大象传媒

On the 24th November 1940, a Sunday, I was in chapel and the sirens went. I had to report to the warden's post in Downend as I was a messenger boy in the Scouts. The Ack-Ack fire was all around. The Army used to locate the guns in various parts around the area. There was 'Purdown Percy', a big Ack-Ack placement.

There was a particular night when I was going round getting the wardents to report to the main warden post, at the top Croom's Hill, I was going up towards Staple Hill by way of Grace Hill, when I heard a terrific rush of air. I threw my bike one way and jumped the other. I held my hands over my head and one of the stick of bombs landed in the road opposite the Eclipse ladder factory and struck a gas main. One of the other bombs landed on a house in Thicket Road and some people were killed (two or more?). This information is probably held in Gloucester Records Office (because it is over the boundary). I was told to go around turning off the gas - inside the lobbys of the houses.

I joined the ATC around 1942 - 1860 Squadron at Warmley Grammar School. We went on visits, lasting a week, to different aerodromes. I kept rough notes of what we did every day. For example:
"I was very keen to join the Fleet Air Arm. And one day a recruiting officer arrived at Colern in a Fairey Fulmar (undercarriage retracts in the same way as a Hurricane - 'hugs'). Armaments - 8 machine guns, 4 in each wing (Marlin 20). Aircraft seats 2: pilot and observer. All who were interested in joining the Fleet Air Arm lined up for a flight. I went up at the last. We flew East North East at 10,000 feet, rising to 12,000, on the altimeter. Speed about 200mph, minimum 150 mph. We went into a power-dive at around 300mph. Blue sky above, slide slipping above the clouds". Before we went on a flight we had to have an observer-type parachute fitted. This fits on the chest, rather than sitting on it.

Once at Colerne aerodrome, a Canadian pilot misjudged his landing and crashed into the hangar doors - possibly a Hurricane fighter.

As part of the ATC training we spent a week at Weston-Super-Mare aerodrome which trained cadets for airgunnery, supervised by armaments specialists. Time was spent on dome trainers, identical to gun turrets on aircraft. All sorts of German aircraft were projected on the wall and besides having to recognise what type of aircraft it was (e.g. Dornier, Heinkel, Messerschmit etc), we had to follow it across the wall with it in our gun-sights. After which, a hit was registered, or not.

We also learned how to pack parachutes. One parachute had 24 segments, made of silk. The parachutes were normally packed by the WAAFs. We also did simulated parachute drops from a 12-15 ft wall where you had to be very careful on landing.

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