大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Ian Hayes of the GMR Action desk on behalf of Joe Chesney and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

My father joined the AFS in 1935 and in 1939 when the war broke out, he became a full time fireman.One of his first duties was to stand outside London Rd. fire station and when a coal wagon or delivery van passed to stop the vehicle and commandeer it for war service.The driver would have to unload his goods into London Rd fire station yard for collection at a later date. On their return from another vehicle for collection that vehicle would then be equipped with ladders and hoses and used as fire appliances. He served during the Manchester Christmas blitz and remembered several firemen being machine gunned in Piccadilly. He trained for a time at St Josephs Fire Station in Stockport Rd Longsight. One of the drills was for a man to jump from the 3rd floor window into a blanket held by members of the crew. On one occasion, the blanket failed and the man was killed.
On one occasion he was turning out to his own street and a piece of shrapnel went through his arm and pinned him to a door. When he eventually pulled the shrapnel from the door it was removed at hospital, it was found to have serial letters on it "JC" which were his initials. He always said that one had his name on it and missed!

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