大象传媒

These chapters summarize two interviews with George Bailey, with his daughter Margaret Lole and his son-in-law Bryan Lole present. This chapter continues the story of bomb disposal in London and what happened between the end of the bitz and D-Day.
(Bryan) He was in London for the whole of the Battle of Britain, and he actually qualified for the Battle of Britain medal. He's got four medals.
(Margaret) What about when you were in France?
(George) There's a lot of stories, apart from France.
Going back to Launceston, we were there fourteen weeks hard training. We didn't know as there was another company, but there was four companies. This house, there was an old lady living in it, and I don't know where her sons were, or family were, but she wouldn't leave the camp, so the officers wouldn't shift her.
Most of them ... We were lucky, had a nice dry spot, got a bell tent. Then after this training was done, we woke up one morning with a great big van in the camping ground, and it was everybody stand with yer back to camp. We stood by the side of the camp, and he told us to get ready, put your kit up, just a few minutes notice. But we fold the kits and everything else and stood there waiting. There was over four hundred men, I think. The van was taking us to the railway station from the camping ground.
We were proper chuffed, we were, because our company had won it. They did some things in such a state, took you a day or two to put your brains to work. And then they took us to a place called Porthcawl, South Wales. We was to be on the sea front. We had about four weeks, they put us on for a length of time - you couldn't say that we were going for fourteen weeks ... they would say "Get yer kit together", they'd move.
From then on, London, the nerves had gone. We'd had all them weeks doing it in London, and you'd find a man sitting on the floor, crying, and they were making woollen things to try and keep them steady, anything to keep yer alright.
(Margaret) Keep your nerves right.
(George) There was one night ... by the way, we was in private houses, took over by the state, but there was one particular night that we did think something that we shouldn't oughter a' done.
The sergeant major told us, whatever you do, you don't prop anything against a wall, because all the walls were just shiny with covered paint, and he said it would slip. And he drilled it into us, yet in this particular night, we put this rifle on its stand, leaning against the wall, and one crew come and dropped a few heavy bombs, and this rifle slid down the wall and hit a chap named Bennet, hit him bang on the head.
We couldn't stop him from screaming, he kept on screaming "Bomb." There weren't no bomb. Well there was, but it wouldn't go off.
When we first started on the bombs, they were two-hundred-and-fifty pounders. That's two hundred and fifty pounds in weight. The Germans soon found out that we'd found that out, so they sent a different one, a five-hundred pounder, and it went on like that till we got to the Duke of Sutherland, a thousand pound bomb.
The Duke of Sutherland and his ... this used to go on down the side with him, and he'd sit there talking and she'd be writing it down for him ... his secretary. And how he knew about that, he'd reached this thousand pound bomb, and that was the one he was after Saint Paul's Church for.
It didn't hit the cathedral.
(Jim) This was back in London, not in Porthcawl?
(George) No. We'd gone back into London.
There were thousand pound bombs, and the Duke of Sutherland and his secretary was ...
What we didn't know, there was four lorries with him, and two of them lorries was two of our drivers from my company. That's how we found out about the bombs going off, 'cause they went off and killed the Duke of Sutherland and the secretary, ... and the two drivers they were in hospital for a long time. I think, twelve months.
Well, we used to nip in and ask "How are they?"
As we went by the hospital, we'd shout to the gateman, "Heard anything about so-and-so and so-and-so?" It was the information.
And Jock, the one from Manchester, he was ... his brain was dull. He'd sit there, and you'd talk to him a bit, but they wouldn't let you stay that long at all because they'd got too many casualties.
There was part of the stories ... you don't realise until yer telling them, kind a thing.
I mean there was one or two at Willesden, that was when they first brought the chain ... the double chain ... two bombs chained together.
The Germans brought them over in their bombers. Just released them like they'd release a ... and they were just fastened by a chain. And that was a wicked way, that was, a big comparison to all the others,
'Cause when we put the chain down on the hook, to hook the bomb up, the bomb kept on sliding lower down. It were that slushy, solid to hold it. So all we done was, got a chain and hung it on one of the bombs, then they were all connected.
The bomb with the chain on for the hook, we hooked it on the back of the lorry, and when everybody was out of the way, the lorry driver had a signal to go. He dragged the chain and the bombs onto the top of the ground, and I don't know what happened, but for some reason or other, he come without the bombs, left them on the top of the ground, and they come flying up the street, and as soon as he reached the top of the street, the bombs went off.
It blowed about twenty houses or more. Blowed the houses down.
(Jim) So the bombs were attached to the back of the lorry and they were then dragged down the street?
(George) Yeh, dragged over the coals. He'd taken it so fast, he kept on going down, we were fed up with it ...
(Margaret) ... and they kept sinking. Sinking in the mud ...
(George) Yeh.
(Ronnie) So were the bombs taken somewhere to exploded, or did you do it on site?
(George) When they first started, that was what they did, put them in the lorry ... till they found out it was too dangerous. What it was, it wasn't giving anyone a chance, to get out a' it.
But the comicalist part about it was, they were waiting for these two fellers as was going to hook this chain on, and the rest of the lads had gone down the street to a cafe for a cup of tea. You could get a cup of tea for a penny. We'd just got to the cafe when the two went up, they blew all the glass windows out of the cafe.
(Jim) It could have been a lot worse. It could have been one of the twenty houses that were flattened.
(George) Our biggest problem was what the Germans were up to.
Because we'd got no information to say that they were going to drop heavier bombs, see the bombs got heavier, and the bigger they were ... the heavier they were ... the more trouble they were.
I mean, we went down to Willesden. We went down there and when we got down there, the main street ... there was a big hole you could put a double-decker bus. And what they'd sent for us for, was to put a Bailey Bridge in the big hole in Willesden.
(Jim) What's a Bailey Bridge? What is it?
(George) It's one of those you can put together like a kiddie ...
(Margaret and Bryan) ... like macram茅 ... or meccano.
(George) We couldn't get the lorryloads of dirt and stone, and do the gas pipes and the electric pipe, everything ... so, it were a rush job, kind a' thing.
But that was the sort of thing that was going on. We'd think as we was finished, "Oh, we're finished now, we can go down to the Acton pub", and we'd get just about near it ...
"You're wanted at once, you're the next feller in." We knew what was going to happen, we were on a rush job.
Taking the whole on the whole, I should say that my company and me, we were lucky.

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