大象传媒

I moved from Worcester to Droitwich in 1938 at the age of 12 so all my war time memories are from this area. I attended Samuel Southall School in Worcester though and I had to cycle daily from Droitwich.
When Chamberlain's broadcast on September 3rd announced that we were at war I remember distinctly my mother started to cry.

Things changed a little at school, the first thing that happened when I went to school was our Air Raid Procedure. The rule was that if you lived within 7 minutes of school then you had to go home. as I was cycling from Droitwich there was no way I would get home in 7 minutes so i was supposed to go down the shelter. I didn't like that idea so I arranged with my mate to go back to his house whenever there was a raid.

Our school overlooked Perdiswell Airfield. this was used by the Austin Aircraft Division for testing the Fairy Battle Dive Bombers. It was very noisy during the dives! I saw several mishaps while they were training, such as trying to land without the undercarriage down and not pulling out of dives in time!

In 1940 the testing of the Fairy Battles ceased and the airfield was then used for training with the Tiger Moths.

I used to regularly see an AA Patrol Man on a bicyle using the A38 Droitwich to Worcester Road. I was always surprised to see that whatever the temperature, he never ever wore anything over his uniform. Not a jumper, a coat or even a pair of gloves, whatever the weather!

In 1940 I moved to the Junior Technical School at Victoria Institute. I still had to cycle to school! I was cycling home with a pal on 20th May 1942. I had my macintosh tied on the back of my bike and a man on a bike going the opposite way stopped us and told me that my coat was getting caught in my back wheel. We had to stop for a few minutes so that I could tie my coat back on properly. As we did this a British Magister Plane crashed on the road at Falsam Pits, Droitwich, it was 5.30pm. If we hadn't had to stop we would both have been underneath the plane.

In 1943 I joined the 大象传媒 at Wychbold transmitting station as a technical trainee. I had to sign the official secrets act. There were guards stationed there, armed military police with guard dogs. They were a funny lot, I remember episodes with inadvertant firing of Sten Guns. They dropped their guns and made holes in the canteen door and once they dropped the gun and it fired straight up into the 大象传媒 logo over the main entrance and took chips out of it!

We also had a tin can for our gas mask. I thought this was much posher that the cardboard boxes. That was until other kids cut the cords that it hung by and it hit the ground with an almighty crash! After this had happened several times by tin looked like it had been through the war all on its own!

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of John Phillips and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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