大象传媒

Part one of an edited oral history interview with Mr. George Thompson conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淚鈥檓 George Thompson. I鈥檓 now 86 years old and in 1938 Neville Chamberlain introduced a Bill in Parliament to conscript all men between the ages of 20 and 21. Because Hitler - it was obvious there was going to be a war so Chamberlain decided to do something about it. I was one of the young men - then 20 years old and I went for a medical at St. Albans in July 1938 and I passed that and I opted to serve in the RAF. But of course in September 1939 war broke out and my call-up was delayed for quite a while because they were calling up Reserves in the Army, Navy and Air Force. It was a bit chaotic then so it wasn鈥檛 really until February in 1940, some months later that I was actually called-up. After training in Upwood near Peterborough during my disciplinary training I found that I could serve in the RAF as a Balloon Operator because I was able to drive and driving was essential then. So of course it was fortunate for me in the sense that Cardington was right on my doorstep so I was able to do my training there. After completing that I was deployed first of all down in South Wales, in Cardiff for a short time where we were preparing sites to fly these Barrage Balloons to protect the docks.

Most of the work had been done by a Pioneering Corp and our work was really kind of getting ready to put the balloons to fly, positioning everything. Then after a very short time there I was posted to Swansea to do more or less exactly the same thing around the Swansea docks. And again that was only for a brief time and then I was posted to Port Talbot which is between Cardiff and Swansea. When I arrived there 鈥� there was just a handful of us men 鈥� no Head Quarters or anything. A Senior Officer came along and welcomed us from the train and took us to the beach and told us to keep ourselves fit on the beach until he came back - while he tried to sort some billets for us. Eventually things got sorted out. He found suitable premises for an office and an orderly room. And one day he went along the line asking us what we did in Civvy Street. When I told him that I worked for the press and could do a bit of shorthand he said, 鈥榃ell, would you mind forgetting your Balloon Operating trade and help us out in the office?鈥� And so of course that鈥檚 what I did. So during two and a half years there I became more or less an inhabitant of Port Talbot.

We were billeted for a period of I should think two or three months probably. And then eventually as well as getting an Orderly Room they took over a house, a very large house in Port Talbot so of course we had our own accommodation 鈥� well it was nice really 鈥� it was like being a home from home in one way. People around about us were very, very kind. They used to invite us in occasionally to have a bath and they were very pleased to see us there.

During my time in Port Talbot and work in the Orderly Room doing all the clerical work I used to take notes from the Flight Lieutenant in charge of the Unit for the various orders. Used to do it doing my home made Pitman/Thompson shorthand and I used to have to deal with all the things like passes for leave, to write out the 鈥� is it 295, I鈥檝e forgotten. I think 295 is the number of the leave form for the Forces. I used to have to write those out and of course sometimes if people were going a long way the Flight Lieutenant let them go a little bit earlier on an earlier train and they used to have to have a little special chit from him. One of the duties that I had on the Balloon Unit was that the Airmen, we Airmen were paid once a fortnight - and the Officer in charge delegated me to travel round the various sites. I think we had about twelve Balloon Sites flying around the town and he delegated me to go round to sell saving stamps to the Airmen for the Savings Weeks that were held during the war to help the war effort. I鈥檝e just forgotten now how much I used to take but I used to take it down to the local Post Office each time and we used to see if we could beat the record so to speak with the savings. So that was rather interesting. And we had one chap in the Unit who was very good at drawing cartoons and caricatures and I鈥檝e got in my possession a nice little one of me seated at my desk there with a typewriter in front of me with all these little requests on it. 鈥楪eorge, is it true that so and so?鈥� 鈥楪eorge, have you got any application forms?鈥� 鈥楪eorge, when is my leave due?鈥� And all these little things and it鈥檚 quite a nice little souvenir of one of my war time activities.

The people that occupied the house 鈥� there were two Officers and then there was the PT Instructor and various people to do Guard because we used to have to have a Guard on the premises, they used to Guard the people. Down below, the house was on a hill in Port Talbot, 鈥楶entylla鈥� between Port Talbot and Margam and down below, lower down was another building and that was the cook house. We used to have our own food there. I think there was a basement as well as far as I remember. But the ground floor consisted of an entrance porch and then the Orderly Room which was a fairly large room 鈥� it would be the lounge of the house I suppose. Then at the back was another room and presumably that would be the dining room and that鈥檚 where the Officers had their quarters both bed and sitting room as well. We used the upstairs for the bedrooms. There wasn鈥檛 a big crowd of us there, I suppose altogether about a dozen perhaps, just the Head Quarters. The Unit there, in Port Talbot was divided into two Flights, there was 鈥楢鈥� Flight and 鈥楤鈥� Flight. When we started we were the only ones because we were the initial people to arrive in the town but eventually as time went on and more sites - balloons were put in more places. Then the Company was divided into Units, 鈥楢鈥� and 鈥楤鈥�. The 鈥楢鈥� Unit, they had St.Theodore鈥檚 Church in part of Port Talbot. That was the Head Quarters, that was where the senior people where because they also controlled us as well in the 鈥楤鈥�.

I got used to life in Port Talbot. Personally I found it very interesting because being musical I joined the Port Talbot Choral Society and was able to sing with them there and I also took part in various concerts that were organised by the local church which made life quite pleasant. As a matter of fact after all these years I still correspond and occasionally ring one of my lady friends that I met there. Her parents used to kind of invite me in for the occasional meal. Well, her mother she used to help in the Methodist Church there and during the war years they turned their store room into a canteen for the Forces and so she used to work and I used to go there quite a lot during leisure times. Most of the entertainment was done actually through the Methodist Church there, the members of the Methodist Church themselves, I mean they used to organise it. I played. We had a RAF Concert on one occasion I remember and it took place in the local cinema there, the Majestic Cinema. I remember playing a piano duet with a Welsh chappie in the Unit as one of the items. Amongst my souvenirs I think I鈥檝e still got some of the programmes of the concerts. I was lucky really as things turned out. I mean when I think back and some of my school pals that were called-up at the same time and some of them joined the Army and I鈥檓 afraid they never came back from France. So you know I have a lot to be thankful for really.

I had quite a number of leaves, well not so much leaves as weekend passes. We had weekend passes. I remember coming home very heavily laden once. I was very friendly at the time with a young lady who I鈥檇 met in Swansea and she had an aunt who was a pianist but this aunt had got arthritis so badly that she couldn鈥檛 play. She had a got a lot of piano music and so they asked me whether I would like it and I came home one day with a suitcase full of her piano music, which I鈥檝e still got!

Well, the next thing after about, I think it was going on two and a half years maybe probably going on for three I think. Then the WAAF took over these sites so it released us Airmen to do other duties and it was then that I was able to re-muster to my own trade as a photographer. I went then to Blackpool, to Number 2 School of Photography where I had to do the RAF Photographic Course at the end of which I found that I was posted overseas. We had our various injections because I remember one tall chap now almost falling down through fright. I think that was on the North Pier, Blackpool because that鈥檚 where we were kitted out with our tropical uniform so we knew it was going to be somewhere hot. So I was posted from one Unit in Blackpool to another Unit ready to go and catch the boat! We duly set off from Liverpool not knowing our destination of course. Our kit bags had all got the code number of the ship and destination which of course we didn鈥檛 know!

We sailed on the Monarch of Burmuda but this Monarch of Burmuda that took us as far as Suez and we sailed through the Canal to, I鈥檝e forgotten the name of the lake there between the Canal and we transferred then to not such a big liner. I think it was called Ascania. The Burmuda was a lovely ship because it was a luxury ship that sailed between Southampton and America before the war and of course it had been adapted to take troops. You could see where all the posh bathrooms and what you call it were boarded up, we couldn鈥檛 use them. However, that was that. Some of the other members of the Photographic Section who were with me in Blackpool - they followed on another convoy, they didn鈥檛 come on our convoy. Our convoy was the first convoy to go through the Mediterranean after it had been opened to shipping because all the others had gone round South Africa, had gone the long way round. But we came through the Med and through the Suez. He was on another ship and that was hit. I don鈥檛 know whether it was sunk 鈥� but they had to leave the ship and he had to be re-kitted in Egypt and he joined us later. So he had a taste of wartime. I was lucky really I didn鈥檛 see much action during my Service. Then from the Suez we sailed and we knew then more or less that we were going to India. We arrived at Bombay and everybody on the dock side was carrying umbrellas although the sun was shining brilliantly when we arrived and then of course we realised it was the monsoon period during which time it could rain anytime of the day.

Now at Poona, that was just a receiving Unit just to sort us out and after about a fortnight there I was moved on to Poona, a small airstrip or small aerodrome just outside Poona, I think the place was called Yravda or something like that. One thing I can remember about it we could always hear shouting at one time of the day. And when I made some enquiries about what it was all about somebody told me that Ghandi was interned somewhere in the area and these people were kind of shouting out in support or something to do with that. Whether that was true or not I don鈥檛 know but that鈥檚 what I was told. At Poona, the idea there was to receive Airmen who were coming from Canada, from England to operate and it was a Unit to do a little bit of training before they actually went on operations. And my duty then was, being photographer of course, was to fit cine cameras on the gun sights of the Liberator aircraft, instead of using ammunition they used cine films. And then they practised attacking the heavy bombers, the Liberator bombers and with the results of the films we could find out whether they鈥檇 actually hit the target or not. You pointed the camera at the aircraft and if you got the aircraft on the film in the sights you knew if your gun was loaded you knew you were actually hitting the target. It was quite interesting because occasionally 鈥� when I was off duty and getting to know some of the aircrew - I was sometimes able to go up in one of the Liberators just to see what it was like flying around and that was most interesting! I was at Poona for oh, several months during which time I used to attend the Methodist Church and I became Organist and Choir Master there. However, time marched on and then I found that I was posted to a Station - RAF Squadron 356, Heavy Bomber, Liberators which was operating from an airfield about 80 miles north of Calcutta. I can鈥檛 remember - it was Salbini I think. There were just three of us on this occasion that were posted. The trip there - we travelled by rail. I remember we got on a train at Bombay and it took us three days on the Bombay-Nagpur Railway, three days on the train to get to Calcutta, which was quite an experience! The train stopping at various stations for us to get a meal.鈥�

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