大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People's War Website by a volunteer from Radio Newcastle on behalf of John Ogle. Mr Ogle fully understands the site's terms and conditions and the story has been added to the site with his permission.

My name is John Ogle. I was born on November 19th 1923. Place of birth: Lord Nelson Street, Tyne Dock, South Shields.

I left school at the age of 14, early in 1938. My first jon was as an errand boy. In February 1939 I applied to join the RAF as a boy entrant. I was asked to go to Ruislip to sit an entry test which I passed. I was then told I would join the course on my 16th birthday. Meanwhile, I started evening classes to study commerce and accounts, which enabled me to be employed as a junior clerk with A.E.Evans, Boiler Scalers and Coverers in March 1939.

My brother was called up for the forces in August 1939 under the 21 year old militia scheme. This left me the only son at home. After the outbreak of war, I received a letter from the RAF to tell me that they boy entrant scheme had been suspended for the duration of the war. They also advised me to join the ATC to ensure that I could join the RAF. I subsequently did this. Meanwhile with the advent of war my employer expanded his business to sub-contract through shipbuilding and repair yards for admiralty work in installing and repairing boilers and pipe work, especially of the insulation of same, involving the use of three main forms of asbestos (blue sheets, cement and rope).

The building we were in was very close to middle docks where many city cruisers were repaired. They supplied the most admiralty work to us.

Mr Evans Snr decided that he wasn't fit enough to drive, so then his son had to drive him to various ports on the east coast as far afield as Goole. Consequently I was left in charge of the day to day activities while they were away. My duties consisted of writing letters, invoices, etc, getting insurance stamps from the post office and fixing same on card, going through blue prints of warships, showing boiler and pipe work, estimate quantity and value of asbestos required and labour costs (these were checked later by Mr Evans), watching for ships coming in, sometimes foreign boats, going out on a skuller boat to the ships, finding out what work had to be done (usually from the Chief Engineer), going to other ships to see the foreman or charge hands to get work started on new work and on boilder cleaning and tank top scaling ships which had to be turned round quickly, even when the boilers were still hot!

The man who did the skulling for me was a character called Peter. He was I believe a Scandinavian who lived in his boat at the Mill Dam in South Shields. He was a mute who would communicate with grunts, gestures - a huge man (not to be crossed!!)I used to share my lunch with him and we became good friends. One incident with him stands out in my mind. He had skulled me to a ship berthed in the river and I was climbing down the rope ladder to the boat when he pointed to the sky. There were German planes coming in and they started to drop bombs in the river. They were after the many warships (including battleship George Vth being built at Walker.) Just as I got on the boat a police launch came up firing a machine gun. In no uncertain manner he asked what the h**l I was doing there. They towed the boat to the Mill Dam and told me to go into the shelter. The air raid shelter was dug out of solid rock which I think was made by the monks to go under the river to Tynemouth Priory. There were only a few Arab families in, some of whom I knew. The shelter was cold and damp so I went straight back to the office. As I ran there (without a helmet) the noise was terrific, every ship that had a gun was firing. The three cruisers in Middle Docks were firing their big guns and Chicago Pianos (rockets). Shrapnel was raining down and banging onto the office roof. The windows were rattling and the whole building was shaking with the vibration from the guns. I believe a bomb a minute was dropped onto the river, but only a few small ships and boats were sunk or damaged. The N.E. RAF Squadrons chased off the raiders and brought quite a lot down into the sea.

During the winters of 1940, 41 and 42 I had a busy life. Night classes on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays, fire watching on Wednesday nights at the local ARP post, Friday night ATC and SUnday morning drill and rifle shooting at a local drill hall. After that playing football for the ATC then home for Sunday dinner at 1pm.

Night classes proved to be a hazard because of air raids and pea soup fog. The only night I forgot my torch I came out of the class and it was deep fog. There was a group of us and I didn't need my torch. There were no buses running so we had to walk from South Shields town hall. I was halfway down Dean Road, by myself, pitch black. I searched for my torch but it wasn't there and I had about a mile still to go. I kept bumping into walls, pillars, phone boxes but I eventually got to St Mary's Church when I saw a man with a torch going in my direction. I actually knew him as he lived close to me so I managed to reach home safely. Woke up in the morning with lots of bruises!

Even when travelling on the bus it was dangerous as it had to miss craters in the road caused by recently dropped bombs.

I was passing Tyne Dock on the bus when I saw my father and other men coming out of the dock gates. I got off the bus and joined them on the walk home. When we got near the last arch at Tyne Dock a German plane using its cannon guns, fired at the wagons full of ammunition etc on top of the arches. The shells missed the wagons and us, just shooting holes in the top of the arch.

In October 1940 I came in from classes, hung my coat up and went to see my mother who was cooking the supper. As I walked through the kitchen there were a series of bangs and explosions on the house. A plane had dropped a group of 30 high explosive, incendiary bombs on our house and garden. As I neared the scullery, a bomb came through the window, exploded against the glass cupboard and the sticky incandescent material fell burning on my mother's hair. I rushed over, picked up a towel, wet it and smothered my mother's hair and put out the flames. My father rushed in from work saying that the roof and my bedroom were ablaze. My mother ran out to get some help and we dashed upstairs to the bathroom to get the stirrup pump. The bath and a bucket were filled with water as a precaution. I got the pump working and my father tried to hose down the flames. A tall chest of drawers and my bed were well ablaze. The windows had been blacked out with black Italian cloth fitted to a frame. At this stage there were thick black fumes coming from the burning mattress. I tried to remove the blackouts from the windows but they wouldn鈥檛 budge so I went to see how my father was doing. I found him unconscious lying on the stair head. When my father was nine years old he had had a bad accident which left him with only one lung. He had been overcome by the fumes so I had to get him out. I dragged him along the floor to the stairs and tried to bring him down the stairs. Halfway down I couldn鈥檛 stand the fumes and the heat so I had to stumble out of the open front door to get some air before going back in. Relief came! Mr Foster from across the road was at the door with my mother and they managed to carry my father into the fresh air. My father was in a bad way, blood was coming from his mouth. A nurse came and she managed to revive him. After some time the Auxiliary Fire Brigade came and got the fire under control. The house was badly burned and I lost all of my shirts underwear etc, and personal belongings including my RSA certificates.

A friendly neighbour who had a spare room tok us in and we stayed there until we were rehoused. An old lady who lived in Hyperion Avenue, just behind the Simonside Arms moved in with her niece and we got the vacant house. The house was exactly the same as we left and we managed to save a lot of the furniture, but I had to get a new bed etc.

I have said nothing about rationing and lack of coal etc., but that has been well documented. I know we had a very cold thick snow spell when telephone poles and electric cables were brought to the ground. I had to walk two miles to my new job carefully avoiding them. This was either 1940-41 or 1941-42 winter. My new job was at White鈥檚 Marine Engineering Co., Hebburn, where I was employed as a cost clerk. In my work with my previous firm, Mr Evans wanted me to become a manager after a period of training. This meant travelling with his son to various locations, sometimes through the night. Mr Evans Snr wanted to stay in the local area. He engaged a female to look after the clerical work. He came to see my father about the prospect, but my father and I agreed that his idea was not for me. I left on good terms with Mr Evans Snr and Jnr and later I found they engaged a manager.

When I was 14 I had trouble with my left knee. My own doctor was no help, he said it was growing problems and as I aged it would go away. However, it got worse and also started in my right knee. My father took me to see his doctor to see what he thought. I was fifteen and a half years old then played football and went dancing. Dr Crisp was Head Surgeon at the Ingham Infirmary. He said that I was in luck that he had treated this condition once before. I had a growth of the upper tibia in both legs which had a hook on the end. This was catching the tendon at the back of the knee. The operation to cure the problem was to hammer and chisel the bones out but I would have to wait until I was 18 when the bones were fully grown.

The bombing was still going on which left to the next event. In April 1941 I was coming home in the bus from night class, we had just got through the Arches when we heard gun fire. I asked the driver if he would drop me off at Colman Avenue instead of my usual stop of the Simonside Arms which he did. I knew my mother was going to see her sister (Aunt Jenny) who lived near the bottom of Colman Avenue. I opened the door and shouted in 鈥渋s my mother still there?鈥� My aunt shouted back that my mother had left half an hour earlier. I started running along Hyperion Avenue when I got within ten yards of the house I heard a woosh and I was blown off my feet by a bomb blast. I hit the ground as something hit me on the head and I was dazed. When I looked up the house had seemingly disappeared. Rising gingerly to my feet I walked the last few yards towards the house, thankfully it was still there, the debris and dust that had obscured my vision was settling down. I shouted for my mother in the direction of the air raid shelter. My mother shouted back staying that the blast had blew her in! My mother asked me to retrieve the 鈥渂ox鈥� containing our birth certificates etc. which was normally kept by the front door. She gave me the keys for the front door but as I got close to the door it had been blown off its hinges and had been blown about nine feet through to the kitchen. It was lying against the fireplace. When I moved the door there were potatoes, onions and other vegetables lying in the grate. They had come down the chimney from the converted vegetable plot at the back of the Simonside Arms. The 200lb bomb had landed right in the middle of the plot making a big crater reaching close to our fence. The fence saved our house, it had taken the blast from the explosion. The all clear went just as my father came in from work. He had heard about the bomb but did not know where it had landed. I had left night class at 8.45pm it was now 10.15pm. We went to examine the damage. The windows were blown out, we had no front door and the house foundations had been moved back. Council workers cleared the debris up and the plastic windows were put in. We cleaned up inside the house and my father painted the staircase walls with water paint. When he painted the main wall he found a slope on it. The wall was about 6 inches further away at the bottom. That wall was never put right while we lived there which was about 24 years.

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