大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Suffolk Action Desk on behalf of John Anderson and has been added to the site with her permission. John fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When war was declared I was a schoolboy. We were well prepared with a sand-bagged strongpoint within our house, part of which was built in 1295. I think we used it as an air raid shelter three times before deciding it would be more comfortable to be killed in our bed!

Orford was a bit of a hot-spot as the air forces of the combatants used the Ness as a navigation point, the light-house being particularly useful. R.O.C. 鈥楬2鈥� post located at the Watch House on the quay plotted almost 5000 hostiles throughout the duration including the only serious Italian raid on 11th November 1940 which got marked by the Hurribuses out of Mortlesham and a CRA2 Falco fighter crash landed on the beach. No contest 鈥� they were 70 mph slower that Hurricanes and though their main armaments was 7.7 mm they had far les! (Ammo made by SMI 1938)

1939 may have been the 鈥榩honey war鈥� era to some 鈥� not for us. There were raid warnings virtually every day (to a total of about 1300) and the war offshore was literally booming with Jerry attacking the slow-moving inshore convoys with bombs and magnetic mines.

Our most frequent foreign visitor was The Dormer 17 Flying pencil. There exists a popular myth that Jerry got pointed on immediately he crossed the coast incoming. The fact is that the backroom boys were often over-occupied elsewhere and couldn鈥檛 respond quickly. I remember rabbiting on St. John鈥檚 Chapel field in 1940 when a 鈥�17鈥� circled slowly for some time, presumably photographing the airfield on The Ness and eventually departed unsaluted, low and slow.

In one week in November 1939 eighteen ships were sunk off Orford and at the Harwich approaches including a big Japanese (Terakum Maru) neutral of nearly 12000 tons and I picked up many celluloid dolls in various states of amputation and paraplegia, also gold-painted, and name-embossed pencils. Eventually 27 ships masts could be seen from Orford. The beach was heavily tarred with oil. You could have driven a motorcycle along the river beach years afterwards.

I don鈥檛 think the authorities reckoned Orford was worthy of a proper air-raid siren of the 鈥榤oaning minnie鈥� variety; we had compressed air hooter at friends garage fed from the compressor which gave short blasts for danger and a continuous one for the 鈥榗lear鈥�

One fine morning George Brinkley, the Assistant Harbour Master and I (as Cabin Boy) were fishing long-lines near Shingle Street. It was noisy offshore and eventually 鈥榮hrieky鈥� blew, which shows it was effective, if late: We eventually got an electric siren and they vied with one another!

After Dunkirk things got very jumpy they mined the river (Jerry had dropped one or two in it as well) and put posts and wire on the marshes. Soldiers erected canvas and pole blockhouses on the river bank and dug 6鈥� deep trenches. Some intercepted me when I was wildfowling suggesting I might be a spy. I was well-armed. Their most dangerous weapons were pick matlocks 鈥� very few weapons came back from Dunkirk and our school smellies and Levis gun got requisitioned, leaving us with 44 Winchester 73鈥檚.

Our luck finally ran out on 22nd October 1942 when a low flying Dormer on a Baedeker raid killed 13 in the village.

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