大象传媒

Aged 11 in September 1939

School shelters

In September 1939 I was just about to start at Wolverhampton Grammar School but had an extra two weeks at home while air-raid shelters were built on the edge of the school playing fields.

Three engined plane

At school I joined the Air Training Corps (ATC) and part of the tuition was Aircraft Recognition.
One Sunday afternoon I was outside our house when I saw a low flying aircraft. It had three engines and none of our aircraft that I had learned to spot had three engines.
I told my father that a German plane had just gone over. He understandably thought I hadn鈥檛 had enough experience and was mistaken and told me so. (Not quite as politely as that) A few minutes later there was a loud thud. A bomb had dropped somewhere near what we called the Barnhurst in Oxley Moor road. I was probably a bit smug.

Navigation and Communication Exercises

With the ATC we used to go out on our bicycles with Ordnance Survey maps to get to a designated point and return to school. A group of 5 was a bomber and fighters hunted in pairs. Bombers had tickets in their caps and had to surrender them according to a formula depending on the number of fighters if they were found. Losing more than three tickets the bomber was shot down but the fighter was damaged. Further encounters meant some fighters were destroyed also. Communication was by the use of telephone boxes and the bombers and fighters had different contact numbers. One crafty boy rang the number he guessed was the enemy contact, and then left the receiver off. In those days that meant that the receiving number was out of action until the call box receiver was replaced. Consequently the enemy had no further communication. A brilliant idea but the police and the telephone people were called in to find the call box to put the receiver back. The boy was congratulated for his ingenuity but warned not to do it again.

Mid-Air Collision

I used to climb the Wrekin from time to time. One day, the sky, as usual, had plenty of trainer aircraft such as Tiger Moths, Airspeed Oxfords and Avro Ansons flying around. Suddenly a Spitfire appeared and crashed into an Avro Anson. The Anson floated gently to the ground and caught fire on impact and I could see parachutes descending but the Spitfire spun out of control and crashed into the ground. The Spitfire may have been in trouble before it hit the Anson. I had a good view of this unfortunate accident.

Narrow Escape

About five of us (ATC) went to Perton aerodrome supposedly to fly in five Ansons to Wheaton Aston aerodrome for training. I was in the last one taking off and suddenly someone was standing on the runway waving boisterously. The American pilot aborted and was told that the wing fabric was torn. The pilot said to his co-pilot
鈥淭his crate is US.鈥� I was puzzled by the expression 鈥淯S鈥� but learned that as well as meaning United States it also meant Un-Serviceable.

Walking wounded

In June 1944, shortly after the Normandy landings, some walking wounded arrived at Tettenhall railway station (near Henwood Road now part of Valley Park) and my father and many other motorists who had some petrol, ferried the soldiers to the Royal Hospital in town.

And the Bird

When Coventry was blitzed my wife鈥檚 uncle, aunt and their two daughters lost almost everything. They walked to Wolverhampton along the railway line and appeared on the doorstep with a few belongings, including their bird in a cage. Accommodation was arranged with family members in Wolverhampton.

Move to Safety

During the war my wife was not an official evacuee but went to live on a farm in Shropshire for safety. Shortly afterwards incendiary bombs dropped on the Longmynd close to the farm.

Yoghurt

Later she worked at Midland Counties Dairy in the laboratory. She used to produce yoghurt for the Dutch soldiers鈥� hospital nearby. Yoghurt was almost unknown in the UK at this time but normal diet for the Dutch.

Ice Cream

Later still, Midland counties started to produce Ice Cream and each employee was allowed one per week!

[This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wolverhampton Libraries on behalf of Robin & Sheila Mynett and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions]

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