大象传媒

My father, Ken Hockey, was born in Bristol on 16th July 1921 and died in Bristol on 7th May 2005. After his death I found an audio tape on which he talked about his life, and part of which related to his war time memories. I have transcribed this part of the tape as best I can and uploaded it to the People's War site in memory of him. This is his story.

When the war started, I was about 18 years old, living in a house in Upper Belgrave Road in Bristol right on Clifton Downs. From the back of the house we had a marvellous view over Bristol and I well remember the first bombing of the City. This was just a few bombs that were dropped over on the other side of the city in Brislington. I remember at that time thinking how on earth could a civilized country just come along and drop bombs on a city that at that time was untouched - the bombs were just unloaded onto the City.

A few months later I can well remember looking out of the window and seeing flares coming down out of the sky. They were the flares that were dropped before the big blitz on the City. It was a Sunday night and a lot of people were at Church. The bombing finished about 10pm and my father said 鈥淪hall we walk out and see what鈥檚 happened鈥�, because you could see the fires burning in the centre of Bristol. We had a very good view across the city from where we were. We walked down through the streets that we had known in peacetime, and we gradually saw this terrible desolation 鈥� it is something that will remain with me for the rest of my life. The first house we saw burning was opposite Bristol Grammar School, and as we went on down into the city centre it was obvious that because the fire service had so many fires to deal with, many were just being left alone. We saw the lovely old Dutch House blazing away, and houses down at Bristol Bridge had smoke coming from under the doors. There was no one there to deal with them as the fire service was busy in Broadmead. We stood on Bristol Bridge and saw the fires burning along Castle Street, and looking down Victoria Street from Bristol Bridge it would have been impossible to have walked down there because of the fires that were burning on both sides. I remember walking with my father up Park Street and looking across the city from Brandon Hill and seeing the timber yards on the docks blazing away. Park Street was just a torrent of water because a bomb had been dropped at the top of Park Street which had burst a water main, and the water was washing down the street, and washing all the stones down with it. The following morning, because of the water supply problems, tanks were left at various points so that people could go and fetch their own water.

There were many other blitzes on Bristol later on. One that I remember was when the Bristol Aeroplane Company had been blitzed and there had been a direct hit on a shelter there - I think several hundred people were killed. The planes came back a few days later and the sirens went in the morning. I was then in Whiteladies Road, and, although I should have gone for shelter, I didn鈥檛 as I was fire watching. I remember looking up and seeing a squadron of RAF fighters in the sky flying in perfect formation. Then, in a flash it seemed, across from the direction of Bath I could see a swarm of German planes coming. The squadron of RAF fighters I had been watching dived down into them, broke them up and drove them back towards Bath and back to the coast. We did hear later on that they were also driven back by fighters that were waiting for them on the coast. Of course, at that time there was a lot of propaganda and you didn鈥檛 know whether everything you heard was true or not.

There were barrage balloons all around the city at the time, and I well remember the night of a thunderstorm when so many of these balloons were struck by lightning. They all caught fire 鈥� we thought they were enemy planes being shot down at first!
When they came down they bought all their wires with them which caused quite a lot of damage. I think there were two on the Downs. There was one at the top of Bridge Valley Road, and it鈥檚 possible still if you hunt around to find the shackle that held down this barrage balloon.

I remember I had to go up to Yorkshire on a Good Friday to see a friend up there and I left Temple Meads Station with a blitz going on. When I returned many more places had been destroyed including the Princes Theatre in Park Row and a great number of other buildings in the city.

The blitzes were mainly confined to the centre of Bristol, and looking out from our house in Upper Belgrave Road, we used to hear first of all the sirens, then the drone of the aircraft coming in. We could then see the lights of the fires in the centre of Bristol, and I felt that once the fires had started in Bristol then you weren鈥檛 so likely to be bombed just slightly further out. However, this wasn鈥檛 always the case. By this time we had taken our beds and were sleeping in the basement of our house. It was quite a comfortable basement and, although below ground level at the front, we were above it at the back and were still able to look out across the city. I was fire watching and used to go up and down the stairs making sure everything was alright. I remember one night hearing a string of bombs whistling down, which were getting slowly closer. I was looking at them coming across from Clifton and the last one, fortunately, landed just at the bottom of Blackboy Hill, in fact, I found out later, right in the road at the end of Redland Park. This blew out the windows of the shops nearby and left splinters on the houses. This was one of the nearest bombs to us apart from those which dropped on the Downs. That night there was also an incendiary attack. We were illuminated by incendiary bombs all over the Downs and looking out from the window everything was lit up - it was quite a sight. Of course, by this time the Downs had been covered with pyramids of stone at least across towards the plateau on the Sea Walls. These were there to prevent enemy aircraft landing and they remained there up until the end of the war.

There was a battery of guns in what we know as the dumps by Worrall Road, and when they went off that really shook the house as well. Well known in Bristol at the time was the gun (or battery of guns) on Purdown which was nicknamed Purdown Percy which was also very noisy when fired.

When the mains water supply burst and we had no water for fighting the fires auxiliary pipes were run all the way up the Gulley from the river to a big static tank at the top of Blackboy Hill in one of the dumps that was concreted over. The pipes were run down the gutters of Whiteladies Road into the city to provide water for fire fighting.

I myself was called up, in July of 1941, into the RAF going in as a flight mechanic and then progressing on to fitter. I started at RAF Locking for training and then went to RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire. When I was there the Wellington bombers were loaded with bombs to bomb the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which were travelling up the English Channel. Although these planes were not really suitable for that type of work, they were sent out to try and bomb, or at least stop, these 2 warships from getting out into the Atlantic. That was towards the end of 1941. Later on I was working on Miles Masters and we were very busy. I well remember that during that summer we were putting planes in the air for 11 hours at a time, to train pilots. Afterwards I was sent up to a station to work on Mosquitoes and whilst there I went on a number of test flights, some of which really quite hairy!

I then went into the marine section of the RAF where I was on long range rescue craft, for a time involved in going over to the Far East on air-sea rescue work. My time on these duties were spent at RAF Mount Batten (Plymouth) and also at RAF Calshot (Southampton Water). There was one incident at Calshott that I particularly remember. Myself and two others decided to take a dinghy out from one of the boats to see a flying boat which was moored up in Southampton Water. It was about the 20th December, and it was late in the evening and dark when we set of in this little dinghy. We were, at that time, living on the long range rescue craft (110 ft converted motor torpedo boats used by the RAF for rescue work). We were in high spirits and were rocking the boat. Eventually the water came up over the sides of the boat and the boat just went down and we were left in the water. I remember standing up and letting the water come up and thinking 鈥� I don鈥檛 stand a chance here鈥�. We were in a fairly strong tide and one of the other chaps was shouting for help and I thought he was a gonner, but fortunately the outboard motor came off and the boat came back up again 鈥� I don鈥檛 think it would have done with the outboard motor on. I was able to cling to the outside to start with and eventually the other chap managed to struggle on to the other side which, fortunately for me, was a good thing because the boat was turning over and over and I was clinging on with my fingernails to the planks on the bottom of the boat. When the other chap came up he just happened to come up on the other side of the boat and this stopped the boat from turning over although it was, of course, still upturned. Fortunately someone from one of the other boats sent a signal down to the harbour and they sent out a dinghy and picked us up. We were in the water for about half an hour and I must admit I thought my time had come then. We were very glad to get home for Christmas. That wasn鈥檛 long before I was demobbed.

We went up to Greenwich for Victory Day. There were two Sunderland flying boats also at Greenwich, and our boat and one other were up there representing the RAF Air/Sea Rescue Service for the victory celebrations in 1945.

(From an audio tape made by Ken Hockey and transcribed by his son Philip)

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