大象传媒

Throughout the Second World War my father John Henry Soars worked on essential war work producing parts for submarines and tanks. He worked in a small engineering factory in Willenhall, South Staffordshire, now a part of Walsall.

Like his fellow workers he had to do fire watching duties at night after a full day鈥檚 work and before another full day鈥檚 work the following day.

When on fire watching the men were legally bound to complete a log of any enemy action such as air raids and times of planes passing overhead. The log also had to include details such as the time that the air raid warning went off and the time the 鈥楢ll Clear鈥� was sounded. My father was particularly conscientious about ensuring that his reported times were correct and every morning would check and confirm these times with my mother who also kept a log at their home 3 miles away.

On the morning of the 15th November 1940, after a night of fire watching he returned home on his cycle to be met by my mother saying, 鈥淲asn鈥檛 it a terrible night with the German Planes?鈥�. Looking blank he asked what had happened and was told that enemy planes had been going overhead all night.

My father had gone to sleep while on fire duty and slept through the heaviest bombing in the Midlands, the night of the Coventry blitz.

Going to sleep while on fire watching duty was a criminal offence. Forgetting his breakfast, he jumped back on his cycle to return, as quickly as he could, to the factory to 鈥榙octor鈥� the log with the times as advised by my mother!

When on fire watching he kept himself warm under woollen blanket. My wife and I used this as a car rug for many years after the war. Unfortunately in 1990, my car was stolen from a car park in Stourbridge and one of the items that was never recovered was John Henry鈥檚 car rug. 鈥楴uff said.

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