大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by CSV Storygatherer Robin.D.Bailey on behalf of the author James 鈥淛im鈥� Libby. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.

My Father and the Shop:

At the outbreak of war I was 9 years old. At the time, my parents were a bit concerned about how long it would all be before my Father would be 鈥渃alled up鈥�; This was on account of the small village store type business they had at Sandplace near Looe.

My Father had started a travelling shop with which he went to a number of villages. It was the first travelling shop we knew of, carrying a stock of groceries etc.

After some time, when it seemed likely that he would be 鈥渃alled up鈥� soon, he volunteered and joined the Royal Marine Police at Plymouth Dockyard. This made it possible for him to come home to help out at times, when his shifts permitted. There were a number of others who had businesses in Plymouth and another from Polperro; This meant they could share a vehicle and the petrol.

When his shifts did not work out, he had to lodge in Devonport and he did come a bit close to bombing. Some bombs came close to his lodgings, some in the Dockyard and the Oil Tanks across the river from the Dockyard were constantly a prime target. When these Oil Tanks were ablaze, they were visible from 20 miles away.

While he was in the Royal Marine Police, Father was very proud of them, in particular as a member of their choir that sang at the Palace Theatre along with the great soloist Alice Groves.

It was soon apparent, however, that his coming home to help run the business was too little, as a lot of shifts, when he was available were during the night. The Ministry of Food and Labour soon helped as they sent us two ladies from Looe who had volunteered to work towards the war effort. These ladies had no need to work as they were very well off, owning quite a number of properties in Looe.

One of these ladies, a Miss Chark, worked in the shop and the other, Mrs Waters, took over driving the van delivering groceries, and occasionally delivering Paraffin, an important fuel at the time, especially in the country districts for cooking, lighting and heating.

It was most amusing to see Mrs Waters arrive for and during work, dressed in a fur coat, wearing diamond rings and heavy gold chain type bracelets, complete with a gold padlock on each wrist and accompanied by her two Great Dane dogs.

I often helped by measuring out Paraffin into individual cans, also at times I would go and help with the deliveries when there was a heavy load - some of the Paraffin was in 5 gallon drums. When my Mother expressed worry about the Paraffin contacting the jewellery etc., Mrs Waters commented 鈥淚t would only help to clean it.鈥�

School and Life in General:

After some time I went to Looe School and in the week during term time, I lived at West Looe with my Grandparents, Mr & Mrs Stevens at West Looe Hill.

While at Looe School, we all did quite a bit of work for the war effort. We were encouraged to collect various things like, paper, clothing, metal, rubber and especially aluminium. According to the amount we collected, we would be given a rank like, Major, Captain or General etc.

Some of the Fishermen鈥檚 sons, who had the skill, would stand at the front of the class making camouflage nets.

We also had a school garden near the top of West Looe Downs, where we were taken by our Headmaster, Mr Jimmy Edwards to 鈥淒ig for Victory.鈥�

In the early days of the war, a lot of new phrases and procedures started to arise i.e. Dig for Victory; Careless Talk Costs Lives; Put That Light Out; Quotas; Ration Books; Call Up Groups (according to age); Convoys of Ships; Womens Land Army etc.

Some of the things that started to disappear were roadside and junction Sign Posts. Their arms bearing place names and distances were removed; As did a lot of place names from business advertising signs. Iron railings were cut off and taken away for the war effort. Fairly early in the war, the urgency was brought home to us when something like, half of our local Morval football team were called up early, as they were of the suitable age group. The football team was wound up, this brought it home to those of us who travelled with the team by bus to away matches in other villages.

Some other men of call up age were given exemption, if their work was considered to be vital to the war effort.

Quite a number of ladies went into the Services, or to join the Womens Land Army, or to work in munitions factories.

It soon became noticeable that our Atlantic Convoys were losing quite a number of ships, sunk by U-boats. A lot of the lost ships were carrying our food supplies and war equipment.

Having a shop at that time gave us some insight into the short supply position. As the list of shortages became bigger all the time, we had a difficult job, you could say, watching points. In fact, Points were some of the Coupons we had to take from Ration Books in exchange for food
on ration.

It was actually more a case of having a large pile of points or coupons on the table, sorting them into types and making out forms listing the numbers of each type, then checking if we had sufficient to cover our future supplies. It was a worrying time as we had a very few customers who sometimes tried to fiddle us over coupons or points - For it was vital for us to maintain a full range of stock to continue in business.

Local Defence Activities & Being Bombed:

West Looe Downs was a very interesting place at the time. During term time, we were often able to watch army commandos doing unarmed combat training, it was not the type recently seen on T.V. etc. as it was intended to disarm, cripple or kill the enemy.

While in school, sheltering in a modified, heavily built porch during an air raid warning, our teacher, Mr Angear, had the heavy door open a little, to be able to look out and let in some fresh air. Suddenly, an aeroplane was heading straight for us, Mr Angear slammed the door shut and
we dropped a heavy timber bar into the cleats provided to make it strongly secure, although it was rattled by the explosions.

Some of the bombs fell in a field across the river, in line with the railway station, Pearn鈥檚 Boatyard, a Gasometer and our school. It was a good thing that these were dropped a few seconds too early, otherwise they could have caused havoc. Some bombs did not explode, two I think. Some of us went to see the craters and the holes where the unexploded bombs went in.

One of our senior class teachers, Mr Cecil Pape, did not work full time. I think he was part of the boatbuilders Curtis and Pape at Polean and West Quarries up the West Looe River, where they had started to build ML鈥檚 - a fast type of motor launch, also Minesweepers. Once these boats
were built up to deck level, they were brought down river to Looe Bridge, where they had to be brought through the first arch. This involved some digging out of the river bed and having to catch the right tide height and remaining slightly buoyant, they could be dragged through. This was especially critical in the case of the Minesweepers, which were quite a bit beamier and deeper than the ML鈥檚.

Once through the bridge, they were taken halfway down, alongside the Car Park, where the quay side was all fenced off with high galvanised sheeting, to make them secure while fitting out was completed. One of the most interesting features to see on the Minesweepers was a heavy gauge bare copper cable, of possibly 1.5鈥� to 2鈥� diameter, fitted outside the hull at about deck level, all bright and shiny. It was with great pride we watched them going off to help the war effort.

Around Looe at this time, a number of defensive positions were set up; Mostly around the beach and cliff areas and along the West Looe to Hannafore road, especially at a point where it overlooks the river at Pennyland.

A number of streets were blocked off with something they called Tank Traps. These looked like concrete 鈥淒arleks鈥�, with a length of heavy iron sticking out of the top.

At Hannafore, two guns of about 4鈥� calibre were set up on the cliffs between the road and the beach. At one time we were out in a small boat towards the island - I think this was only permitted during daylight hours - but as with most boat trips we were a bit late coming back in, and as we did so a searchlight was switched on and flashed about a bit, not focused fully on us, but reminding us that we should have been in earlier to avoid being challenged.

While at Sandplace, we often went outside after dark and listened to passing aircraft. These were usually flying high and had very heavy throbbing engines. We used to think they were on the way to bomb Plymouth. One night, after coming indoors, there was a very heavy explosion which rattled everything. We went outside but could not see anything.

During the following few days, someone told us that a Landmine had been dropped on Looe Island. This explained our explosion, but it was surprising how loud it was at three miles away. It must have been the shock waves that had been channelled up the valley to us. It was said that the Germans claimed they had bombed the aircraft carrier St. George, not St. George鈥檚 Island.

At Sandplace, we were quite used to seeing some of our army lorries in a convoy, with a despatch rider conducting them at our road junction, then riding off to the next junction. Quite a number of times we saw, usually, three Bren Gun Carriers go roaring by and slithering around the sharp corner by us.

The Americans:

When the Americans joined the war, we had a big surprise, when dozens of their lorries practically filled the left-hand lane of the road, tucked in tight under the overhanging trees and covered with camouflage, making them appear as if they were all part of the woods.

While parked up, the American soldiers fitted snorkel pipes to the air intakes and exhaust pipes of their vehicles. This was done with great care and all sealed in with mastic or something. The breather pipes were all clipped to a height above the cab. Presumably, they would probably save them from getting swamped as they came off a landing craft, as long as they were not in too deep a water.

During the time of this build up of troops and vehicles, my Brother remarked that he had seen large numbers of American soldiers walking in single file, almost silently as they were wearing rubber soled boots, going towards Looe at night.

Before this sudden push started, quite a lot of American soldiers were spread around in our villages, and were friendly and generous to children with their bananas, oranges, gum and sweets etc. They also livened up the village dances.

Now, my Brother saw a chance to return some of their generosity. He picked a small bath full of our very special Beauty of Bath apples, and sat on a grassy bank adjoining the road, passing them out as their sombre column filed silently by. They nearly all took one.

Obviously, all this build up of men and vehicles was towards our invasion, and they were suddenly all gone, even faster than they had arrived.

With the amount and variety of troops in the local area, one unit deserves a mention. A large house at the bottom of the slope near West Looe Bridge was allocated to Black Americans; We found them friendly and excellently behaved towards us, and having spent some time in the house, we saw things that interested us boys, such as their cooking was done on a fierce blue roaring flame that came from a long 鈥榁鈥� shaped burner that was located between fuel tanks, one on each side. A lot of use was made of the razor sharp dagger shaped knives, they each had. They told us that their black regiment was given some of the battles that were very tough.

At the later stages of the war, there was not much happening; I did, however, see one more interesting thing. This was when I saw a heavy bomber aircraft flying slowly up the coast, suddenly it appeared to be dropping bombs but soon turned out to be parachutes when they opened out.

I immediately started to run towards the direction they were drifting, I lost sight of them for a short time as they fell behind a wood. I quickly came passed the wood and found someone was sitting in the next field. I quickly went across to him and found he was an American airman, he
had broken or sprained his ankle on landing, probably due to the fact that the field was heavily sloping.

The aircraft was an American Super Fortress which had been shot up and running out of fuel. The pilot flew along near to the coast and allowed his crew to parachute to safety, then flew away from the land and ditched it in the sea. The pilot was in a rough state by the time he was fished out of the sea by a couple who rowed out to pick him up.

Three or four months ago ( Mar/Apr 2005), one of the 鈥榩lanes propellers was dug out among rocks by someone, father and sons, I think. This was all reported in the local newspaper, complete with photograph. Apparently, the pilot only died sometime last year.

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