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Wartime Reminiscences

Margaret Bennett

鈥淲ould you like to tell us about your fathers work in the war鈥�
My father, the late Sam Judd. was in the Home Guard during the Second World War. He was in the platoon belonging to the Shipyard. He was a Corporal and there was another platoon belonging to the Red and White Bus Company. They used to be sent out on manoeuvres against each other. I remember my father telling me one story where they went out on manoeuvres one evening. My father and another man in his platoon were given the machine gun, no ammunition of course, and they had to try and find the Red and White platoon. They had a fair idea where they might be. I鈥檓 not sure if it was a fine day but they found themselves a nice ditch. They climbed in and waited and sure enough after a time- troop, troop, troop, along came the men of the Red and White platoon headed by an officer. They waited until the Red and White platoon was opposite and then they stood up and said 鈥淩at-a tat-a-tat you鈥檙e wiped out鈥�. The Officer in charge was most put out. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 say you wiped us out my man, I鈥檇 say you surprised us鈥�. That was one of the stories he told.

He used to amuse me because when 鈥淒ad鈥檚 Army鈥� was on in the 1970鈥檚 he would watch this and he found it quite funny that we know about things like that and he would tell me these stories.

They used to go across the fields at Mounton practising night time crawling being unobserved. He used to come along at the back and walk where no-one could see him and said 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to crawl through any cow pats鈥�. He came home one evening very gleeful saying one of the sergeants had sat in an ants nest.

Another story he told, was it Bill Hyatt or Bert Hyatt, I鈥檓 not sure but he was with somebody. The two of them had been sent out to do something. They were on the railway line and were walking back towards the station when the tubular bridge was still there. The one who was ahead of the other got his rifle and poked the other one in the back for a bit of fun and the one in the front held his arms up. While they were walking back to the station like this a train passed. When they got to the station there was great excitement because the train driver had stopped and reported he had seen a member of the Home Guard escorting a German Prisoner of War with his hands up. 鈥淗ad they seen anything?鈥� 鈥淣o, they said, they hadn鈥檛 seen anything, it must have been a mistake鈥�.

Those really are the main stories I wanted to tell you.

My father used to come back from platoon meetings sometimes very annoyed. He had gone from the shipyard to the meeting only to have to listen to the officer complaining to the ones present about those who were absent. He was annoyed because he had made the effort to attend.

鈥淐an you tell us about Mr Judd鈥檚 daytime work in the Shipyard?鈥�
He was a plater in the Shipyard. I don鈥檛 really know what they were making there quite truthfully. There used to be barges and I remember ships going from there as well and landing craft.

鈥淒id he have to work more than one shift? Do you remember him having to work extra long hours?鈥�
I can鈥檛 remember I鈥檓 afraid.

鈥淲hat about your life at school?鈥�
I remember the evacuees coming. Another teacher came with them as well and I rather think we shared the school. 鈥淭hat was at Monmouth?鈥� No, that was at Chepstow. I went to Monmouth School for Girls right at the end of the war and that was when my mother died. I can remember the evacuees being in the classroom in the Church School.

鈥淗ow did you notice rationing and blackout鈥�
Blackout I remember particularly. I was asleep in bed when I was a small child and the Air Raid Warden came around and hammered on our front door. He woke me up and I started to cry. My father was very annoyed and went to the door saying 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the matter鈥�. 鈥淵ou have a light showing鈥�. So father said 鈥淲here?鈥� The Air Raid Warden took him outside and bent down and pointed up under the window at a crack. My father said 鈥淎re they coming around in submarines?鈥� He got fined.

I can remember in school Mrs Riggs the teacher sticking paper across all the windows of the school. I also remember the gas masks. We had to carry our gas masks and ration cards. We were very, very short of sweets and only one little piece of chocolate.

鈥淒id you notice how people were disappearing off to do war work or, as people were in the Shipyard did you find that most of them were still at home?鈥�
Most of them were still at home.

I can remember the German Prisoners of War being here repairing the path in the wood, they did a lot of work on that. They used to make wooden toys. I remember having one of the wooden chickens pecking around a ball, lots of us had those at Christmas. The prisoners used to be able to walk around the town quite freely. I remember seeing them at a fair once.

I remember, but this is nothing to do with Chepstow, staying with an Aunt in Cardiff and going into the shelter at the bottom of the garden and being really frightened in case it was bombed.

鈥淲ere you aware when the bombs dropped on Chepstow?鈥�
I was looking out of the window one day and a plane flew across the other side of the Wye across the Beachley peninsula and I said 鈥淥oh Is it a German, will they drop a bomb?鈥� My father said 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of ours鈥�. As he spoke it dropped a bomb. I do remember that! 鈥淒o you think that鈥檚 the one that killed the apprentice at Beachley? I don鈥檛 know, it seemed to be not as far up the river as Beachley.

鈥淒id you notice planes going over towards Bristol?鈥�
Oh yes I remember planes coming back from raids and seeing the gaps and seeing Bristol burning from Chepstow.

鈥淲ere you aware of the different sorts of troops stationed in Chepstow temporarily?鈥�
I remember the railway station platform at the end of Caird street, the one used for the Racecourse and seeing the soldiers marching away from there and going into town or wherever they were going. I remember the Americans briefly being here. Got any gum chum!

鈥淒id you ever get taken out from your infants school to pick blackberries or that sort of thing?鈥�
I remember the exultations to go out to pick things like rose hips to make rose hip syrup and 鈥淒igging for victory鈥�.

鈥淒id you have allotments?鈥�
Yes we did.

I remember queuing for oranges and bananas, long, long queues.

鈥淒id you have friends who let you have eggs and things or were you tied to the ration book?鈥�
Father had friends who sort of put things on the door step, mushrooms and that sort of thing.

鈥淵our mother was too ill to do things?鈥�
No, it was very sudden when she died. She used to sell National Savings stamps, that鈥檚 right she was in charge of that.

鈥淲hat about other members of the family?鈥�
I had an uncle who was a Captain in the Yorks and Lancs Regiment serving out in India and the husband of a cousin who was at Arnhem.

鈥淐an you remember any particular events which happened in Chepstow during the war period which stand out as memorable?鈥�
I think we used to go under the stairs if the Air Raid Siren sounded.

鈥淚 believe you were nearly evacuated?鈥�
My father had a sister who was married and lived in New York. She and her husband wanted me to go across and stay with them for the duration of the war. My father and mother thought very hard about it but they decided against it. It was fortunate for me as I would have sailed on the City of Benares which was sunk and lots of children were lost.

鈥淲hat about Civil Defence precautions?鈥�
Oh we had to have our gas masks with us and I was absolutely terrified of being gassed. I seem to remember they were going to have a practice session where we would have to put our gas masks on. I really remember that. It really frightened me, they smelt so horrible. I can鈥檛 remember if we really put them on that day. We practised it at school, or somewhere. We had these brown cardboard boxes strung around our necks and we were supposed to take them with us everywhere.

鈥淗ow did you feel once the war was all over?鈥�
Once the war was over we kept waiting for things to get better. We kept saying, 鈥淲hy isn鈥檛 it getting better. Why can鈥檛 we have things like sweets and fruit and there are no materials for clothes and aren鈥檛 things going to be nicer. It took such a long, long, time, everything was so dreary, I remember that. I went to University in 1952 and we still had some food rationing then. That really struck me as a long grinding dreary period after the end of the war.

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