大象传媒

An Exciting Childhood 鈥擯art 1

I was five when the war began and eleven when it finished. In writing this memoir of my childhood in Chester, I have tried to remove all hindsight and present memories as I recall them, concentrating on the early war years. This may mean events are related out of order and so I have inserted occasional hindsight dates to give it some structure.

I cannot remember 鈥渢he day war broke out鈥�, to use Rob Wilton鈥檚 catchphrase, but I knew it was impending and that my parents and other adults were very worried about the 鈥渃risis鈥� . My mother had joined the ATS, and regularly went off to drills at the Army HQ in the Castle. We were issued with gas masks around this time, some children had the coloured Mickey Mouse type, but I think I began with a standard one. You kept it in a cardboard box on a string over your shoulder and took it to school, which I started about that time too. This box also contained rather nasty tasting milk tablets which we were supposed to suck when we were in the school air raid shelters, to which we went when the air raid sirens went off. We had drills to practise wearing our gas masks, the eyepieces fogged up a lot. After some months we were all issued with a green coloured additional filter, which was taped to the front of the main black filter. My sister, (born January 1940) began with a large khaki bag with a cellophane window and air bellows, in which she was wholly enclosed. We were also given Identity Cards with Identity Numbers; I can still remember mine. The tops of pillar boxes and special boards erected by the roads were painted with a greenish paint which was supposed to change colour when poison gas came. After a few years this paint aged or got mouldy and we children used to point to the different colour and rush about shouting 鈥淕as!鈥� to frighten the younger ones.

Things began to change firstly when an air raid warning siren was erected on some empty ground at the end of our road. Workmen then started to build a set of wooden army huts there and a detachment of Royal Engineers took over an empty house opposite [probably late1939]. One day a Canadian RE sergeant went along the road seeking places to billet soldiers. He asked people if they had any preferences for the type of soldier they would like and my mother promptly said 鈥淵ou!鈥�. His name was Eddie and he stayed with us in our small bedroom for some months and visited occasionally thereafter. After he went we had another soldier called Harold who was a bandsman in the Cheshire Regiment. Harold brought his rifle home with him which fascinated me. One day I went into his room while he was out and found a hand grenade, which I dismantled. At one point the spring released the detonator pin which shot out through the bottom of the grenade and hit me in the stomach, giving me a big fright. Fortunately it was unarmed.
When the huts at the end of the road were complete, they were used to house new recruits, who did their basic square bashing in our road. Each week a new squad would begin drilling at the bottom of the road and they would progress up the road weekly. We children of the area, learned the drill within weeks and would fall in behind the newer squads and do all the drills so much better than the recruits, to their embarrassment (their drill corporals regularly drew comparisons between our slickness and their clumsiness) and the amusement of everyone else.
Then they took down all the signposts [May 40], explaining this would confuse enemy parachutists. This even stretched to boarding over the 鈥楥hester鈥� in the words 鈥楥hester Northgate Brewery鈥� cut into the side of a prominent building. Many people found this difficult to understand, as 鈥渢he efficient Germans would have good maps, wouldn鈥檛 they?鈥� I remember my mother chatting to a neighbour about what they would do if a German paratrooper came to the door and being appalled when this woman said she would say 鈥淐ome inside and have cup of tea, dear, you must be tired!鈥� About this time, the Local Defence Volunteers was formed of men who for various reasons (eg age, fitness) could not join the armed services. They were poorly equipped to start with, and their only designation was an armband lettered LDV, which was immediately translated as 鈥淟ook, Duck and Vanish!鈥� Soon they were renamed the Home Guard and began to get proper weapons. My grandfather, who was in his sixties and very deaf, joined and proved to be first-class marksman, never flinching at the sound of gunfire, because he never heard it!
Then there was the great collection of iron railings from parks and big houses 鈥渢o use for weapons鈥�. Later on we had Warship Week [1942], Salute the Soldier Week [1944] and an RAF equivalent [1943]. There were parades, speeches and charts showing how much money was being collected as we were exhorted to buy Savings Stamps and Certificates for the purchase of weapons.
Besides Eddie and Harold, my parents had a lot of friends who were in uniform, and our living room was frequently crowded with them. One ATS girl was universally known as 鈥淏usty鈥� for prominent reasons, and I clearly remember my mother鈥檚 careful explanation why, when I asked! The town soon became an armed camp and there were many soldiers and airmen from overseas - Canadians, Australians, Dutchmen, Czechs, lots of Poles and one New Zealander in his 鈥渟cout hat鈥�. W e children learned all the marks of rank, allied flags and many of the regimental badges. We also saw the pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary, who included many women, looking very smart in their well-cut, dark-blue uniforms. Later in the war, the Americans arrived [1942] and I also saw Italian POWs working in the fields.
My father had a reserved occupation, but became a Special Constable and so he too put on uniform regularly. One perk of this was that he was often required on duty at Chester City鈥檚 football ground. He used to take me along when I was old enough. The Football League was reorganised into regional divisions and besides big name northern teams coming to play lowly Chester, teams could sometimes include locally based stars serving in the forces, so I saw Tommy Lawton, Stanley Matthews and others.
Mr W, who was older than my father (born 1900), lived two doors down, and had had a clerical job. He was unfit for the Services, but was directed to work in the nearby aircraft factory at Broughton. Towards the end of the war, he had to give this up as he became ill with lung trouble, caused by the 鈥榙ope鈥� used to paint the aircraft. I thought this was a terrible shame as he was a nice old man, who used to let me read his vast collection of bound Victorian 鈥淏oys鈥� Own Papers鈥�.
THE LAND WARS
We began with a Daily Mail Map of Europe stuck up in the kitchen with small national flags on pins to mark the positions of the various armies, but this was taken down after a while 鈥� probably after Dunkirk [June 40], which was a low point for our family. This map was enough to get me interested in geography however, and I closely followed the newspaper maps of the campaigns in Russia and North Africa. Malta, Sidi Barrani, Mersah Matruh, Tobruk and Benghazi were familiar names before El Alamein [Oct 42].
THE WAR AT SEA
Chester is near Merseyside and we occasionally visited Liverpool, so I was vaguely aware of the convoys, and as rationing intensified, that they were important. Otherwise you only occasionally saw sailors (RN in uniform 鈥攊t was lucky to touch their collars) and MN in civilians, but wearing a small lapel badge. U-boats were always being spoken of as an unfair weapon, and their crews as cruel. The RN College, Dartmouth, was evacuated to Chester [1941], and you occasionally saw the cadets sailing and rowing on the river; sometimes a group of 30 or so would appear at the public baths, plunge in naked (shocking the natives) to swim one length. The sinking of the 鈥淕raf Spee鈥� [Dec 39] was great news but was counteracted by the loss of the 鈥淩oyal Oak鈥� [Oct39]. I initially confused this ship with the similar sounding 鈥淎rk Royal鈥�, which the Germans kept claiming they had sunk; when it eventually went down it was depressing news [Nov 41]. The sinking of the 鈥淗ood鈥�, the 鈥榤ost powerful ship in the world鈥� was a great shock [May 41]. I could remember being taken to see the battleship 鈥淧rince of Wales鈥� launched in Birkenhead [May 1939] so it was a particular shock when she went down [Dec1941].
THE WAR IN THE AIR
Airfields and aircraft factories surrounded Chester and there always seemed to be aircraft in the air. The teenage boys next door, joined the RAF as soon as they could, and one used to bring home engine and weapons manuals and aviation magazines (some American) which I would pore over with growing understanding as time passed. I know I could explain how a rotary aircraft engine worked which I can鈥檛 now! Air raid warnings became more common, and we started by sheltering under the stairs, but we soon became blas茅 and my parents didn鈥檛 always bring my sister and I downstairs unless bombs were visibly falling in the Chester area. All windows were covered in sticky material to prevent glass flying from nearby explosions. First it was criss-crossed paper tape but later we were issued with some close woven but largely transparent material, which covered the whole window. We had a stirrup pump to put out incendiary bombs. We also had blackout curtains in many of the rooms, and in the first few years, restrictions on lights at night were very strict. At some point towards the end of the war however, our elders became less concerned and let us children play great games outside in the dark (for there were no streetlights) with torches. Batteries were hard to obtain and there was much bartering. Once my parents got me up to look at a raid on the city some two miles away 鈥� it was spectacular with explosions, tracer, searchlights and a lot of noise. Next day going into town, you could see several craters neatly in a line across the racecourse. The rumour was that the Germans had mistaken the Dee for the Mersey and thought they were bombing Liverpool! There was one prolonged attack of several nights, but then only the occasional 鈥榯ip-and-run鈥�. Anderson shelters went up in some back gardens, but we never got one. Later on we got a Morrison shelter which sat in the 鈥淔ront Room鈥�, but apart from one practice at sleeping in it, it mainly served as a good table top for my war games with model and home made ships, aircraft and army units. Most of my friends (including many of the girls) were very keen on the RAF, especially Spitfires and Hurricanes, and could recognise different types of aircraft鈥� there seemed to plenty of recognition charts about. Once we went out to a nearby field were a German plane had crashed. It was still smouldering and was guarded by a policeman. Nonetheless, we got some bits as souvenirs; someone gave us part of the Pilot鈥檚 鈥渋ron rations鈥� which consisted of some very hard and bitter chocolate, which was unpleasant to eat. My father was ex-RFC and my parents followed the fortunes of the Aces. We had a framed autographed caricature of one, a local man called James S, who was a friend of my father鈥檚. Once we saw an RAF bomber crashing quite nearby and all the children rushed to see the wreck. This was burning strongly and had set surrounding trees on fire. The AFS were there and we were kept well back. The rumour was that the aircrew had not bailed out and a Roman Catholic girl said in horror 鈥淒o you think the fire burnt their souls?鈥� Being a benighted CofE, I honestly thought she meant the soles of their flying boots, and said, 鈥淵es, I don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e fireproof鈥� which led to a cross-purpose theological argument. In those days, you would hear (CofE) children say, 鈥淎re you a Catholic or a Christian?鈥� and anti-Catholic prejudice was remarkably strong.
We often saw large articulated vehicles, christened 鈥淨ueen Marys鈥� which ferried large aircraft parts about the roads, sometimes blocking them.
The Dam-Buster Raid [May 43] was an event of great joy to us children. We were not allowed to use any bad language at all and even reprimanded for saying 鈥淗ell鈥� and 鈥淒amn鈥�. Thus not only was the raid a spectacular and popular rare 鈥榳in鈥� over the Germans, but it allowed us to say regularly and with emphasis 鈥淒amn Buster!鈥� to the resigned smiles of the grown-ups.

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