大象传媒

This is Part 4 of 5 of Mr. Imm鈥檚 War Memories submitted by Stafford Library on his behalf.

Before the war started public air raid shelters had been constructed in areas considered to be vulnerable from attack by enemy aircraft. Shelters of all kinds were built in public places and factories. Basements in shops and offices were strengthened and fitted out for emergency use. In the big cities and towns heavy prefabricated corrugated steel Anderson shelters were issued to householders to set up in their gardens. However, it was not until 1942 that Anderson shelters became available for general distribution in Stafford. I applied for one but was told that the soil conditions at the Rickerscote end of Silkmore Lane were not suitable for its installation. The reason given was that the lack of natural drainage on the marly soil would lead to the flooding of a shelter. My interest in geology came to the rescue. The soil in the garden at No. 75 Silkmore Lane was very stony and sandy, unlike the heavy marly conditions a little further along towards Rickerscote.

Shortly after moving into No. 75 I had dug a deep hole to find out just what the soil profile was like. I found that the garden laid on a bank of alternating sand and gravel about 6 feet deep above the bedrock of heavy marl. I was able to make a sketch to support a further request for a shelter. It showed a section through the sand and gravel bank falling away to the River Penk washlands some 20 feet below the level of the garden. I was able to show that floods over the washlands, even at their maximum depth stand quite a few feet below the proposed floor level at which the shelter was to be set. This demonstrated that a shelter could be set up on a site with excellent natural drainage. There was no further argument we got our shelter. It was sunk into the ground at the recommended depth, covered with a thick layer of earth and turf and remained perfectly dry throughout its life at No. 75 Silkmore Lane. Later on when our children were toddlers I was able to provide a regular supply of fine clean sand dug up from the garden for their sand pit. When I was able to obtain a copy of the local geological map after the war my survey was confirmed. The site at No. 75, now renumbered 169, is in fact a localised post glacial deposit from a melt water overflow channel.

Standard issue bunk beds soon followed the installation of the shelter. These were erected on a brick floor complete with drain that I had laid. An old coconut mat was spread on the floor and required only an occasional airing to make sure that it did not get damp. I was bale to fashion a door made from a flattened 5 gallon oil drum and steps down from the level of the law were built with old bricks. The bricks for the floor and steps were those which I had salvaged from a pile left over when the old outside loo at my pre-war digs in Rickerscote had been demolished. Twelve volt lighting was eventually laid on via a transformer connected to the mains voltage lighting circuit in the garage. There was a hurricane lamp and candles for emergency lighting. A small Valor paraffin stove was installed for heating. The inside walls were covered with a mixture of paint and sand to provide a condensation proof finish. By the time that a few emergency supplies had been installed the shelter was quite cosy. Fortunately there was only one occasion when Mary thought that it was prudent to take the children down into the shelter. It was during an air raid alert one night when I had to go out on Fire Service Duty. Although there was a larger than usual number of enemy aircraft flying over the town that night they were, as was often the case, on their way further north and luckily for us there was no raid on Stafford.

After the war the question arose as to what was to be done with the redundant shelter which occupied a large patch of the back lawn. The problem was solved when one of my colleagues at the office asked if he might have it to erect in his back garden to be used as a shed in which he could keep his motor bike. He recruited a gang of his pals to help with the excavation and in no time the back lawn was back to proper use as a play area for the children.

What appeared to have been the only deliberately planned air raid on Stafford was when bombs were dropped on the English Works by a day time lone raider. More details of that incident are given in Chapter 6. Bombs were also dropped in fields near to the north end of the town by enemy bombers who had not been able to find their designated target. Five bombs landed in a field in an open space at Doxey one night but no damage was done. There appeared to be no particular reason for the incident. It might have been that it was a wide miss of an intended attack on the Universal Grinding Wheel factory which was about a mile away.

16 MU, the RAF Maintenance Unit was opened in Stafford a short while before the war. It was in full operation soon after the war started and was staffed by RAF personnel including hundreds of WAAFs. Local churches made 16 MU members of the forces welcome at their services. Many of the regular members of the congregation invited the men and women from 16 MU into their homes. Our friend John Jervis and his mother had open house at No. 19 Silkmore Lane, often full to overflowing. Mary and I made friends with quite a few of the WAAFs who were regular visitors to No. 19 and we invited them to visit us at our home. They came, often with new friends, to get away from the routines and atmosphere of service life, to enjoy a chat, to have a cup of home made tea and perhaps take a bath. The WAAFs were all well trained in scrounging tea from the RAF canteen to bring with them. They made sure that our tea ration was not depleted because of their visits.

Sports clubs up and down the country suspended their activities and formal fixture lists for the duration of the war. However, a few club members who were not serving with the armed forces were able to keep their sport alive, just about. With the help of a few of the former Stafford Ladies hockey team a very limited programme of hockey games was arranged, with the support of English Electric. A group made up of myself, a couple of other English Electric employees, a few apprentices and one or two older players joined with the ladies to make up a team. Home matches were played on the Stafford Cricket and Hockey Club ground at The Hough, which during the war was maintained by English Electric. Away fixtures outside Stafford were very limited due to transport problems. A few games were played on the Universal Works sports ground at Doxey. Occasionally enough players were available to make up two teams for a home game.

I recall one away game of hockey at Hixon where we played an RAF team. It was played on a strip of long grass alongside the runway. Throughout the game Wellington bombers were making practice take off and landing runs. I cycled to Hixon, but how the other members of the team got there I cannot remember, there was only a very limited bus service past Hixon. We were transported from the changing accommodation out to the pitch in the RAF bus which normally carried aircrews out to their planes.

During the war Knighton, not far out of Stafford, was the centre of the Dutch resistance movement in England. Queen Wilhelmina had her headquarters in the locality. One weekend our hockey team was invited to play games in a tournament that had been arranged by Royal Dutch Airforce personnel. I cannot recall how we all got out to Knighton, it must have been by the local bus service. The games were played on a pitch near to the runway of the airfield. To us it seemed that the whole of the Dutch Air Force made up the big crowd of supporters who watched the games. How many games we played I cannot recall, however what turned out to be the climax of the day鈥檚 events was the final game between our Stafford team and what I believe was the senior team of Dutch airmen. I was the captain of the Stafford side and received a very warm welcome from the Dutch captain. Who won? I do not know, I cannot remember, but it was certainly a very memorable day for the Stafford side.

Apart from the occasional game of hockey I did not have time for the pursuance of pastimes and hobbies during the war. There was overtime at work, sometimes well into the night time hours, Fire Service duties, looking after the garden and the chickens and many other essential chores. My stamp collection, which I had built up since my schooldays, was being neglected. I had also realised that with my colour blindness it was not possible to be as particular as I would wish when picking out the subtle colour differences and variations which were often so important in identifying some of the specialities. When talking stamps with a colleague at the office I let it slip that my interest in the hobby was on the wane. He was a very keen philatelist and offered to buy my complete collection. I suggested a price of 拢5 to which he readily agreed. With hindsight I am not sure that I did the right thing. I had built up a very good collection of Canadian stamps which included a set of an early Province of Canada issue in mint condition. The Canadian stamps alone would have formed the basis of a really worthwhile specialised collection.

Like all other commodities which were not considered to be essential for civilian use during the war, films for the amateur photographer soon became unobtainable. I did have a film during 1941 and was able to take a few snapshots of Angela as a baby. One set of snaps of Angela with Mary鈥檚 parents shows our front room windows with their war time diamond d茅cor. For other family pictures to send to my parents at Ashford we had to go to the local professional photographer.

It was not until after the war was over that a mains sewer was laid in Silkmore Lane. Each house had its own septic tank with a soakaway sunk into the garden. The tank at No. 75 worked without giving any trouble until about early 1945. It was then that I noticed back pounding in the outside loo and the rain from the kitchen sink. As an emergency measure I completely emptied the concrete settling tank which was built in the ground at the side of the back lawn about 25 feet from the back of the house. Fortunately the vegetable patch had been cleared of its crop and was available for the spreading of the sludge. My emergency treatment was not very effective and it was not long before back pounding problems re-appeared. I decided that a more drastic treatment was necessary to get the system working properly again. Because of the back pounding I was able to trace the run of pipes from the settling tank up to the soakaway half way up the vegetable patch. There was no doubt in my mind that the soakaway was clogged up. Of course it would be midweek when raw sewage began to overflow onto the drive at the side of the house. There was only one thing to do, I had to dig it out, clean it and relay it. It was necessary for me to take a day off from work to do the job. My suspicion was well founded. The heavy clinker which formed the soakaway was completed filled in with hardened sludge. As a back up to the stirrup pump which had been issued to householders for emergency use in the event of a fire caused during an air raid, Mr. Blackburn had given me an ex Post Office mobile 15 gallon fire fighting tank fitted with a hand pump. With the pump a good pressure of water could be built up through the jet. After extracting all of the clinker from the soakaway, I was able to hose it clean. The next job was to rod through the pipe line running from the septic tank down to the soakaway. Again Blackie came to the rescue. I was able to borrow his chimney sweeping rods. I deepened the soakaway hole and used an old hair mattress as a foundation for the cleaned clinker. A hard day鈥檚 work paid off, there were not more problems from the septic tank. Needless to say I had to make up the working time that I had lost by taking a day off to the do the job.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.