大象传媒

These stories were submitted to the Peoples War site by a Emma Hart from the Adjutant General's Corps Museum, Winchester, on behalf of Mr David Hutton, with his permission. David Hutton fully understands the site's terms and conditions. These are his memories of WW2.

Dunkirk Troops
"The first story is a memory about the troops waiting at Basingstoke Station to be transported to the coast and off to Dunkirk. There were hundreds of troops based there for a short while. I remember that they didnt have any food, so my father went around the local shops and the town centre with a friend, and collected money and food for the troops from people and shopkeepers. He delivered it to them at the station.

The stuck Brent Gun
We lived at Maple Durwell in North Hampshire, about 3 miles away from Basingstoke. I can remember watching about 10,000 troops on the march and watching a Brent Gun carrier on the move. It got stuck in a huge ditch, all day they were trying to move it backwards and forwards. Eventually they managed to move it using another gun carrier they bought in at the end of the day. It just shows how little equipment was available for the army during the war.

The Bomber at Stratfield Say
I recall very clearly going to see a bomber which had been shot down at Stratfield Say, by the Wellington Monument. Father heard about a german bomber which had crashed, it was the first one of the war, and he raced us up there. When we arrived, the wings had been taken off, and it was loaded onto an RAF lowloader, right next to the Wellington Monument. I will always remember how impressed I was by the inside - how it was made, all glistening aluminium.

The Bombing of Basingstoke
There was a big bombing raid on Basingstoke. I was picking berries with my family at the end of Blackmore Lane in Upper Nateley. We heard and then saw 6 planes, german ones, pass overhead. My mother and father said we had better go. We got into the car. Three of the planes banked round and turned back towards us. Father turned the car, and abandoned it in a nearby barnyard, then threw my mother and I into five feet of nettles, to get us out of the way, he also hit the ground. They flew so low to the ground that I could see the germans' helmets. But they were busy with other things and didnt shoot at us. We watched them head towards Basingstoke and then saw them bomb the Basingstoke to London railway line. Several bombs were dropped, I remember one was a timed bomb, and went off 2 days later killing lots of people. The bombs missed the train station by 150 yards. One hit the Methodist Church, and one hit the Doctors surgery, and killed a lot of people.

Memories of Portsmouth
My Father was involved in lots of different businesses during the war including Transport. He dabbled in farming but he also had a mini railway down in Portsmouth. Word got to him that Portsmouth was under attack , so he scraped together the petrol to go down to check on his railway. I remember that when we got down to the Portsmouth Guildhall, it was only single traffic allowed on the roads, beacuse the rest of the road was blocked up with debris and craters from the bombing. I will always remember it. We drove back via Emsworth, in the dark. There were no signposts, as they had all been removed. On a corner between Harting and Petersfield, we were hit by 2 navy personnel on a motorbike. You couldnt see the lights on the bike or on cars, beacuse they were blacked out and pointing down, because of the blackout. One man went over the top of the car, one over the side. My father was very upset, because he thought he would get into huge trouble. The Navy personnel were the ones driving on the wrong side of the road, though, and we never heard anything more about it.

Soldiers on Parade
We used to know the manager of Barclays bank, and we used to go and watch the soldiers parade through town from Barclays bank. They had regular speakers in the town hall square. There was a poster up in the square, showing the target to raise money to buy a Destroyer and how much the people had given so far. I used to watch the soldiers march past and salute, throughout the war.

Building Tank Traps
At about the same time, dregders were borrowed from the local river authorities and were used to dig tank traps all around Basingstoke. In town there were big concrete blocks in the road, which you had to thread through. This happened all across the south. Almost every day I remember seeing them dig huge ditches around Basingstoke.

Dog Alarm
Another time, I remember there were Air raid warnings, the night that the bombing of Coventry happened. We were at home, and suddenly our dog, Tinker (usually very quiet), started to howl. 10 minutes later, a squadron of German aeroplanes flew over on their way North. When they had passed, Tinker stopped howling. 2 hours later, she began to howl again, and about ten minutes later, the german bombers flew over. As they flew past, they shot at the area, and hit the watercress in the nearby fields. The whole place was full of shrapnel. Tinker never howled at anything else, except for the German planes.

Another Aircraft Crash
In the middle of the night, we also once heard a Wellington bomber crash at Hagwith Park. We were in bed, and it was the middle of the night. I heard the engine roaring as the plane flew over our house, and then a tremendous BANG. Apparently it crashed in Basingstoke, as it mistook the town for the aerodrome. There was only one engine left and it didnt have enough power in it, and all of the crew were killed.

We lived in an agricultural area, and one day we were hay-making in Jonah's Field, Hanging Lodge, at Maple Durwell. A bomber with only one engine, and its landing wheels down, came towards the field. It had 2 bombs underneath.

We cleared the field pretty quickly, because we thought it was going to land there. However, it flew on, across the valley. It was flying so low it was hitting the clover. It tried to fly up over the hill towards Lasham airfield. There were trees on the hill, and it treid to get over them, but crashed straight into them. Luckily, the bombs didnt go off, so the plane didnt expolode. The pilots both escaped with nothing more than broken legs. It crashed at Upton Grey. We may have been the only eyewitnesses to that.

Bomb or Plane?
Another thing I was probably one of the only witnesses to was a strange kind of bomb/doodlebug missile, one evening in Maple Durwell. I was in bed, when I heard the sound of a doodlebug coming. Being a child, I was really curious, so I dashed out of bed and looked towards Basingstoke. What I saw was very strange. A missile which looked like a doodlebug came past our house, and then turned between the cottage and walnut tree, at eaves height, so really low, and across the valley, and up and over the hill. It was towards the end of the war , when the Mark 2 type doodlebugs were being used. It was flying too low to be shot down. It then turned right to correct its' pathway. I heard its engine cut out, like doodlebugs do. I watched its light trail into the distance towards Basingstoke. It hit the Swimming baths in the town, and damaged the Shelmak Buidlings. It missed the Thornycroft factory site by about 100 meters. I am not sure if it was a guided type of missile, or flown by a pilot. I couldnt see anyone. To this day I am not sure what it was that I saw.

Here comes the SAS!
We often had soldiers practising warfare around our fields, usually in pairs or alone. I think they were SAS. They had to hide themselves from an approaching army vehicle. The vehicle had a gun, and was firing blanks at the SAS soldiers. If two of them were 'shot' the game was over. The soldiers had to fire off six rounds of blanks at the vehice to 'win'. I rememebr seeing them hiding in our box hedge, which was really thick and made a good camoflage for them.

Before Normandy
In the lead up to Normandy, there were many soldiers in the area, particularly canadian soldiers. I remember the Canadians fighting the English soldiers over the local women. There were horrendous fights between the Yanks and the Canadians and English over luxuries like candies and stockings ofr the women.

Once, we were coming past the Winchester Bypass, a few days before the Normandy Landings. The whole of the cutting at Spitfire Bridge was full up with heavy armoured vehicles and Brent Guns. All of these were covered in camoflage, and there was no way they would have been visible from above. Next day, we heard that the troops had been shipped out to Normandy, and the first troops had landed.

For the next 2 days I went out on my bike everyday. Every day I saw hundreds of planes flying in formation, 6 layers of aircraft going this way and that, and heading towards Normandy. It was an amazing sight.

Lorry Loans
Although we lived in the countryside, Normandy affected us quite a bit. My father at the time was running a transport project for the MOD. He ran it with his partner, John Remmington. About 2 weeks after the Normandy landings, it was discovered that the British Troops had no transport because their equipment engines were breaking down. The government urgently wanted transport for its troops. We had a 6 wheeler lorry , and 3 weeks before D-day we got an 8 wheeler lorry, which was very big in those days. The government conscripted our lorries and drivers, took them to the Mulberry Harbours and used them across the Seine. They returned 9 months later, with bald tyres, broken springs and knackered engines. There was no other payment made to the company for their use apart from the drivers regular wages. A lot of people dont realise that private vehicles were commandeered for army use in the war.

Agriculturally Exempt
Agricultural workers had certificates so that they were exempt from conscription into the army, but they had to be part of the Home Guard instead, I remember some of the wokers in our village were really tired, bacuse during harvest time they would work a long day in the fieds until 8, and then go off ot be Home guard form 8pm. Sometimes they were away for 2 or 3 days, and then had to go straight back to work. They were always absolutely shattered.

One of the workers, Mr Hewitt, had a son who also worked in the fields. Like other good workers, he liked a trip to the pub after work. One evening, he was a bit worse for wear, and walked down through the village pulling open the fences and doors of the animal pens, so that all of the animals escaped. At 8. 30 am next morning he was arrested by the police, at 10am he was up before the magistrate, and at 12pm he was in The Square at Aldershot, conscripted into the army as punishment. We never saw him again!

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