大象传媒

This is an account of the war experiences of my friend, Ken Young.
Bevin Boy
I remember the early days of the war,
whilst I was playing in the recreation
ground in Standon,Hertfordshire,seeing
formations of German bombers,flying
overhead on their way to bomb Luton.
Then RAF fighters attacking them and one
enemy plane being shot down and finishing up on Hunsdon Airfield,which
was still being built at that time.
I also recall the campaign in which
pennies were collected in order to buy
a Spitfire.The coins were laid out end
to end on the pavements for about a mile
between Standon and Puckeridge.
My life as a 'Bevin Boy,'started in
April 1944.
We travelled up to Yorkshire by train
and reported to Askern main colliery
for six weeks training.
We trained mostly underground,which
was strange at first,being half a mile
down and took some getting used to.We
learnt every aspect of coal mining
until our training was completed.
We were then sent to Dinnington Main
Colliery,also in south Yorkshire and
my first job was driving a pit pony
and truck.The miners called it a pony
and tub and it was my job to drive along the tunnels to collect rock.
I got to know my pony really well.The
stables were at the pit bottom,where I
had to leave him overnight and he would
get quite excited when I brought him an
apple,which I believe he could smell
as I approached him.
I progressed from pony driving to
boring on the coal face.
Needless to say, it was a very dusty
and dirty job and I was thankful when
I was transferred to the conveyor
loader end, where the coal was loaded
onto trucks
My last job in the mines, was as the
underground train attendant.The local
miners named it 'The Paddy'.The train
transported the miners to the various
coal faces, up to six miles away from
the pit bottom.
The mine had a 24 hour shift system
and the night shift was what I found
most arduous,because I found it difficult to sleep during the daytime.
Subsequently,through ill health, I
finished working in the mines in 1946,
but was then called up for army service.
I joined the Royal Engineers and was
sent abroad to Austria,to the province
of Carinthia.
On the train journey through Germany
I noticed the tremendous devastation
that our bombing had done.Particularly
in Cologne,which appeared nothing but ruins.
Arriving in Villach, Austria,we were
given the job of building an obseratory
for the Austrian government upon the
Gerlitzen mountain.
Austrian scientists were studying the
Sun through a Coronascope upon the mountain and the Royal Engineers were
given the job of building the new
Obseratory lower down the mountain.
This was completed and handed over to
the Austrian Government in 1947.
As far as I know, the Obseratory is still there to this day.
I finished my army service and was
demobbed at York in 1948
Ken Young

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