- Contributed byÌý
- CSV Action Desk Leicester
- People in story:Ìý
- DEREK YOUNG
- Location of story:Ìý
- THAMES TO EAST COAST, NORFOLK
- Background to story:Ìý
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:Ìý
- A5143330
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 17 August 2005
1939-1940
We lived in Stoughton Village; my Father was a surveyor at County Hall. We thought he was going to get another job, but Mr Hitler had other ideas.
My Father was seconded to the Admiralty and based at HMS Ganges, Suffolk.
To build Sea Defences from the Thames to the Wash. Everybody was being evacuated from Ipswich to Leicester and of course we were going the other way.
Much defence building was in urgent preparation, it became apparent through the events of history that the delays that the European Expedition Force managed to exact from the enemy, was extremely vital to the overall survival of the Nation.
Some of the Sea Forts that were built during the war are still standing today even as far along the coast as Kent.
The Wash area was one of the closest areas to the Continent and was therefore a vulnerable spot.
During the course of the war we saw a number of enemy planes at night being followed by the local search lights and ACK-ACK Guns.
Many ending up in the sea,
We owned some land where we get kept chickens and over the hedge toward the RIVER ORWELL WAS THE Naval Cemetery one afternoon there was a very loud bang. We climbed onto the border bank and there was a Coalier ( coal carrying ship)
Upside down in the river having hit a mine. The funny thing was all the coal went to the Felixstowe side of the river, and the coke came to the Shotley side of the river.
Unfortunately all the crew was lost.
The mast at HMS Ganges has a preservation order on it. I remember some idiots shimmying up the mast, because they could have been struck by lightening, these brave souls were called the ‘Button Boys’. Button Boys were part of the displays that occasioned some events and were an act of bravado.
The old Thames barges went up and down the river carrying cargo all the time; some were moored with Barrage Balloons tethered to them.
Sometimes the barrage balloons would shoot off up into the sky, especially if something hit them.
This story was submitted to the “Peoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Derek Young and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site
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