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Saturday Night Soldier
Part 3
July 1940 — August 1943

Defence and Development — Then Attack

After France and enjoying a weeks leave at home, I received orders to report to Aberporth which I knew to be a practice camp near Cardigan on the south west coast of Wales. This was to allow us to reassemble the scattered remnants of the battery having been split up in France. We learned that the other half had been evacuated from Dieppe at the time of Dunkirk and had consequently been at home for nearly a month. It was splendid to be all together again. Our causalities were made up by drafting in some of the first militia who had been conscripted just prior to the outbreak of war and were basically trained, though not in gunnery. We soon settled down together and with a further opportunity for practice firing felt we had regained a reasonable standard of efficiency.

Before long, word came through of our next destination. It proved to be at Swansea some fifty miles to the south. We were to be responsible for the defence of two strategic targets, the Swansea docks and the oil refinery at Llandarcy nearby. We were given two four-gun sites, one at Jersey Marine on Swansea Bay golf course, the other a few miles out of town at a village called Llansamlet. As I was now established as a full sergeant my operational role was Gun Position Officer’s Assistant (GPOA). This entailed manning duties of twenty four hours on and twenty four hours off, during which off-duty period my section was responsible for running the camp, providing orderlies, guards and piquets, and hopefully having a few hours off.

By this time the various preliminary raids made on provincial cities in August had led to a dilution of the AA defences of London. This meant that when the attacks on London began the artillery defences had been reduced to less than a hundred guns. From early September to the beginning of November a daily average of two hundred bombers attacked London. Decisions continually had to be made as to the preference to be given to AA guns or night fighters as the best means of defence. Obvious problems existed if both were operated at the same time. In fact the techniques of either methods of defence were, at this time, below the standard hoped for.

Within forty-eight hours of the start of this series of raids the number of guns defending the capital had doubled. The firing had become intense with direct target attacks and also fixed barrages on known avenues of approach. This cheered up the public no end but unfortunately the effect on the enemy was minimal. However, with improvement in skill and ingenuity of tactics, defence performance gradually improved.

After 3rd November the enemy attacks were more widely dispersed over the country. The first and probably the most well known was that against Coventry which took place on 14th November, when 500 German aircraft took part. The centre of the city, including the cathedral, was devastated. Four hundred lives were lost and many more people injured or rendered homeless. A few days later Birmingham suffered from three successive night raids, and during the last week of the month the weight of the attack shifted to the ports.

Bristol, Southampton, Swansea and above all Liverpool were severely bombed. The climax of this spell of raids came to London on 29th December 1940. They started with a mass raid of incendiaries followed by high explosive bombs and parachute mines. Over one thousand fires were being dealt with simultaneously and the damage to railway stations and docks was particularly serious.

Our first involvement came when Liverpool was attacked. The enemy line of approach was from the south west from aerodromes in Normandy, passing over the English Channel, Devon, the Bristol Channel then Swansea and up the Cardiganshire coast. After circling and dropping their bombs over Liverpool the planes returned over the reverse route. This suited us well as it gave us two opportunities to engage them. The only disadvantage here was that enemy planes started passing over us in several waves at about hourly intervals from early evening. Then there would be a slack period, and we would get a repeat performance in the opposite direction a couple of hours later. Not conducive to a good night’s sleep.

All the duty manning personnel for our gun position were quartered in tents in the sand dunes about a hundred yards away from the guns. A total manning force would amount to four NCO’s and forty gunners to man the four guns, an NCO and five gunners on the predictor, an NCO and two gunners on the height finder and two spotters. In addition there were the GPO, GPOA and telephonists in the command post. This was increased in time by radar personal, plotters and an additional officer, Tactical Control Officer (TCO), in the command post.

During this spell of raids the alarm was usually sounded at about 7pm, and the troop was manned on and off until about 5am whether firing or not. In between bouts of firing there would be breaks. These were usually of just sufficient length to allow us to get our heads down, but not long enough to enjoy it. I have strong memories of cold nights and crawling under blankets with a delicious feeling of warmth just creeping over, when the whistle blew and we were all up on our feet again. When this happened once it was a nuisance, but when it was six or eight times a night, it was very annoying indeed.

During a period of ten days we fired a fair number of rounds. What our rate of success was is very difficult to judge, as other batteries up and down the coast were all at it. Certainly a few planes were shot down over land and sea, but by whom was always a very contentious matter.

The turn of Swansea finally came in mid January 1941. Concentrated attacks on the town and the docks were delivered on two consecutive nights. Then we were really busy. A few bombs fell on or near the gun position but the docks and town were badly hit although the Llandarcy oil refinery survived intact. The first of the two nights I was on duty. It was a stirring sight with the gun flashes and nearby bomb bursts combining with the glow from the blazing town in the background to give a terrific pyrotechnic display. The gun position next morning was thick with cartridge cases and other debris. We were glad when duties changed at 9am, and the other manning team fell for most of the clearing up work including changing the barrels of two of the guns, which is very heavy work indeed.

After a morning of rest I went into town in the afternoon and saw the devastation. I was able to lend a modest hand with clearing up. When the evening came I visited the Mackworth Hotel for a beer and the second raid started. I remember going to the gents and on opening the door was assailed by a sheet of flame. The back of the hotel was burning furiously. I decided to find a more peaceful convenience. Later in the street outside the surface of the road was pot-holed and covered with bricks and glass. The bus station had gone, so a number of us walked back to camp. We found there that they were having another busy night, and were still at it. After a good sleep, 9am came and we were then back on duty with cleaning up the site with the other two gun barrels to be changed.

Life on our four gun positions became less hectic after that, although the occasional recce plane gave us some gunnery exercise. I was soon to be relieved of my three stripes. No, not demoted, but given a crown to wear on my forearm as Warrant Officer Class 3. In the Royal Artillery there are three classes of warrant officer. Regimental Sergeant Major (WO1), the pinnacle of non-commissioned rank responsible to the colonel for discipline and administration. Then comes Battery Sergeant Major (WO2), who fills a similar role for the battery major. The WO3 on a four gun troop, whose role is purely operational, may act as stand-in for a gun position officer, and is the only non-commissioned rank allowed to order the guns to fire and therefore, able to take a shoot in the absence of an officer. I was obviously quite delighted. I was still allowed to live in the sergeants’ mess, but I did not hold the rank for long.

A couple of weeks later the Battery Commander sent for me and told me that me name had been put forward for a commission and that I was to go to Reading to be interviewed by a selection board. This passed off satisfactorily and I was posted to the Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) at Shrivenham in Wiltshire. The night before I left the battery we had a tremendous farewell party in the sergeants’ mess, most of our officers looked in and were extremely pleasant and complimentary to me. The next morning I was bundled onto the train with my kit, excited at the prospect ahead but sad to leave my friends with whom I had shared so many experiences over the last two years.

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