大象传媒

A Bag Full of Conkers

I was five years old in 1939 and lived throughout the war with my parents in Caversham, Reading.
My father was born in 1901 so missed conscription into the First World War however he served in the Royal Berkshire Regiment of the Territorial Army between the wars and was called up for active service when the Second World War broke out. He must have been just about to go with the Expeditionary force that went to France in 1940 when the civil authorities requested that he be released because of his skills as a metal turner. His CO must have thought he would serve the country better making arms than using them so he spent the whole of the war working 12 hours a day jn a munitions factory; alternatively 3 weeks during the day and 3weeks during the night. I visited the factory with him a couple of times and saw the huge cannon barrels that he was turning on the lathes I remember the day he came home, still in his uniform and his haversack full of conkers. How pleased J was with these and at having my dad back home again
My dad also kept two allotments cultivated in the 鈥淒ig for Victory鈥� campaign. I spent many happy hours with him on those allotments.
I was too young to remember much about the start of the war. All I knew about the Battle of Britain was listening to radio bulletins and cheering wildly when it was reported how very many more enemy aircraft were shot down compared to RAF planes. A lot of it was doubtlessly moral boosting propaganda but history has shown that there was a lot of truth in it.

Air Raids
On one morning when I went to catch the bus to school there was a crater in the middle of the road at the junction of Henley Road and Anglefield Road. The houses around had broken windows and structural damage but so far as I know, no one was hurt. Time bombs had been dropped all along the road from Reading to Henley. A man I worked with years later told me that when he cycled home to Henley that evening there where craters in the road where there had been none in the morning
The worst attack that Reading sustained happened in daylight when a busy restaurant, the `Peoples Pantry,` opposite the Town Hall (where Marks and Spencers is now) took a direct hit killing dozens of people. I remember the place quite well, it had a large circular well hole in the middle of the first floor and you could look over the rail to see the diners on the floor below.
My grandfather, who lived with my parents and I, was nearby and was hit on the head with shrapnel. Fortunately he had a cap on so was not badly hurt. Strangely the cap was not damaged.
The office that my wife鈥檚 father had worked at in the Town Hall was partly demolished. When he came home on leave he saw a coat of his still hanging on a peg on the one remaining wall and realised that if he had not been in the army he would have been there, and probably killed.
My mother and I were foolishly standing at the front gate during the raid and we saw the enemy aircraft flying very low over nearby houses. It machine-gunned the school I went to in Hemdean Road Caversham and my classroom had broken windows and a bullet hole in the wall. The school is still there and I wonder whether there is any evidence of it today. I could still identify the spot where the wall was damaged. It was a good job it was late afternoon and I and the other school children had gone home
There was only one aircraft involved in the raid; it was thought that it had become detached from its group so the pilot used Reading as a target. It is thought that Hitler did not bomb Reading as a matter of policy, because of the biscuit factory which would be a valuable food source after he had occupied the country.

Gas Masks .
The whole population, I think, was issued with gas masks. Certainly every one I knew was. They were horrible black rubber things that were hot to wear and difficult to breath in. They were kept in square boxes and we children had to take them with us to school. Here is a school photo of me with the strap around my shoulder. ..锟�
Babies and infants were issued with gas masks that looked like Mickey Mouse.

The Black Out
A 鈥淏lack Out鈥� was severely imposed through out the war. No light was to show from windows. 鈥淎ir Raid Wardens鈥� went round at nights and would call to severely warn you of prosecution if there was the slightest chink of light showing. Forty watt bulbs were the norm, sixty maybe in the living rooms. Most houses had black out curtains but we had frames made from wood lathes and lined with heavy brown paper which were put up at the windows each night and held in place with toggles. My granddad made them up and I helped with putting them up each night. It must have made the house very stuffy on hot nights but in the winter there was always a roaring coke fire in the lounge causing awful draughts.
There was usually no other heating in the house; the gas fires in some of the other rooms were very rarely used due to the cost of the gas. The bedrooms were so cold that any water in a glass would freeze and the condensation on the windows sometimes formed ice so thick that you could not even scratch it and draw pictures. It was called 鈥淛ack Frost鈥� and even the first house I lived in after I was married experienced this until I put central heating in. Sometimes the toilet cistern and waste pipes would freeze up.
I was a choirboy at St John the Baptist in Caversham. It was very dark one night so my Dad came to meet me after choir practice. Never have I since experienced such blackness. There must have been heavy cloud cover, no moon and no streetlights of course due to the Black Out. Even with the aid of our cycle lamps we had great difficulty in finding our way home and we only saw one car crawling along with shrouded headlights. Dad went off to night work later that evening and went round Mayfield Drive twice before he could find his way out.
During the Black Out motor vehicle鈥檚 headlights were fitted with covers which allowed only a small cross shape of light to show. A Warden would go round in the evenings and pull similar covers down over the traffic lights.
It was a novelty when the street lights started to come on after the war was over. Children stood around under them reading their comics.

Civil Defence
During the time of the war at risk from air raids local groups of so called 鈥淔ire Watchers鈥� were formed who took it in turns to patrol the streets throughout the nights. My dad took part in it when he was not working the night shift. My grandfather, was considered too old, (although not being as old as I am now, I do not see why) so he organised the rota and carefully wrote it out in his excellent copper plate handwriting. I would accompany him down the road each week to put the new one up on the notice board.
There were also groups called 鈥淎ir Raid Precautions,鈥� ARP for short. These were more formal and organised by the authorities. They wore uniforms and were issued with red buckets, stirrup pumps and the like. They lit fires and practised putting them out. This was great fun for we kids.
In readiness of the possibility of casualties from air raids, manned First Aid posts were established locally. There was one at the back of the garage next to the Travellers Rest in the Henley Rd. Any one with minor injuries could visit them at any time for treatment. My mates and I were regular patients. The Firstaiders were doubtlessly pleased to have something to do. After I had squashed my finger in a railway carriage door I went regularly to have my dressings changed

Air Raid Shelters
Most households were issued with 鈥淎nderson鈥� shelters. These consisted of sheets of heavy corrugated iron, the sidepieces of which were curved and bolted together at the top to form the roof. They measured about 6ft by 4ft and were erected in a hole about 3ft deep with the soil from the hole packed on top of it It was my granddad, I think, that did most of the work to install ours. There was a bunk fixed up in it and I was put to bed in it once or twice, but to excited to sleep very much. After the war most of them were used as garden sheds.
In densely populated areas communal shelters built of one brick thick walls with a concrete slab on the top were erected out in the streets directly on to the tarmac. There were no doors but a screen wall across the opening at one end. They were good places to play in but by the time they where demolished after the war they had been used as toilets and never cleaned out so you could not get near them for the stink.
My school at Hemdean Rd. had 鈥淎nderson鈥� type shelters large enough for two classes of children to get into one of them. We would have regular practices getting into them quickly.
None of these air raid shelters would have been any good in a direct hit but they offered good protection from bomb blast.
Got Any Gum Chum
In the build up to the D day landings a lot of armaments and ammunition were stored, camouflaged, in the woods of the Chiltern Hills to the north of Reading. There were convoys of army lorries driving through the streets of Caversham for weeks prior to and after the invasion.
By this time the Americans were involved in the war so there were plenty of `Yanks` around and whenever a child met one he or she would call out `Got any gum chum` in the hope of a hand out. One day I witnessed a light aircraft landing in a field behind Caversham Cemetery. The pilot went into a house in Chiltern Road for an hour or so before taking off again. I do not know what he was up to, but we kids did get some packets of chewing gum.

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