大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Liz Andrew of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Bill Childs and added to the site with his permission.

I was sixteen when the War began and I worked in Manchester at the Lancashire Electric Power Company. I volunteered for the RAF in 1941 when I was eighteen.

I trained as a radar operator and served for a short while at St Bees in Cumberland and then I transferred to Dorset and joined a mobile radar crew. This was an entirely self sufficient unit, numbering about 60 people, which could set up and operate a radar station anywhere in the world.

We were posted to North Africa just after the Torch Invasion. We were sent out on a troop ship - an old Norwegian vessel. The conditions were horrific. We were jammed together, some slept in hammocks; others on the floor or on benches and tables. We didn't undress - we simply toook our boots off when we went to sleep. Many of us were seasick for five or six days. The toilet facilities were non existent. We were given a tablet of seawater soap, which was supposed to lather with seawater - but it only succeeded in creating a scum! It was difficult to keep clean. We were very relieved to dock in Algiers.

I was just nineteen and amongst fellow nineteen year olds. We had been suddenly pitched into the War. We grew up fast and had to look after ourselves.

We transferred straight away onto a destroyer and sailed for a port called Bone, which is in Tunisia. There we waited for four days until our equipment arrived - it was in big three ton vehicles and comprised a receiver, a transmitter and a big aerial.

We were given orders to travel to Cap Serat near Bizerta. We could only travel at night
because the Germans still commanded the air and it took us three days to complete the trip. Our destination was an old French lighthouse with a walled courtyard perched right on the edge of a cliff above the Mediterranean. At night we'd move the aerial on to the cliff edge so that we could operate. At dawn we'd dismantle it and bring it back into the safety of the courtyard.

We were in contact with a Nightfighter squadron. It was our job to search for aircraft with our radar and identify them as friendly or hostile (they were mostly hostile). Then we'd contact our nightfighters and give them the details of the enemy location. Then, hopefully, our fighters would shoot them down. I remember one night we tracked an enemy plane to within about five miles of the lighthouse and we dashed outside to see it falling into the sea in flames.

We were there for six weeks and we worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off. When we were off duty we'd stay down in the valley in camouflaged tents. When we were on duty we'd be at the lighthouse. We were frightened - it was too dangerous to go out in the day. We had a spotter at the top of the lighthouse tower who'd alert us with a whistle or a bell when he saw enemy aircraft. Then we'd have to dive for cover. The Germans wanted to destroy the place but the stone walls saved us. We were attacked every day by German fighters and we were also bombed - but the bomb that landed nearest to us fortunately failed to explode.

Then the German army made a limited advance and cut us off from our own people. We were given orders to destroy the equipment and push the aerial over the cliff. Then we were told to split up into small parties and make our way out.

We finally managed to make our way down onto the beach and then marched some 10 to 12 miles before we were picked up by a couple of vehicles. We were filthy; we had no equipment and we were not allowed to shave - we were told that a white face might be spotted at night but a bearded one would not. We were ordered to be quiet - there was to be no smoking and no talking - there were German tanks in the next valley.

Once reunited with the rest of our Forces we had to wait for new equipment to arrive and, in September 1943, we were posted to Italy, landing at Salerno, and staying in Italy until the end of the War. We were based in a small village called Pisciota south of Salerno and from there covered the approaches to Naples and Salerno Harbour. It was right on the coast and we were very comfortable there. There was not much enemy activity because most of the German Air Force had been withdrawn to defend Germany against our bombers. We remained there from September 1943 until June 1944 and two of our lads ended up marrying local girls. It was a peaceful place.

The Italians had not liked us at first. Their parish priest had told then we were only there to ravage - but we marched him down to our camp and told him the opposite and after that it was ok. There were small numbers of Fascists who needed sorting out -but we did that without bloodshed.

We moved up through Italy behind the Army. We passed through Cassino - it was just a mound of rubble. Then we moved through Rome to Tarquinia near the port of Civicetta. We were in Leghorn - Livorno - during the winter of 1944 -45 and remained there till the War ended.

I stayed in Italy after the War had ended. Then I was posted to Malta and demobbed in 1946. Our unit had been together for years by then and we had got to know each other very well. We were lucky not to suffer many casualties. I made some excellent friends. Between 1978 and 2001 we used to meet up every year and I am still in touch with some of them today.It was the time of our lives and our memories of it will never fade.

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