大象传媒

My wartime memories of Bedford as a schoolboy Part Four 鈥� The 鈥楬ome Front鈥� and the evacuation of the 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra to Bedford.

Part four of an oral history interview with Mr. Peter Cook conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember the actual issue of gas masks. All I could recall is being enjoined by my mother to ensure that I carried it all times and in fact we had a little canvas type box into which you put the box with the gas mask in it. And you had to have that handy, much as when you are travelling abroad you have to have to make sure your passport is handy. Indeed, in some ways a gas mask was a kind of passport. You couldn鈥檛 get into certain places unless you had one. I mean security was pretty tight. Because as I say we never actually encountered gas, the other contact are what I was mentioning they had those posts up in the street. But it shows that gas was treated as a serious threat.

I enjoyed the 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra in Bedford. I was very keen on classical music, very keen and in the Corn Exchange was the regular lunch time concerts given by the 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra. Now one of its conductors was a chap called Clarence Raybould and he was evacuated, I think it was probably Everard Road, a little side road off Goldington Road and then up Brookfield Road! Yes, and then off there and he was living at the end there. And also I would go to evening concerts and I was grateful that they weren鈥檛 allowed to ring church bells because that was regarded as part of the Air Raid Warning system. I was grateful for that but that didn鈥檛 cut out other extraneous noises of course. And I was always very aware of how lucky we were to get some of the - but especially because we were getting such first rate people. Now in the early 1940s there was a pianist and the piano was my favourite instrument, there was a pianist called Moiseiwitsch now he was the world鈥檚 accredited exponent of the works of Rachmaninov. Now of course Rachmaninov鈥檚 Second Piano Concerto came into it鈥檚 own during the war and it became so popular and so well known but in the slow movement there is one section which is very rambling in a way, it lacks a clear musical form. Of course I was, because I knew the work quite well I could more or less anticipate what was to come next, I thought this is funny, what is going on? And then Moiseiwitsch he started looking up at the conductor and the conductor looked down at him and I don鈥檛 know what passed between but they just picked it up and started again and finished the movement. Now you see, again as a young man I was most taken aback by that, here was Moiseiwitsch cocking up a Rachmaninov Concerto, not just a Rachmaninov Concerto but the Rachmaninov Concerto, even I knew it. I couldn鈥檛 play it but 鈥�
Later on there were men who ultimately became well known concert pianists who when I saw them walked timidly onto stage in RAF uniform. There was another great violinist called David Ostriakh a Russian as his name suggests and I did see him. But it was such a privilege to me just to have this music here on a cycle journey from home. I do remember Phyllis Sellick coming to school, who taught us about music who presumably played for us which of course was a thrill for me.

One thing I do remember though is - I don鈥檛 think we鈥檇 had an air raid warning but I do remember going out into the garden and I could hear the crump, crump, crump of distant bombing. That鈥檚 when they went for the docks and you could just make out, if it was a slightly cloudy night you could just make out the orange tint of the clouds and I suppose I would be old enough to realise what that meant, that coupled with the sound. We didn鈥檛 get vibration of course but there was the sound, a muffled crumping sound, it鈥檚 haunting!

The aeroplanes would be coming from Thurleigh and Little Staughton and I can so vividly remember the noise. You would see these silver specks up in the sky and there was a group there and then you would see the vapour trails of those swinging round to join the group and then from over here another group and then another group. Talk about awe inspiring! And because they were at a certain height you had the condensation trails or we used to call vapour trails. And you know they were streaming along behind them and oh, you were so aware of the enormity and they had only just started on their journey. They just had enough to formate. And then one day I had just gone out into the front garden, it wasn鈥檛 during 鈥榣ock up鈥� and I heard this terrific, terrific roaring noise and this is the absolute truth suddenly there was this Flying Fortress. And honestly it had to climb slightly to get over the houses on the other side of the street. You see they had just flown over Laxton鈥檚 Nursery area where you got the impression of wide open country and then suddenly of course they were up in the built up area of Goldington, Bedford. I mean it was one of the biggest bombers, a big four engined heavy bomber.

On another occasion I was in the house, in the gardens of a house on the other side of the road and I heard this funny cccrrrrrrrcccckkk sort of noise and then just over the hedge flew one of the observation planes. A little single engined, high winged, mono planes that they used to use for spotting for the artillery. It was called an Auster and they used to specialise in hedge hopping and things like that and this is how they got their training and to have to climb to get over a tree!

At the other end of Manor Road was a friend whose father was in the Observer Corp - and I used to have, I don鈥檛 know whether I have any copies left, they used to have a little weekly magazine called The Aeroplane Spotter, and they would publish silhouettes and have different aircraft and that but obviously nothing that was classified. But this chap, his father being in the Observer Corp was getting all the dossiers with all the latest silhouettes and planes which I familiar with in their normal guise. One of the most famous planes in use was called the Wellington. But as part of an experiment what they did was, they had the Wellington and then all the way round, wing tip 鈥� tail, wing tip 鈥� to the front of the fuselage was a big ring - it was called a degaussing ring and the idea was when it flew over the sea they could detect submarines. And of course they would also carry a cargo of depth charges and so on so that the Wellington bomber, which was famous as 鈥楩鈥� for Freddy and One of Our Aircraft is Missing and the Dam Busters and that type of thing. I stress that type of thing I don鈥檛 know who was in that one but anyway the Wellington had a kind of reputation. And what was a very familiar thing was suddenly appearing in a totally, totally unexpected guise and if you saw one of these flying over you thought 鈥榳hat the hell is that鈥�? This was long before flying saucers but you鈥檇 have thought 鈥榯hat is a flying saucer鈥� you know. It looked a most strange aircraft. Needless to say you couldn鈥檛 get photographs of it. This aircraft recognition thing, this aircraft spotters thing wouldn鈥檛 be allowed to publish that because as I say it was classified. But thanks to this chap and his father in the Observer Corp I got a lot of extra stuff, yes. I mean the idea of putting two planes together to get an extra engine, they did that with - one of the most famous American fighters was called the Mustang many say that is was the Mustang that won the war for us. Because the Mustang was a very, very long range fighter which could accompany our bombers to Germany and back because we were losing so many bombers because of the Luftwaffe and they had some good fighters. But the Mustang came along and they used to accompany the bombers because the Americans didn鈥檛 want to fly by night.

In regard to fire watching the school boat house, which was by the Suspension bridge in those days, was a wooden structure. There was our school, the Town and Bedford School, a wooden structure and therefore they did have a rota of fire watchers. On one occasion an incendiary bomb did in fact land near. The Germans, they must have had spies in Bedford, because the Germans got to hear that one dodge was the ARP, they would just pick up the bombs and drop them in a bucket of water. It sounds quaint but that鈥檚 what happened, either a bucket of water or a bucket of sand, anything to absorb it. So what did the Germans do? Having got wind of this they fitted an explosive charge into the incendiary bomb so you try to pick it up and you are minus a hand. Quite a few people lost their hands that way I think.

Well you see there was this strange element, a kind of abstract element of camaraderie. Neighbours who normally didn鈥檛 speak to each other, who wouldn鈥檛 admit the existence of the other suddenly come round, 鈥榊ou haven鈥檛 got a bit of butter you could spare?鈥� Or something like that because I just cannot believe - we measured out once the rations we were allowed, I have more on one slice of bread now! But you see we were a wee bit lucky because next door but one in Manor Road was a chap who ran a butchers shop so there was you know, say to mother,鈥� 鈥� it just so happens that I鈥檝e got a 鈥� are you interested?鈥� and that sort of thing. I didn鈥檛 know what mother would have to pay for it but 鈥� by this time mother was a widow and so in some ways in the war a widow was a fair target. But in other ways of course they could get their own back by exploiting their situation and getting a bit of extra attention. You just never knew, did not know.

And you dreaded air raids and as a result there were strict precautions about blackout. But these meant, no street lights of course, cars headlights had to have these funny little grill things slotted things onto the lights and that. And that all helped to create this general sense of darkness which meant that any light was therefore rather more obvious and that applied particularly to moon light. A full moon and a clear sky, oooh, wait for the sirens and people鈥檚 behaviour generally was more cautious and sometimes it gave the impression that people were being aloof and they weren鈥檛, they were just being self protective. Because another thing that you were constantly being made aware of were the posters saying 鈥機areless Talk Costs Lives鈥�, they鈥檇 be splashed everywhere. And you were constantly having to now, have I said which could be misinterpreted, have I given anything away? And when something happened in an air raid which made you realise the Germans were aware of what was going on and we went to all sorts of lengths to fool them. Building imaginary villages out in the open country, wooden places, building wooden tanks and setting them out in the field to fool the Germans into thinking that was an Ordnance depot, yes, all sorts of things like that. And we were aware of quite a bit of that because as I say living as we did on the outskirts of Bedford we were getting the best, or the worst of both worlds. We had all the restrictions of town life and all the alleged freedom of country life.

Rationing, again was another strange business because being out in the country, for example, people across the road did a lot of entertaining of Americans aircrews and we would all get together, pool our resources and the Americans, they had everything. You鈥檝e heard the expression, 鈥極ver sexed and over here鈥� well they had all of the means whereby they could exercise being over sexed by, well of course the nylons, especially nylons. One image I still have in my mind is of this American, he had a big jug like thing with handles, sort of pitcher like which was full of some drink and he just walked around with that on his shoulder and occasionally just take a swig. And another thing that slightly appalled me as a boy was they were offered mince pies, which I don鈥檛 think they were used to. And they had 鈥� we could also offer pickled onion which they weren鈥檛 used to and I was amazed to see this Yank take the lid the lid off a mince pie, put a couple of pickled onions in and put the lid back! Well when you think what you have now-a-days, bitter apple sauce with pork and things like that, we are moving in that direction aren鈥檛 we?

VJ Day was that much afterwards and you see the war ended in 1945, I was at school, I was spared call-up immediately. There was this delay so that I could complete my education so I went on and took what in those days was Higher School Certificate and got that. Then the Headmaster sent for me, oh, it was just before that because the Head had sent for me and heard that I was leaving school. 鈥榃hat are you playing at Cook, why are you leaving school? No need to.鈥� And so he knew that mother was a widow and so forth, he said, 鈥業鈥檓 sure we can arrange something.鈥� He enabled me to stay on at school so I transferred from a temporary school class to the Sixth Form Upper and then I was able to do my full shift at school.鈥�

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