����ý

This story was submitted to the people war Website by a volunteer from Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life on behalf of William and Rosa Chadwick.

WILLIAM AND ROSA CHADWICK

When war broke out in 1939 I was living with my parents and aunt in Eltham, London, but I was sent to another aunt in Epsom from September to Christmas. I came home because all was quiet — it was the period of the ‘phoney war’. I was 9 years old.

There was no school, however, because most children had been evacuated. The handful left were taught by a supply teacher at one another’s houses. Eventually I went back to school in Eltham were I stayed until the blitz. The bombing of London started in September 1940 when the Germans carpet bombed all the industries on the river.

My dad was in a reserved occupation as a maintenance engineer at Siemans. One day my dad’s factory was flattened. There was a direct hit on a shelter where most of the women machine operators were hiding.

I came across a man, who worked with my father, being stretchered into his house. I asked him for news and he said ‘the are all dead in Siemans. No one got out.’ I ran home to mother to break the news and after the first shock had subsided we went into her bedroom to my father’s side of the bed and knelt down and prayed with out hands on his pillow.

3 hours later a very dirty, dishevelled being came through the door wanting a cup of tea. We were so relieved my dad was safe that my mum burst into tears and I put the kettle on. He sat in his armchair and fell asleep — he never did drink his tea!

During this time had to spend every night, for a number of weeks, in an Anderson air raid shelter at the bottom of our garden. It was very narrow and damp and a tight squeeze for 4 people. During the blitz my mum gave me the job of “watching” the radio! We had a magic eye tuner on our radio which had a green iris and blank centre. When the Germans started to mass over the Channel, the ����ý would flatten the radio signal causing the magic eye to produce a big gap in the iris. That was my signal, after telling mother, to go outside and after the sirens had sounded their warning I listened for the unsynchronised drone of the first German aircraft approaching. I then told my mother, picked up the bag of family heirlooms and papers and proceeded to the Anderson shelter where my mum would join me to wait for my dad.

My dad would not come to the shelter until he had finished his dinner which my mother had left simmering in a covered saucepan. He said ‘no Jerry is going to chase me from my table until I’ve eaten my dinner’! He cut it fine once or twice when he suddenly appeared in the shelter head first when things got too ‘busy’ outside.

Following this my mum and I were evacuated to Potterne in Wiltshire where we stayed for over a year.

I won a scholarship in 1941 to a central school in Melksham so we moved there. Unfortunately we were billeted with a childless couple and the wife was terminally ill so I had to be quiet all the time — not easy for an 11 year old! We decided to return to Eltham in 1942 where I went to Eltham Hill Girls’ School! This was one of the sixteen different schools I attended during the war years.

I went to 16 different schools during the war years.

In 1942 I was 12 while at Eltham Hill Girls’ School. We had just had our school dinner and were outside in the playground when 6 aircraft started circling our heads. The pilots were waving to the children but unfortunately these were German aircraft and we all scattered and they flew away. Two minutes later we heard a loud bang and a big cloud of smoke appeared on the skyline over at Catford. We found out afterwards that the Germans had bombed another school used by the Auxiliary Fire Service and Heavy Rescue vehicles which were painted battleship grey. The Germans took these to be legitimate targets and dropped bombs on the school killing hundreds of children. Ever since then a local paper has placed an obituary column naming all the children in detail on the anniversary of the incident.

In 1943 after a spell at Haimo Road School where I was a milk monitor, I was attending yet another school, Earldham Square School. After school dinner one wet day I was standing half under shelter in the playground when a lady asked me why I wasn’t wearing my big coat. I told her that my mother was repairing it and that I only had one coat. She said she had a nice overcoat which she would be pleased to give me if my mother agreed. My mother wrote her a letter thanking her and I was duly presented with a fire blue Melton overcoat which she said had belonged to her son Francis who was in the Army and who would no longer be needing it. I wore the coat with pride and never got to thank her son personally, the famous comedian Frankie Howerd!

In 1944 I won a scholarship to the Woolwich Polytechnic but within 2 months we suffered the attacks of the flying bombs (V1s). At Eltham we were in the direct firing line between France and London and often I counted several VIs I the sky at one time.

Another famous son of Eltham was Bob Hope. After a while we renamed “doodlebug alley” “Bob Hope alley” because it you heard one coming and the engine shut off you quickly had to ‘Bob’ down and ‘Hope’ for the best!!

At the height of the VI onslaught we started getting the V2s which blew up on the ground and you heard coming with a sonic bang. It was decided once more by my parents that I should be evacuated and I went with other children to Euston where we boarded a train for the North. After several hours we arrived at a place called Mexborough and I asked a man walking along the railway line where we were going and he called back what sounded to me like “Jubilee”. I thought that’s nice, we were going to have some street parties but it turned out to be Dewsbury, Yorks!! We spent the night in the village hall and the next day were paraded in cars around the locality looking for people to take us in. Another lad and I were the last 2 left in a big car (because at 14 we were the oldest). We were taken in by a reluctant couple who made our lives miserable. After a couple of moths I was able to return home and I was so relieved.

The end of the war saw me join the ATC (Air Training Corps) and I spent VE night I my uniform with friends at the West End celebrations.

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