大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer for 大象传媒 London, on behalf of Harry Bacon and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Bacon fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was called up at the start of the war. I was an electrician and when war broke out I was working for electrical contractors. As soon as I received call up papers my girlfriend and I decided to get married. We were both nineteen. We were married for 61 years, and had a telegram from the Queen on our Diamond Anniversary. But at the time we just didn鈥檛 know what would happen.

I joined the airforce and had my initial training in Warrington. Those who鈥檇 been in the electrical industry or the building trade were told to report so that they could carry on their trade. I was posted to Boscombe Downs, which is a big RAF place and when I got there we were told that they were going to try out the flying bomb. We were in the middle of Salisbury Plain. And they built two observation towers at either end of a huge concrete basin, at least half a mile in diameter, and very, very deep. We had to light the towers up. Then old Lysander planes dropped bombs full of chemical dyes, on parachutes into the basin. From the observation towers they could see from the spread of the dyes how far the bombs would penetrate. It was the first experiment in how air warfare could be used.

Then they moved us to the North of Scotland and I went to a place called Dunnet Head which is near Wick. It was a very small camp and our billets were Nissen huts with steel girders right over the top to keep the roof on, it was so windy and stormy up there.

We were stuck there, 5 airmen and the rest were WAAF. There weren鈥檛 even any pubs in Wick, the women had got fed up with their husbands coming home drunk and shut them all. The only place you could get a drink was the British Legion. Once a day a truck would take some of us into Wick on a rota. We each went about twice a week. We nicknamed it the Liberty Truck. To amuse ourselves in the camp we played records in the mess. The main job of the camp was to watch for unknown boats, U boats or anything like that.

My wife had a baby and I was given two weeks compassionate leave. It took me 48 hours to get down to where she鈥檇 been evacuated, and when I arrived she said 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think you should get away with it all.鈥�

When I got back to Wick I was told that I was going abroad, and I went all over Iraq and the Persian Gulf. I was away for 3 陆 years. I had terrible prickly heat. When you had a bath you got these terrible vibrations. I didn鈥檛 have a decent bath for 3 years.

And then 6 陆 years and that was the end of it. Christmas 1945, all electricians and building workers like me, we met in Cairo for Christmas Dinner. Those at home on rationing would have been really envious. I鈥檝e still got a photo, signed by us all.

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