大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Chris Greenfield from Bodsham Primary School and has been added to the website on behalf of William Enderby with his permission they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

How lucky can you be?

On Sunday 2nd September 1939 we listened to the Home Service to Neville Chamberlain saying 鈥渨e are now at war鈥�. I was 15 years old and at King鈥檚 School Canterbury. On the 29th May 1940 whilst the Dunkirk evacuation was in progress we were told to get to Paddington Station at 10 a.m. the next morning with one small suitcase. We arrived at
St. Austell, Cornwall and were taken to the Carlyon Bay Hotel. The following week I took the School Certificate. During the summer of 1940 having worked on a local farm I had to get home to Canterbury to see the Battle of Britain. One day standing in the garden we counted 385 German Daylight Bombers and gave up counting they just kept coming and coming it was the biggest Daylight Raid of 1940. During the fighter battles there were so many bullets fired and empty shell cases ejected they all had to come down somewhere and there was a rain of them on the house roof as they came tinkling down into the gutters.

I left school in July 1942 to go to King鈥檚 College London which was already evacuated to Bristol and I did my Intermediate BSc in Civil Engineering. I was then liable for call-up because by now I was 19 years old. I attempted to volunteer for the Royal Engineers but was told that they were only accepting volunteers for the mines 鈥楤evan Boys鈥� so I awaited call-up in the next 10-14 days. After leaving College I was at home in Canterbury staying with my father, mother and brother. The day after arriving home my father said 鈥淚 have got you a job as a civilian working for CRE (Commander Royal Engineers) Canterbury, for Colonel Winch RE鈥�. I had several surveying jobs one of which was surveying seven parks where we could put a complete British Army Division of 15,500 men and all their vehicles, cookhouses, latrines, etc. The work that I did on this may have been used when East Kent was filled with imaginary troops as a diversionary tactic.

I was called up into the Household Calvary on the 1st December 1943 and I became Trooper W. Enderby Royal Horse Guards 306 and 341. I completed my training as a Gunner 鈥� Driver 鈥� Wireless Operator. I trained in amphibious landings but my Colonel told me I had been accepted for a Commission in the Royal Engineers. I did five months in Royal Engineers RE OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) Newark. I passed out with a Commission at the end of November 1944. I was posted to a Field Company RE in Belgium. I went to Northalt to be flown out in a Dakota. We were fog bound for three days and a signal arrived posting me to Royal Engineers Surveys Training Centre at Ruabon, North Wales where I did six months survey training and on the 8th May the war was over.

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