大象传媒

For the first part of this story please go to: Rehearsals for War - A2233982

鈥溾�︹�︹�his morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government an official Note stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o鈥檆lock, that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.鈥濃�︹�︹��

BEAUX AIRES Map Reference 820601

So, rehearsals were now over and we were at war. This news was received on 3rd September 1939, by our Searchlight detachment in the field at Beaux Aires (on the perimeter of Detling Airfield), where we had been since the small hours of Friday 25th August 1939. [See 鈥淩ehearsals for War鈥漖

Nobody knew what to expect on that first day, but the day was spent in checking once again that all the equipment was functioning properly, was clean and ready for action. My own job, apart from guards and other jobs around the site, was to see that the generator was ready. At Beaux Aires this was a four cylinder Lister diesel generator, rather than a searchlight lorry.

Also, although there was no enemy activity, the usual drill was followed in running the engine (the same applied if it was a generator lorry) for 10 minutes every hour during the night so that it would be warm and start immediately when required. There would thus be power whenever needed for the searchlight to engage hostile aircraft.

Things had improved considerably since the Munich Crisis in that the sites were complete in terms of equipment, but also we were accommodated in a wooden hut just large enough for a detachment of 10 men, rather than the barn at Key Street during the Munich Crisis (See 鈥淩ehearsals for War鈥�). The 鈥渂eds鈥� were three wooden planks with supports quite close to the floor with straw filled palliases as bedding. In the centre of the hut was a cylindrical coke burning stove for heating. This had a removable round lid at the top for refilling with coke and a hinged flap at the bottom for removing the ashes, lighting it, etc.

We naturally followed our training for night operations and had a sentry posted who also acted as an 鈥渁ir sentry鈥�. His job was to call the rest of the detachment out if he saw or heard any air activity. In the early morning of 5 September 1939, he proved to be superfluous when everybody was wakened by AA guns firing. Being unused to this sort of thing and seeing and hearing no aircraft activity, everybody dived for cover while we thought this through. (Slit trenches had already been dug). The only danger we were in though was from our own shrapnel.

Some time shortly after hostilities commenced, we received 鈥楻ules of Engagement鈥�. I remember one, which was to the effect that aircraft were not to be fired on unless they committed a hostile act. The displaying of the German cross on an aircraft would be a hostile act!

For most people in the country, other than mobilisation if in the pre war volunteer or the reserve forces, or joining the civilian bodies they were in pre war or waiting for call up into the militia, things were little different from before 3rd September. In the case of the forces the training and build up of material continued. We know now that we were in the period which would come to be known as the 鈥淧honey War.鈥� However, had this description been known then, it would not have seemed a phoney war by any means to a number of people even on that first day. The sinking of the SS Athenia on 3rd September by the U-boat U30 being a case in point. There were others, a couple of which, one personal, will be mentioned later.

Nevertheless, it is true that none of the intense air activity which had been anticipated at this time developed. Other than training periods there was no night activity as far as we were concerned. The maintenance of the site and equipment, with training, could mainly take place in the mornings. This allowed half the detachment to have approx. 3 hours leave on alternate days, except when there were alerts. There were a few occasions when we had 24 hour leaves enabling us to go to Gravesend 鈥� all of our detachment came from Gravesend. On the short leaves Maidstone was not far away so we were able to go there. Just prior to the war, I had bought a new Royal Enfield motor-cycle and after a week or two (23rd September 1939), on one of the 24 hour leaves I rode it back to the site. This meant that two of us 鈥� myself and somebody else on the pillion seat 鈥� could have longer in Maidstone on these short leaves.

Checking my diary for the period, we very quickly found that the girls in the shops when we spent our time off in Maidstone were attracted by our uniforms. Some of the time there was spent in having hot baths in the public baths.. On 6th September, after the bath, two of us went into a caf茅 where I thought one of the waitresses was very nice. Ernie (Cpl O鈥機onnor) who was my companion, said that she seemed to like me 鈥� quite a morale booster. The following day I went again into Maidstone, this time with Ron Ashby. 鈥淲e did some shopping and got on fine with all the girls in the shops鈥�. Herbert鈥檚 Caf茅 and Phyllis and Woolworths and Jean occur fairly frequently in my diary at that time.

Altogether, with lack of action and fairly frequent short leaves, this period as far as we were concerned, earned its subsequent title of the 鈥淧honey War鈥�. However, Beaux Aires was on a perimeter of Detling airfield and it was not unusual to see the obsolete Avro Ansons returning to the airfield with signs of damage. Not a phoney war for the aircrew!

Toward the end of the Beaux Aires posting the weather was showing signs of the winter to come. The nights were cold so one of the additional duties of the air sentry was to revive the coke stove if it had been a quiet night, as it usually was, before the rest of the detachment got up to face the day.

[The winter of 1939/1940 had the coldest January since 1895 and eventually the second coldest of the century. The River Thames froze over for the first time since 1880. (Met Office)]

At some stage during this posting, the Lister stationary diesel generator had been replaced with a generator lorry. Before this the fuel for the diesel had been supplied and kept in two gallon petrol cans. Naturally, the petrol for the lorry was also kept in two gallon petrol cans. The method adopted by the air sentries each morning to revive the coke stove was to remove the lid and pour a little diesel oil onto the fire, which worked quite well. Came the inevitable day when the air sentry got the cans of fuel muddled up and poured petrol on instead. The resultant flash and bang as we woke hurriedly convinced the detachment that we had been bombed with a near miss. Fortunately no harm was done other than a severely shaken detachment and an air sentry who for the rest of the day had a very red face and burning ears not caused by burns. His knowledge of Anglo-Saxon English also probably increased considerably!

ELY (CAMBRIDGESHIRE)

On 12th November 1939, I was posted to Ely, Cambridgeshire for a Course on radio telephony. This was with 345 AA Coy. at Wicken, nr Ely. It was anticipated that communications between sites and their HQ鈥檚 would be by radio telephony. Why I was picked for this Course I don鈥檛 know. One evening I went to a concert. The drummer was from Billy Cotton鈥檚 band and he was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers.

I returned to Coy HQ at Gillingham on the 19th and went on 5 days leave on 20th. At the end of the leave I returned to Gillingham before being posted to a new site.

DEANS HILL Map Reference TQ866601

This posting lasted just a week but was notable for having barrack beds. It was more remote than Beaux Aires

MARSHALLS FARM SECTION HQ Map Reference TQ858563

On the 4th December 1939 I was once again posted, this time to Marshalls Farm. This was the Section HQ of the Deans Hill and other sites. I went round all the sites in this Section so that I would know where they were, since I was the driver for the Section. The generator lorry was a Guy. My time was taken up in taking stores to the various sites.

On 12th December 1939 I was moved once more to Coy HQ at Gillingham for an indefinite period. This turned out to be for three weeks.

KEMSLEY SECTION HQ Map Reference 908661

On 2nd January 1940 I was transferred to the Section HQ at Kemsley Village, near Sittingbourne. Kemsley was a village, I believe, owned by the Bowater Paper Corporation and housing its employees. The searchlight site was just to the south of where the village houses started, at approx. map reference TQ908661. This was a former football pitch/sports ground for the village. I was posted in my normal capacity of driver although on this site I was also the 鈥淣o9鈥� ie. in charge of the generator. On this site the generator was a searchlight generator lorry (designed and built for the purpose). It would have been either a Guy, Thornycroft or Tilling Stevens petrol electric S/L generator lorry.

A diary entry for this day reads 鈥淎ll the equipment is in a disgusting state and will take us quite a time to clean. Quite a lot of the equipment on the lorry is missing.鈥� Again, from the diary, I had a short leave (2-3 hours) and went to Sittingbourne on 3rd January. However on 4th I was on duty all day checking the equipment for the lorry and starting to clean it. 鈥� 鈥淎m afraid it is going to take quite a time鈥�. On 5th January, everybody was involved in tidying the site.. From these entries it is almost certainly the day I took a fatigue party in the generator lorry to the nearby Bowaters Paper Mill.

This was towards the north-east of our site on another perimeter of the houses. Our site was extremely muddy and it had been arranged for us to collect cinders and ashes from the paper mill, in order to make paths between various parts of the site.

We duly arrived at Bowaters and made our way to the far end. There we found a very large heap of ashes etc. We did not think about it at the time, but clearly it would have been near the power house.

We began to shovel the ashes into the back of the lorry. Before long, we became aware of the noise of aircraft engines approaching. Almost as soon as we had noticed this, the noise changed to the unmistakeable sound of dive bombers. We realised that they were Stuka Ju87鈥檚 and that the paper mill was the target. We naturally scattered and dived in various directions for cover. I, with one of my companions, dived under the lorry. Amidst all the noise, I heard a heavy thud on the floor of the lorry above our heads. The attack probably did not last long but seemed to be going on for some time. The power house just beside us had been damaged. When the raid was over, and I climbed into the back of the lorry, the reason for the thud was obvious. It was caused by a large (about 18鈥� x 36鈥�) sheet of steel machine shop flooring torn by an explosion and must have been blown up through the roof of the power house. It was in the shape of an isosceles triangle. One corner was buried in the floor of the lorry. It was fortunate that the floor on these vehicles was designed to take a very heavy load.

Phoney war?? This was no phoney war. It was real. Not only was it real, but it had just got personal.

I had recently taken to smoking a pipe and had this alight when the raid started. My companion in this adventure afterwards swore that I and my pipe resembled a steam locomotive at speed while all this was going on. Certainly the pipe had marks from my teeth on the stem until it was lost in Burma later on in the war.

For the next part of this story please go to Adventures on a Searchlight Site Gillingham 1940 - A5540960.

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