大象传媒

Sept 4th 1939 and the war years I spent in Staithes.

The one Sunday in my life that I shall never forget having been to Sunday School I had called at my Grandparents this I did every Sunday. I was doing myself my usual toast in front of the fire. Grandma was preparing Sunday dinner, the wireless was on and suddenly she burst into tears. I dropped the toasting fork. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 wrong Gran?鈥� I asked.
Putting her arms around me she said 鈥淵ou had better get off home lad. We are now at war with Germany again and your mother will be looking for you鈥�
I was 10years old, I ran home looking over my shoulder now and then expecting to see the Germans coming down the street after me. Nothing happened my friends and I thought it was all a fuss about nothing. Having got into double figures on my 10th birthday I was starting to feel grown up, no such thing as a birthday party in those days, not for us anyway, it was just another day.

Everything went on as usual, until the Territorial Soldiers had to report for duty. One young man had left home and lived in a tent just outside the village got his call up papers along with his friend. What a pair they were, always in trouble, us children would take food to Tommy in his tent, and when he and his friend Jamie had to go and catch their train we got a Union Jack and marched to the station with them What a send off they all got, and many a tear was shed. Tom and Jamie went on that train with a lot of other young men from the area, it was the longest train ever to come into our station, and was packed with young men in uniform many never to be seen again.

We had just got electricity into our home, we also had a radio, and so we were able to listen to news daily. After Poland surrendered to the Germans everything went quiet we had to learn to live with the blackout and soon got used to it. Air raid warnings came and went without a plane to be heard or be seen. First of all it was hand bells, and whistle, But it wasn鈥檛 long before we got the hand siren, and air raid wardens were appointed to help out the village policeman My two eldest brothers were now in the merchant navy, the next one about ready, and wanting to join them. My eldest sister went on to join the W.A.A.F. A great many of the young men from the village did the natural thing and went to sea, joining either the Royal or Merchant Navy. The sinking of ships became a frequent occurrence, and my Mother got a telegram to say that one of my brothers was missing, at that time the German battle ship Graff Spee was causing havoc by sinking our merchant ships. Eventually it was cornered by our navy and suffered severe damage in the action that followed, fleeing into a neutral port where it was found that there were a large number of British prisoners on board the German ship. On their release it was found that my brother was one of them. On his return home I went to meet him at the railway station taking our dog with me, the train came in and in the crush of people getting on and off I missed my brother feeling upset I called for the dog but he had gone. So I trudged home wondering what I was going to say to my mother, I was feeling depressed and sorrowful I reached home to find my brother sitting beside the fire, with Scamp our dog at his side. Scamp having picked up his scent in the crowd had followed him home. What a great day that was!!

At school we were constantly warned about the dangers of war, shown pictures, and told of the things the Germans were doing to kill, and harm unwary people, all kinds of booby trapped explosives in various forms got dropped from planes and submarines, to be found in fields and on the sea shore where the tide had left them. Some had instructions in English as to what to do to make it safe, but if you did this, the contraption what ever shape it was would explode to kill or maim whoever was there. One day a gang of us went to see what the tide had left on the rocky foreshore, (Many things got washed in and left by the tide, such as dead bodies, mines and many bits and pieces from sunken ships and their cargoes). On this day we found some of the anti personnel bombs having had our warnings at school we put them on top of some rocks where they could be seen. On our way back to report our find we passed two school friends (two tearaways) told them to beware of the bombs, unfortunately they must have gone up to them. There was an explosion and the two school friends got blown to pieces.鈥� My brother who had been a prisoner on the Graff Spee shot at and nearly killed by the British Navy was at home so he was involved in picking up the body pieces so that they could be buried .At the age of 18 he had seen a great deal of action, and death, But it never deterred him he kept going back to sea. And all the dangers this entailed. The death of these two boys put a stop to anyone going on the rocks. More barbed wire was put up to ensure no one could get through, but it did not stop us we always found a way.

Europe went up in smoke, and flames. All we heard was retreat, retreat, and then came Dunkirk. But we did not worry too much, the only real contact with war at that time was the regular sights of military policemen looking for and chasing Jamie, he was always deserting. He once came home wearing a sergeants鈥� stolen greatcoat telling everyone he had been promoted. He always went to his grandmother鈥檚 house so the police knew where to go to arrest him. But at times he gave them a good run, and us something to laugh at.
As time progressed soldiers came, barbed wire was strung along sea walls and slipways, concrete boxes and tank traps were built, machine guns, and other implements of war made their appearance. Huge concrete blocks blocked off every access to and from the harbour.

The local defence volunteers (LVD) was formed and every able bodied man not in the armed forces joined. We used to watch them training with pick or brush shafts, because it was all they had at that time, later uniforms, and arms were provided and they got a new name 鈥淭he Home Guard鈥�

The war had come to us. We saw ships getting attacked, and great efforts were made to provide air raid shelters. We soon had some good ones built into the cliff side. In the early years many a night was spent in them, but gradually people got sick of it and stayed in their own homes. One night when the warning had gone mother as usual got us out of bed, as we got down stairs, scamp our dog, dived under the table, I shouted to the family to follow, we were all scrambling under the table when we heard the bomb falling, suddenly there was a huge bang and bright flash as it hit the ground behind one of the harbour piers, that was about the nearest they got.

Evacuees started arriving and our old school was full of new faces. They split us up at first by sitting an evacuee with a local boy and vice versa. After a while standards had dropped so much new seating arrangements were called for. Boys sat with boys and girls with girls. The townies as we called them had lived an entirely different life from us. And we spent a great deal of time holding hands and touching each other under the desks. I was just getting used to writing with my left hand when I had to move and sit with another boy. Both of us had got on well with the girls we had been sat with 鈥渂oth called Irene鈥� They were both great fun. 鈥漇herry鈥� the boy I had to sit with was alright after school. But to sit next to him was a come down after 鈥淚rene鈥� I had no inclination to hold his hand.

Nature walks were a regular part of schooling; we used to take food parcels to the soldiers who manned the searchlights, and gun positions on the moor top. Walking back to school we used to pair off and drop from the back, dodge behind the hedge for a cuddle. Then run like mad to catch up with the class before we were missed. We learned a lot about nature behind a hedge. Those townies changed our lives completely we also showed them a different side to life, after all some of them had never seen the sea, or a green field full of animals

On fine sunny days we would lay out on the grass watching air fights high in the sky, and hear guns firing. If a German was shot down we would cheer. But if we thought it was one of ours we would sit quietly, hoping to see a parachute open. A fair number of planes crashed in the area, some went into the sea, and the first close up action I saw was on one misty morning. I was stood on the sea front talking to a ginger haired army sergeant we were stood beside a Lewis gun mounted on a tripod, he was showing me how it worked. Just beyond the harbour entrance there was a wall of fog. The sergeant pushed me to the ground telling me to stay there. As the plane a 鈥淕erman鈥� came out of the mist it was so low I could see a man in the clear Perspex nose of the aircraft as the sergeant opened fire I lay there watching the Perspex shatter and holes appear along it鈥檚 body empty shell cases were falling over me as the plane roared over us to crash a few miles behind the village. Another plane crashed just outside the village on the edge of the cliff, we rushed to see what we could find before anyone else got there. The plane had come in low, seen the cliff, and tried to lift over it but he caught the edge with his tail breaking it off. The rest of the plane crashed into what we call quarry bank. There were bodies and bombs scattered in the wreckage. One blonde haired young man was the double of a boy who was with us and on looking at the body this youth 鈥淎lbert鈥� nearly fainted. I saw a parachute hanging on the cliff edge and thinking mother might make use of it went to gather it but found there was a body hanging from it down the side of the cliff unable to pull it up I had to leave it.
Then the police and army personnel arrived and we had to move out with little to show for our efforts. We watched the clean up from the bottom of the hill. As they were moving the bombs one started to roll down the hill towards us, a soldier got in front of it and allowed it to roll into his arms, he stopped it probably saved us but it cost him some broken bones.

Mines dropped into the sea to sink our ships, and those put there to protect our island sometimes broke from their moorings and washed on to the shore. We got used to the explosions as they hit the rocks.
One night as I laid in my bed I heard something solid hitting the sea wall below my window. Our house was very near and overlooked the water. I was looking at this huge mine bobbing and rolling against the concrete wall. I went downstairs and out to the back door picked up a twenty foot pole I had got off the beach a few days before, laying down under the barbed wire I pushed at the mine, fortunately the sea was calm and this helped me a lot But when I tried to push the mine away it just rolled in the water until I got the pole into the mooring, I was then able to hold the mine steady and away from the wall. I knew that if one of the horns broke it would explode, I could see one of them was badly bent. I was hoping someone would come to help and advise. How long I laid there I don鈥檛 know but suddenly I felt the pole slip and I watched the mine float away and I realised the tide had turned. As it floated away I crept back to bed hoping no one had seen me. Next morning I woke to great excitement and on the lifeboat slipway was a great big black mine and I could hear people saying if it had gone off we could all have been killed in our sleep. I dare not say anything just kept wondering if it was my mine. After the bomb disposal men had made the mine safe we sat around talking. I asked a soldier 鈥淲hat would have happened if it had gone off?鈥�
He said 鈥淪on a village like this surrounded by cliffs and a bomb as big as this one if it had gone off it would have damaged most of the properties, and a lot of people would have been killed or injured.鈥�
I was so frightened I ran home and went to bed telling my mother I did not feel well. I realise now that I should have raised the alarm instead of messing about with my pole, and yet another bump could have broken the horn. 鈥淭here is no answer to that鈥� I just think my stupidity put the village at risk, that is something I do not like to dwell on. The empty shell of the mine stood outside the lifeboat house for many years, reminding me of that night of fear.

Ken Verrill (Kenny Boy)

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