大象传媒

I have several memories of the war, starting with an incident when I was about 14. I was with my friend Ron Smith cycling along the bank of the Thames, when we turned into Marsh St and a bomb exploded on our right. We looked at each other and said: 鈥淎h shrapnel!鈥� (This was prized as a sort of trophy or collector鈥檚 item amongst us children, the bigger the pieces the better.)

Foolishly we headed straight for the crater, forgetting in our haste that the shrapnel would be scattered further afield. While we were in the crater another bomb exploded approximately 50 yards to our left, exactly where we would have been if we had gone to the correct place to get the shrapnel.
Our 鈥榠gnorance鈥� actually saved our lives!

Shortly afterwards I joined the Army Cadets with the idea of impressing the girls with the uniform. Several months after I also joined the Sea Cadets T/S Anson, thereby giving me a choice of uniform- one for the daytime and one for the evening!
This worked fine until both units had their annual training camp during the same week! I was forced to make the choice and went for the Sea Cadets, much to the amazement of the CO of the Army Cadets, who couldn鈥檛 understand why I was passing up the opportunity to go to camp. I had to then own up, but was not reprimanded too severely.
I think they put it down to youthful enthusiasm!
I joined the Merchant Navy at 16 and went to Wallasey Sea School for one month鈥檚 training.
I joined the MV Jersey Hart at Hull and sailed in convoy to the Mediterranean, picking up cargo and troops at Naples. During the South of France landings I volunteered to take the helm to bring the ship to its anchor point. The AB seaman who should have done this, felt unable. The captain objected, as I was only a junior ordinary seaman (JOS), but I insisted, as it was my watch. In the end he agreed. This was a very proud moment for me.

Later during the same voyage we docked at Syracuse in Sicily and one of our shipmates, Arthur Wells went ashore and was stabbed in the back by a local. When we sailed he was seriously ill in hospital and unfortunately I never heard how he got on. If anyone can tell me, I would love to know.

This story was submitted to the People's Warsite by Mr Wallace Gooch with help from Derek Hewett on behalf of London CSV. The story has been added to the site with the author's permission and he understands the site 's terms and conditions

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