大象传媒

(This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Three Counties Action at the Taking It On Roadshow in Luton on behalf of Norman Holding and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Holding flly understands the site's terms and conditions).

I was born 1927 so I must have been aged around 13 or 14 at the time of these stories.

My earliest memory of the war is when the Prime Minister Neville Chamberline said on the 3rd September 1939 (the day warm broke out) 鈥淣o such message has been received鈥�.

I was at school at the Luton modern school - which is now the sixth form college and I can remember the air raid on Vauxhall. I suppose it was at around 4 o鈥檆lock in the afternoon of October or November 1939. We all went down to the shelters and this was the first time it was a genuine alarm, as we had a few practices up until that point. I was in the scouts during the war and we used to go to ARP practice. We had to act as victims, and one time I remember a woman fitting a gas mask to me. On the day of the first raid it happened after school, I know this because we were taking part in rehearsals for a school play so it was getting towards Christmas. We all went to the shelters but my father worked at Vauxhall so it wasn鈥檛 until he came home that night that we knew what happened. It was only one or two planes, the dropped a few bombs on the factory - although there were some causalities it was a minor incident but I am sure those involved in it wouldn't think the same. I remember a chap called Fairy was killed he was in the engineering department.

My whole impression of the war was not of worry or anxiety or fear, I suppose as a young lad it was exciting.

I can remember on one occasion they dropped a load of incendiary bombs at Badgers hills - they dropped them in the hundreds. We went up there accompanied by a member of the home guard and his daughter - she was a tom boy, she was a little bit older than me as she had a motorcycle - that was really fare in those days, The whole of the hills were covered with burnt patches where the bombs had dropped and each with a little fin laying to one side. She picked one up and saw the bomb was still attached - her father the home guard man said that the detonator had gone off but it hadn鈥檛 blown up the rest - I don鈥檛 know what happened to it I think it might have been taken home as a souvenir.

As a boy scout we used to go newspaper collecting regularly on a Saturday 鈥� there were around 10 of us. It was something to do.

I had a large daily telegraph map of the war to see who had advanced 鈥� in various places like North Africa.

There was no problem with school I used to cycle there but the only problem we had because of rationing. The school provided lunches for us that didn鈥檛 come out of the ration book so it meant we had one good meal a day without using up the rations at home. But as I could get home in 7 minutes my mother wanted me to go home at lunch time and eat there as she felt that her cooking was better than school, but the head teacher wouldn鈥檛 allow it. Various letters went back and forth between my mother and the school but in the end I had to stay at school and eat there and not at home.

I joined Vauxhall as an apprentice in 1944 and I was there when they dropped the V2 rocket on Biscot road on the canteen at Commoer cars factory but luckily it was destroyed half an hour before lunch time so there were few casualties. We heard the explosion at Vauxhall but we didn鈥檛 know what it was as the V2鈥檚 were still very new.

I remember what happened at the end of the war. The announcement was made on the afternoon of the 7th May 1945 saying the war was over and the next 2 days the 8th and 9th were public holidays and that meant in the evening everyone came down to George street in Luton and it was solid with people. There was dancing, shouting and singing. I don鈥檛 remember drunkenness I have no recollection of that although you would think they would be,. There were thunder flashed going off all over the place. People were doing the pally glide - that was done in the line and the hookey cookey but people couldn鈥檛 do that very well as there wasn't enough room for a circle.

On the 8th May we went up St Andrews church tower at Blenheim crescent to put a union jack on the church tower. We had been asked to do it as Boy Scouts. I had been up there before. The top 20 feet of the tower is a vertical steel ladder with a heavy oak trap door lined with lead on the top and our leader the scout master had the appropriate equipment - a kneeler and block of wood to hold the trap door open. You would climb up the ladder with the kneeler on your head, open the trap door with your head and then put the block of wood in to hold it open and then you could open the rest of the hatch. Then when you got it open you could get it in.

There were 2 things I remember the parapets around the roof are dummies. They are only 2 or 3 inches above the floor you didn鈥檛 lean against the wall as they came up halfway up to your shins,. We had some girl guides with us - they clambered up the ladder which they were worried about and they went through the trap door and the hot air rose up from the church and their skirts all rose up but they couldn鈥檛 put there hands down as they were holding onto the ladder.

On the next day the second day of the public holiday my father said it would be nice to go to London. As he was crippled with rheumatism he had a special ration of petrol to get to work. We lived opposite where Barnfield college now stands 鈥� so it was too far for him to walk as he wouldn鈥檛 have been able to get to work everyday without the special ration. He had some illegal petrol in the bottom of the garden so he could get to work in an emergency so he said now the war is over we can invest in some petrol in a day out. We went to London , and there was hardly any traffic and we got to the Mall and stopped at the bottom of the Mall by the big roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace and the Victoria memorial. My father said I will stay with the car as I can鈥檛 walk very far but you and your mother can go towards Buckingham palace. We saw the King and the Queen on the balcony, we then returned to the car and as people began to leave the Mall it was getting really crowded. We turned out towards Trafalgar square. It was such a fine day we had the sun roof open and we found out we had 3 girls standing on the back bumper and my mother was worried about the extra weight but my dad said keep them on there as they are better than 3 heavy men! So we carried on and I think they stayed till we got to Trafalgar square where it was very crowded, but no other cars! A London policeman helped us through the crowd, he was in a good mood but he made sarcastic comments about the car. Several years later I saw a cinema news reel showing our car parked at the bottom of the Mall, but sadly I鈥檝e never seen that footage again!

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