大象传媒

My name is Peter Oliver. I was born in 1922 and lived in Lewes. I was an apprentice printer at East Sussex News in Lewes, and of course we weren鈥檛 allowed to volunteer.

In 1940 when Churchill said 鈥淓verybody over sixteen that could defend the country鈥︹�� I joined up which was then the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers, which we used to call the Look, Duck and Vanish!), which of course was eventually changed to the Home Guard, so that training was of help with 鈥榮quare-bashing鈥� when I was called up in the RAF.

I was called up in 1941 for medical, and I went in 1942 to the RAF, the Royal Air Force. I did my 鈥榮quare-bashing鈥� at Skegness and then was posted down to Hereford to do the technical training course as an armourer, for just on six months.

From there, which was a strange story. We were told we could say where we wanted to go, which I couldn鈥檛 believe, or any of us, with a war on. There was a famous saying 鈥楧on鈥檛 you know there鈥檚 a war on?鈥� I put Sussex and Kent, and I was posted on the borders of Sussex and Hampshire at Thorny Island near Emsworth, Hampshire. After being for some time on Coastal Canadian Squadron on Coastal Command, I was posted outside of Norwich to the formation of the 2nd Tactical Air Force. Then I was posted to 320 Squadron Dutch Squadron of Mitchells.

From there we eventually moved south knowing that the Second Front was going to open. We were stationed at Dunsfold, which is between Corsham and Guildford. Then eventually, after the Second Front opened up, because our medium bombers did a lot of bombing and support for the Second Front, we were taken over and we landed on the coast of Belgium by lorries and Tank Landing ships, and we went to two airfields that was outside of Brussels, Melsbroek and Evere, which is now Brussels Airport Zaventen.

While we were there, on January 1st we had what we called the Luftwaffe鈥檚 gift to the RAF in which fighter planes suddenly appeared in the sky in the sun early in the morning. Luckily all our bombers had taken off, there was 4000 pounds on each, and they strafed our drome and a Maintenance Unit there, causing quite a bit of damage. I was laying on the ground at the time with empty bullet cases and cannon shell cases falling around me, but luckily nobody was hurt. We understand that our fighters, which were at an airfield near us were called back to deal with these German fighters. Nobody was hurt which was a lucky thing, and yet later on, from about the March, we were bombed by the first German jets we鈥檇 the seen the fragmentation bombs. Twelve of our colleagues and men were killed.

From there we moved up into Germany outside of Osnabr眉ck. When I was at Osnabr眉ck in Germany and the war finished, we could go on EVT (educational vocational training) but our chief armoured officer had been a teacher in civilian life and I applied to go on this correspondence course and at that time he said to me 鈥淭hey want to start this Unit Newspaper up鈥�. So he said 鈥淎re you interested?鈥� Well, of course I was. As he said, 鈥渂eing an armoured officer I can release you to work, if you like, full time on it鈥�. So they decided to type the Over To You, the way you are with radio, 鈥榦ver to you, over鈥�, and they started this newspaper which we used to call The Camp News of the World. It was a full-page Unit Newspaper with all the sport and all the things that were happening.

So we started in Germany but it was very difficult because of the bomb damage but we got a small printing works in a village near the aerodrome, and that鈥檚 when we got our plates made. Take our photographs to Brussels where our aircraft were going to and fro because of the shortage of food where we were, and then they could bring the plates back. That鈥檚 the way we went on for about three months, something like that, then in the September we went straight back to where we were outside of Brussels, which is now Brussels airport, and I was able to go to Le Soir every week and work from Tuesday to Friday, and there were other armourers, three or four men, including one that came from the Mid Sussex Times at Haywards Heath, and one from the Financial Times, and they could spend a day with us working. I spent full time working as so-called production manager, and different officers took the job of editor and sub-editor each week in turn as a matter of interest. And we worked like that, rather as if I was going to work on the train and working in Brussels. The duty I did do was the duty I did at weekends, which made up for the fact that I was never there during the week. That went on for six months until the Spring of 鈥�46 and then we moved back up to Wahn in Germany, outside of Cologne, and then we found a works round there and we carried on printing round there. While we were printing it, when we got to the twelfth issue, we had a communication come that they wanted to collect Unit Newspapers or Magazines, anything like that, and be sent to the Imperial War Museum.

So our Group Captain CO was highly delighted the fact that our newspaper was going to go to the Imperial War Museum, with other magazines and newspapers. So we sent the twelve back issues, and then all future issues were sent to the Imperial War Museum in London.

I carried on with that until the September of 鈥�46 and then I was posted back to a night-fighter squadron in Kent, having worked on print while I was in the RAF at the latter of those latter months. In the December of 鈥�46 I was demobbed and came back to my job in Civvy Street.

After I was demobbed, and I married, my wife and I went to London Imperial War Museum to see if we could see them. I was a bit disappointed because they hadn鈥檛 got round to really putting them on show in the case and we had to go up behind locked doors upstairs to see all these and other magazines and newspapers that eventually are going to be put on show in glass cases. But at least we made the Imperial War Museum.

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