formed a refuge about the size of the average garden shed. The Government distributed these one per household. We would then dig a hole in the garden and erect the shelter so that it was half submerged in the soil. The soil from digging the hole was then placed over the top of the shelter.
Continued in Part 2

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