大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People' War site by a volunteer from Reading on behalf of Les of Reading and has been added to the site with his/her permission. Les fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was one of four brothers brought up in Bournemouth. I was 17 when war broke out, but they said it would be over before I should be involved! When the bombing got bad, my mother took in two small girls evacuated from Southampton. Bournemouth was fortunate to avoid attention by most of the aircraft but we all took turns in spotting from the roofs, armed with a whistle. We had gone through an aircraft recognition course on the clifftops, equipped with binoculars. I was working for the Post Office at the time and sometimes spent the night at the telephone exchange, ready with stirrup pump and bucket of sand in case of stray incendiary bombs.

My eldest brother had joined the Territorial Army in 1939, in the Ak Ak (anti aircraft defence), and I visited him one hot summer Sunday at his posting on Chesil Beach. They were moving site and I was roped in to help move kit along the shore. Those who know Chesil can imagine me labouring along that endless bank of pebbles lugging equipment in the heat!

My second brother, John of Poole, joined the Navy. His story is elsewhere on this website (Look before you Leap). I went into the RAF whilst our youngest brother became a train dispatcher in Southampton, scheduling troop and ambulance trains as the ships came into dock. So, we all did our bit.

When I joined up, I first went on a direction-finding course for radio operators. Posted, I was listening at Tempsford in Bedfordshire, when the allies flew the first 1000 bomber raid against Germany. After that, I joined Coastal Command and was sent with a team of six airmen to the Faroe Islands to set up aerials for a direction finding station and establish communications with the mainland.

We sailed from Invergordan on the Lady of Man, and set to work on Vagar in June 1942. The islands were very remote, bleak, sparsely populated and cold in winter!
It was planned to operate flying boats on Atlantic patrols from the large lake on the island but rain, Scotch mist and strong winds made it impractical. For weeks, we ate bully beef and biscuits, with herrings in tomato sauce as a treat, supplemented by Vitamin C and by cod liver oil capsules which my mother sent out. In summer, one could work day and night in continuous light. So we completed the installation in record time, spurred by the promise of immediate promotion. It was quite a thrill tapping out our first wireless transmission to HQ in Scotland.

On night duty in June 1943, I picked up an SOS from an RAF Catalina flying boat which was on patrol from Benbecula in the Hebrides. I quickly alerted 18 Group Coastal Command and some time after was heartened to receive a thank you message from the Hebrides to say the Catalina鈥檚 crew had been saved after ditching in the sea.I was in the Faroes all told for eighteen months, coming home just once on leave during that time.

Later in the war, I was at Melton Mowbray where British paratroops were stationed
prior to the Arnhem airborne operation. It was a lively place, with dances, romances and weddings. Then, when the Arnhem drop went so badly wrong, it was heartbreaking to see the town suddenly almost deserted and the inhabitants devastated.

When VE day was announced on the tannoy, Flying Control personnel celebrated by firing all their Verey (signal flare) pistols. We got 48 hour passes, and with my wife-to-be, who was in the WAAF, hitch-hiked down to London to join the congas weaving around Piccadilly. There was no drinking, but who cared on that day of days!

After VE, I was posted to Bhopal, India: 100 degrees F. in the shade, except there was no shade! That鈥檚 where I saw Lord Mountbatten, Supreme Commander South East Asia, who was visiting from his base in Ceylon. And I was soon on the move again. The day before VJ, I set off for a posting in Sumatra, travelling by train and boat. When the news of the atom bombs and Japan鈥檚 surrender came through, I returned to India. On the way to Poona, we slept in a dormitory under mosquito nets. I had taken the precaution of putting my jacket and valuables under the net. In the morning, quite a number of people who had left their things on chairs found they had vanished overnight! In Poona, we lived in an army camp in the Western Ghats (mountains). It was a place where people often got 鈥渢he Diolali taps鈥�, in other words, went round the bend! Sport was about the only recreation. I remember we once sent down a team from Bhopal to play Italian POWs-there were 30,000 of them, captured in North Africa. Our lads got thrashed and I was glad I had cried off! Later Denis Compton, of Arsenal and England cricket fame, led a touring side, including Ted Ditchburn of Spurs in goal, to cheer up the troops awaiting demob.

I was glad I finally left India before Partition, when the terrible massacres took place whilst refugees were in transit to and from the newly-created Pakistan.

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