大象传媒

My father Albert Reginald Larchet was called up in 1941. His was a late call up as he was a married man with a small child (me). He served in the Royal Artillery being posted to various barracks throughout the UK.

In 1943 he read a notice calling on all builders to volunteer for a special project, which would mean a temporary demob from the Army. My Grandfather was a builder in Hounslow and his sons were all apprenticed to trades so that they could join and support the firm. Dad applied for the 鈥淏uilder Volunteers鈥� and was immediately posted to West Hartlepool where my mother Ivy rented a small flat at the top of a Victorian House so that we could all be together for the duration. My father was rather puzzled about the project as he said it was nothing like any building with which he had previously been involved, and really could not see for what purpose it would be used.

When the project was completed early in 1944, he was told to return home to await further orders. We were only too anxious to catch the train home and be with our friends and family again, although by that time the V1 Doodlebugs had arrived.

Eventually, my father was instructed to report to a building company based in London, which was employed on bomb damage, repairing homes that had received minor damage and could be made habitable again. He remained with that building company for the rest of the war and was never officially de-mobbed although he was put on 鈥淶鈥� Reserve.

It was only after D-Day when watching the newsreels at the cinema that he realised what he had been involved with building and his exclamation was 鈥渢hat was what I was building鈥�. It was of course the Mulberry Harbours 鈥� one section of which had been constructed at West Hartlepool.

He was nevertheless very proud that he had, along with thousands of other builders, been involved in a small way in the D-Day landings. As a small rider to that story, my father did receive further call-up papers in the early 1950s鈥� when the Korean War began. By that time he was 46 and really felt very surprised that he was being asked to resume his interrupted army career. He therefore lodged his objections and as a result he was officially demobbed although he never got the demob suit that others before him had received!

Marianne Robbens (Formerly Marianne Wood, nee Larchet)

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