大象传媒

Part two of an edited oral history interview with Mr. Claude Banks at the Bedford Museum 鈥楢niseed Balls and the Missing Cannon鈥� project Outreach Event at Riseley Village Hall organised in conjunction with Riseley WEA.

鈥淚 remember one night, I think it must have been about November 1941, it was a Thursday evening, I know it was a Thursday because my step-father had been to St.Neot鈥檚 market and he always used to bring some thing back for high tea. This particular time he had brought some smoked haddock and we were just sitting down to eat this smoked haddock about quarter to, to half past six in the evening and we could hear this German plane going round. You could always tell the sound of a German plane because I think they鈥檇 got a different number of cylinders to the English planes and they鈥檇 got a sort of a humming sound rather than a regular beat like the English planes had. He dropped this stick of six bombs at Keysoe Brook End which was about a mile, a mile and a half from us and there a sort of a pause of a split second as each bomb hit the ground and exploded. I think if there had been two more bombs in the stick, other than the six, I think my step-father would have been under the table because he got ready to get under the table. I know we had a mantle lamp hanging from the beam that gave us the light, a paraffin lamp, no electricity in those days and this lamp started to sway! That was not a very nice moment, that one!

Then I left school at Christmas 1941 and they put me to work, I don鈥檛 know why ever they wanted to, in an Auctioneers office at Thrapston. I think they鈥檇 probably made that plan for me because farming was going downhill fast before the war and they wanted to get me in some other business. Anyway, I was in this office at Thrapston, it was a bit like caging a wild sparrow in a trap rather than let it be doing what it liked outside, like I鈥檇 always been used to be doing. So I was at Thrapston then when the American Airmen started coming over from America to man the Bases and there was a Base at Grafton Underwood. I think it was in about June time the Grafton Underwood Base was serviceable for these B17s to go and bomb Germany. One night there was about three or four truckloads of these Airmen come to Thrapston to paint the town Red - the next day when the park keeper was going round tidying the park up he found a pair of ladies knickers and an American gas mask in close proximity! They were obviously surplus to requirements at the time!

I didn鈥檛 have a very happy time there and I was quite pleased when my step-dad said at Christmas 1943, 鈥業 was thinking you may as well come back on the farm.鈥� Well, I went back on the farm but as soon as I got to be 17 years old I thought, oh, bugger this I really ought to be doing something more the for war effort. So one Saturday afternoon I went to Bedford and went into the Enlisting Office and the old Army chap sitting behind his desk and I walked up to the desk and he said, 鈥楪ood afternoon, young man, what can I do for you?鈥� I said. 鈥榃ell, actually Sir I鈥檝e come to volunteer for the Forces.鈥� He said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 very noble of you.鈥� I said, 鈥榃ell, I thought that鈥檚 the best thing I could do.鈥� He said, 鈥楻ight. Let us take some particulars down.鈥� So he said, 鈥楴ame?鈥� I said, 鈥楥laude Banks鈥�, he said, 鈥榓ddress?鈥� I said, 鈥楳anor Farm, Pertenhall.鈥� He said, 鈥極h鈥� and he put his pen down like that and he said, 鈥楳anor Farm? What work do you do?鈥� I said, 鈥業 drive a tractor on my step-father鈥檚 farm.鈥� He said, 鈥業鈥檒l give you a bit of good advice now鈥� he said, 鈥榶ou go home, get on that tractor and work as hard as you can. Because at the moment the German submarines are sinking the food ships faster than we can make new ships and the country at the moment has got three weeks food supply left.鈥� He said, 鈥榊ou will do the country more good working on your step-father鈥檚 farm that what you will driving a tank.鈥� He said, 鈥楢s a matter of fact we鈥檝e got a worse chance of being starved out than what we have being beaten by the German Army.鈥� So I was quite pleased, I didn鈥檛 particularly want to get killed but I wanted to do my bit so that left me with a clear conscience.

In about April 1943 there was one of their aeroplanes, it cut the top clean off an elm tree up the Swineshead Road and what I think they were doing, they were part of the force that was practicing to bomb the Dams in Germany for the Dam Buster Raids. If the plane had been about another yard or two yards lower it would have fetched the plane down. It had cut about 15 feet off the top of this tree. Cut it off just as if it was by a giant knife and the leaves and branches lay on the road.

Moving onto July 1943 it was getting on towards harvest time I suppose about the middle of July and this friend of mine and in the evening we were doing some pigeon shooting along the brook and we heard my step-father come out of the farmhouse shouting, 鈥楥laude, Claude鈥�. My friend said, 鈥楲et us keep quite, he only wants us to put the sheep in鈥� because every body鈥檚 sheep used to get out because the grass is always greener on the other side, so stayed still. Anyway dad kept shouting and getting closer to us and I said, 鈥榃ell, we鈥檝e got to show ourselves because there鈥檚 something worse up than the sheep getting out for him to come all along here.鈥� So we came out this pigging hide and went towards him and he said, 鈥楥ome on home and get your rifle, you鈥檝e got to go鈥� he said, 鈥榯here鈥檚 an Italian prisoner escaped at Tilbrook. 鈥楬e鈥檚 shot half the people in Tilbrook and you鈥檝e got to go and see if you can catch him.鈥� Action at last! Off we go up to the school and it turned out that Italian prisoner hadn鈥檛 shot half the people in Tilbrook! What he鈥檇 done, there was a gang of these Italian prisoners working on ditching and hedging in Tilbrook and they鈥檇 got a Guard there with a rifle. There was about 20 of these prisoners I think and quite a few Land Girls as well and this Guard had gone to relieve himself round and behind the hedge and this Italian prisoner had gone up to him with the trimming hook and cut his head off! Cut his head clean off with the trimming hook and pinched his rifle and ran off up the field. Some of these Land Girls ran up there saying and shouting, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be so silly, come on back鈥� and he shot at them, he didn鈥檛 hit them he missed them. This was about four o鈥檆lock in the afternoon and then of course when the news got around all the Home Guards in all the surrounding villages were mobilised and we were put in pairs in a big block, Kimbolton, Tilbrook, Dean and Swineshead. The chap I was mated up with, our place was just near the entrance to Shelton鈥檚 Farm in the farm drive so we were put there about eight or nine o鈥檆lock at night. Everybody was told what to do, keep your eyes open, if there鈥檚 a vehicle comes down the road you鈥檝e got to stop it in case he鈥檚 commandeered it. Anyway, I hadn鈥檛 been in the Home Guard very long and it was so cold, although it was July it was really cold. By about midnight - and we had got a haystack in our field on the other side of the road so we went and got some of this hay and made a nest and went fast asleep! We were supposed to have been on guard! In the morning about five o鈥檆lock the Corporal came along and he said, 鈥楻ight, chaps, get ready we are going to disband at six o鈥檆lock because the Army are going to come in and see if they can sort this bloke out.鈥� And I said, 鈥榊es, about time too, we鈥檝e been here and we haven鈥檛 had anything to eat or drink since yesterday tea time鈥� and he said, 鈥榙id you stop every vehicle that came down during the night?鈥� I said, 鈥榊es.鈥� He said, 鈥榊ou bloody well didn鈥檛 because if you had had done the NAAFI van came down at half past two and you鈥檇 have stopped it and you鈥檇 have had coffee and sandwiches!鈥� So I kept quiet after that! We were disbanded after that and that was the Saturday and I think we worked until whatever time we worked to and some of us went to Bedford on the bus because we used to in those days. When we got back we found out that this Prisoner had got in to Shelton鈥檚 house - that was inside the cordon. He鈥檇 got in 鈥� he was still in the woods, he got into the woods from Tilbrook, Shelton鈥檚 house is here which was inside the cordon. Everything happened inside the cordon. John Shelton, my schoolboy friend and his father and mother they were in the house, they were having their tea in the kitchen and his father said, 鈥榃ell, it鈥檚 about time you went and fed the hens, John.鈥� John opened the kitchen door and there standing in the hallway was this Prisoner, with no shoes on, with a rifle, he pulled the trigger and the bullet whistled past John鈥檚 left shoulder and slammed into the door. John got his rifle. The Prisoner ran up the back stairs, John ran up the front stairs and he could see which bedroom he鈥檇 gone in. And then he went round the corner of the bedroom to see him and he pulled the trigger before the Italian could pull his trigger and the Prisoner fell down behind the bed. John鈥檚 father came up, he was a Sergeant in the Home Guard, he鈥檇 got a Sten gun. They could see this 鈥榚re Prisoners feet wriggling about behind the corner of the bed and they thought he was probably trying to get a shot at them underneath the counterpane which was down on the floor. So he put a magazine in the Sten gun and sprayed it underneath, there was blood and guts all over the ceiling and everywhere. This was only a young Prisoner, only 19 or 20 and they reckon he鈥檇 gone funny in the head, he鈥檇 gone half mad and that鈥檚 why he did what he did and of course he lost his life. It was lucky for John because he was only two or three foot away from him at the most, he could have hit him anywhere but it just went over his shoulder.

We move on then and we were getting ready for 鈥楧鈥� Day. As Home Guard one of the duties of the Home Guard in the villages surrounding was to guard to the railway tunnel at Souldrop. There鈥檚 a railway tunnel at Souldrop, about a mile long and I think the authorities thought that the Germans would probably try to block the railway line by blowing the tunnel up to stop us moving troops up and down the country ready for the invasion. Obviously there were two ends of the tunnel to guard which meant three pairs of guards for the night. It was summertime so the night duty was nine 鈥榯il twelve, twelve 鈥榯il three, three 鈥榯il six and then a sort of Corporal or something like that to look after each end. Myself and a friend of mine we used to go on guard together and they鈥檇 told us 鈥� we went on the first guard nine 鈥榯il twelve this particular instance - and they鈥檇 said, 鈥楢bout eleven to half past or before 12 o鈥檆lock a Policeman will walk up the line from the Sharnbrook way just to check up to see if you guys are awake. They said, 鈥楳ake sure you are waiting for him.鈥� We were there and we could hear these footsteps coming on the gravel along the line from a long way and when he got about 50 or 60 yards from us I shouted. 鈥楬alt, who goes there?鈥� and these footsteps still kept coming on so I slammed a round up the spout of my rifle and that click in the stillness of the night he stopped then and he said, 鈥業鈥檓 the Policeman, you should know I鈥檓 coming.鈥� I said, 鈥榊ou should have said who you was, you are lucky you haven鈥檛 been shot!鈥� He said, 鈥極h, it鈥檚 alright, you are awake, I鈥檒l go on back.鈥�

Towards the end of 1944 our war planners - to bring the war to an early conclusion they had this plan to drop the Airborne troops at Arnhem. And if it had of worked it would have probably shortened the war but the story of that is 鈥業t was a bridge too far鈥�. They had to get over these various tributary鈥檚 of the Rhine and the other rivers and about 15 or 20 years ago I happened to be shooting, I was a guest at a shoot and there was another guest there and I got talking to him. He was a Dutchman and I thought it would be interesting to hear about his experience of the war. I said, 鈥榃hat did you get up to in the war?鈥� He said, 鈥楳y father was in a business in Holland and England and he was trapped over this side when the Germans broke through in 1940.鈥� He said, 鈥楳e and my brother were with my mother in Holland and my father was over here. It was a very difficult time for my mother but I鈥檇 got an auntie who lived at Arnhem, my mother lived about 20 miles away. In 1944 - about the time of this planned drop of parachutes on Arnhem 鈥� my brother and myself were staying with my aunt in Arnhem. And the day before the Paratroopers were due to drop my auntie rang my mother up and said you鈥檇 better come and fetch these two boys because the English are coming tomorrow to drop the parachutes.鈥� They knew you see and so did the Germans and that is why that German Division was there waiting for them and shot them all to bits. I don鈥檛 know whether somebody who were supposed to have been over there on our side, you know the Resistance had let them down or whether somebody had been tortured and got the information, I don鈥檛 know. But this chap, and there is no reason why he shouldn鈥檛 have been telling the truth, because he said his aunt had rung up and said fetch your boys back the English parachutes are coming tomorrow. That鈥檚 why they were just there waiting for them.

The war ended in 1945 and we had a bit of luck, my mate, Ken Gentle and myself because we had started playing football for Kimbolton and each football club had a pair of Cup Final tickets. And every body鈥檚 name went into the hat and my mate and myself we won these two Cup Final tickets. However, somebody who was real fan of Charlton Athletic, who was going to be in the Cup Final, they were desperate to get these two tickets. So to barter for these two tickets they offered to put three of us up for two or three days up at the 鈥榁E鈥� Celebrations in London. So three of us had a buckshee place to stay for three days and we went up there with quite a bit of money, I don鈥檛 about quite a bit of money - a few bob! We had a hell of a time up there, I think I probably had the best time of my life. Because being country lads we didn鈥檛 know lot about what went on in the towns. We used to whizz about on the tube trains, to visit different people that we knew up there. We used to go to the Streatham Locarno which was a massive great dance hall, it held about 1000 people I should think for dances in the evening. Then there were all these parties up there, in Trafalgar Square - we were right in it! We were there! It was 鈥� you can鈥檛 describe it 鈥� everybody was so happy it had finished 鈥� the war to end all wars. But of course it wasn鈥檛 the war to end all wars because I mean they are still fighting now aren鈥檛 they, people being killed and all like that. But we did have a hell of a time! We did and we stopped up there until we ran out of money!鈥�

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