大象传媒

Boys at War 1939

"The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated, till it attains years of discretion."
John Ruskin 1819 - 1900.

The Declaration of War 3rd September 1939
On a bright autumn day, at our onshore Naval Training School, the ships company was drawn up on the Quarter-deck in a hollow square, three sides of which were formed by the seven companies each consisting of about forty-two boys. The fourth side was occupied by the staff, ex-naval service personnel to the right and civilian to the left, with the Captain and Commander and their wives in front, standing together with the Chaplain. We had already completed a shortened Sunday service, so that it would not clash with the announcement by the Prime Minister from 10 Downing Street. As usual the words of the hymns for the service had been lowered from the roof space on a four-sided wooden construction, on which hung many thick white cloth and paper sheets, about three foot square, with printed hymns in large letters arranged to be facing each side of the square, the sheets being turned each day for a different hymn and on this day whether by choice or not, the hymn had been "Fight the good fight" which to all of us boys seemed most appropriate. One or two of our officers were already in full naval uniform having been called up as reservists in 1938 and we knew that most of the rest would be gone within a few days. Prior to the Second World War, Military and Naval Training Schools for boys, of which there were many in Britain, were a convenient method of disposing of orphans, I being one of them, and other unwanted children, were sent to Homes mostly run by Charities and sanctioned by Government. Alternatively, both boys and girls could be sent to Canada or Australia, the boys as working hands, the girls for domestic service. In an earlier century the Navy would trawl the taverns and brothels persuading their male captives to take the "Kings Shilling". At the beginning of the twentieth century many regular recruits came from boys homes and were a very good bargain for the Services, many boys not having family or friends to care or look after them.
There was little surprise at the Prime Minister's announcement of war, as at the school we had been preparing for war for many years and what would follow was for us inevitable and the enemy would be Germany. No doubt in Germany children of the Third Reich, the Hitler Youth, were equally well educated. The next draft of boys for Shotley, the boys entry point for the Royal Navy, situated near Harwich in Suffolk, was due to leave in two days time and many more would willingly follow before the war was ended. I was still fourteen and a half years old and would have to wait for another six months before my turn came but I knew that I too would soon be going early to Shotley to be examined in readiness for service, so that when I finally joined shortly after my fifteenth birthday, there would be no delay and no doubt as to my fitness to serve in the Royal Navy.
The Prime Minister's quiet voice seemed so calm and controlled as he declared war, which of course was to be expected by all present. There was little emotion expressed whatsoever on the Quarter-deck and at the end of the announcement we were called to attention by the Commander and dismissed without explanation which in any case was hardly needed as we were already adequately briefed. When the air-raid warning came a little later in the morning it was just another exercise to follow many others. We already had fire parties, air raid shelters and trenches which we had used many times in the previous two years. We also had armed parties made up of officers, masters and senior boys to contend with parachutists or fifth columnists, although they did not go by that name in 1939, and senior boys were already trained in small arms and bayonet fighting. Thus passed the declaration of war with Germany, which for me was not an outstanding event at the time, but one which of course would determine the rest of my life and the lives of all the boys in the school. We were almost totally isolated from the rest of the population and were therefore spared the debate on the rights and wrongs of this particular war as expressed on the radio or in the newspapers and apart from other boys and some of the staff, there was no-one else to talk to or discuss what was happening. The only retrospective news we had, came from newsreels which were occasionally shown before the main picture on cinema night which was held every other Saturday and in the little time I had left at the school, they consisted mostly of reports from France on the "Phoney war". We were soon to learn of a much different conflict that would inevitably overtake us. My remaining time at school passed very quickly and the staff and boys seemed to realise that as we were now at war, there was no more pretend, no more stories about the last war, all our working time was needed to qualify us in our intended role. Our ex-naval instructors disappeared one by one as they were called to the colours and the senior boys took more and more responsibility for the running of the school. One or two long retired members returned to help out and augment the remaining staff, as they were much too old to return to join the armed services,. Somehow or other the place continued to function with a fresh energy as though all the preceding years had only been the preparation for what was now happening. We were better supplied with up-to-date arms and transport and it was obvious that the powers that be at last realised the value of a ready supply of well-trained and cheap cannon fodder. In due course, early in 1940, I went down to Shotley with the five boys of my draft to pass all the tests and examinations required by the Navy. For each boy accepted by the Royal Navy to serve until they were thirty years old, the Navy paid the training school 拢25. However, just before we were due to join the Navy, the Shotley training establishment HMS Ganges, was moved farther out of the war zone to the Isle of Man, where the Navy took over Cunningham's Holiday Camp, close to Douglas, which became HMS St George, and very quickly adapted it to meet the requirements of a boys Naval Training Establishment.
I completed my short training course in HMS St George and in due course was drafted to Rosyth Naval base to join my first ship, a new battleship, HMS Howe.

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