大象传媒

I can remember vividly that Sunday morning September 3rd 1939. I was 8 years old, listening to Mr Chamberlain on the wireless "We are now at war with Germany" at 11:15. Directly afterwards the air raid sirens sounded and not knowing what to expect we took to the shelter. Dad had dug a slit trench in the back garden as we were not entitled to an Anderson shelter because my Dad earned 拢10 per week! And the liner Athenia was torpedoed. Also that night another warning and the ARP Warden, a Mr Wilson told us to expect gas (a football supporter's rattle would be used to warn of gas). We lost the "Royal Oak" in October at Scapa Flow and the "Admiral Graf Spee" was scuttled at Montevideo (I was interested in all Royal Navy matters). That first Christmas was a bit austere but we still had a turkey and I received a Field Marshall uniform, (Lord Gort was CINC BEF). The 1940 winter was very severe with heavy snowfalls, but the summer was warm. In April Norway was invaded and in the May the Blitzgreig across France. I remember Dunkirk and the start of the Blitz, September 7 1940 when the Luftwaffe set the Dock and East London ablaze. The sky was blood red. The Battle of Britain - the exhaust trails in the sky and then the nightly Blitz.
We finally had a brick air raid shelter built by a local builder, a Mr Greig. It cost 拢35 - Dad got it on the house mortgage. So every night we spent in the shelter AND I still went to school every day. From 1942 I went to the Warren Whalebone Lane walking 3 miles 4 times a day, picking a way through bomb damaged homes.. Remarkably I noticed the wallpapering was a thick as telephone directories!!

Christmas 1940 was austere - we had a rabbit (with the tail left on to prove it was not a cat!!). Christmas night and Boxing night there must have been a truce . We didn't bomb Berlin and they did not bomb us. But they came back with a vengeance on December 29th and burned out the City of London. That wonderful photograph of St Paul's, surrounded by smoke and flame. Each morning I would look to see if tour house was still standing.

May 1941 - I couldn't believe HMS HOOD had been sunk but there was revenge in the sinking of the BISMARK. It was actually shown on the Havana cinema screen BISMARK SUNK - all the people cheered. There were two very bad raids - April 16th "The Wednesday" and April 19th "The Saturday". Russia was invaded and Pearl Harbour in the December. Again it was impossible to believe that HMS PRINCE OF WALES and HMS REPULSE were sunk on December 10th. That day my sister Pauline went for her medical with Mum to join the WRNS. Christmas 1941 probably rabbit again.

1942 - Pauline joined the WRNS. The egg ration was one per month so Dad and I went out and bought a hen and 12 chisck for 拢2.10s (so our three eggs per month were stopped).

It must have been 1943 about March. A flight of Focke Wulfe 190s machine gunned Romford Station, the 7;15 to Liverpool Street and hit the gasworks setting the gasholder on fire (if you approach the gasworks from Crow Lane you can still see the patches rivetted to the side). Romford Brewery was hit by a landmine and Allens garage was burnt out. All us kids knew every aircraft in the sky, German, British, American even Italian. One day a black 4 engined aircraft flew over and I said it was a German "Condor". The adults disagreed - then it came haring back pursued by three "Spits" - I was vindicated.

1944 - A bit quieter to start with, then D Day June 6th. However, June 13th a new weapon hit the railway at Bow Bridge and then Thursday June 15th the first terrible night of the Flying Bombs. I will always remember the flaming exhaust. I thought it was an aircraft being shot down but it was this Vergultangswaffe - Vengeance Weapon. One Saturday I was on my way to post a letter to Pauline at the postbox on the Crow Lane - Jutsams Lane junction. A Flying Bomb was hit by anti aircraft fire and I dived through a hedge by the railway arch. Unbeknown to me there was a row of barbed wire and it tore my favourite cowboy shirt and my back from shoulder to my waist. Returning home I was concerned about my shirt (remember clothes rationing and Utility clothing). Mum was more concerned about my back!! I still have the scar. Often when the warning sounded I would stand on the railway embarkment facing south to warn the neighbours when the bombs approached. When the launching sites were overrun Heinkel 111's would launch them from the North Sea from the east. One night I was rushing up to fetch Mum and she was rushing out and we collided in the garden. I felt terrible as she was so bruised and terrified. Then November 5th and a V2 rocket (which had been described by Churchill as "Gas explosions!!")fell. Nearby french window always burst open with near misses. I was sleeping downstairs near the fireplace when one landed nearby and the french windows blew in and I was covered in soot. The cat raced across my chest and was gone for days. Windows and tiles went, and Mum was saying "come to me" while Dad was saying "stay where you are". I didn't go to school that day!!

1945 - I was a Prefect at school. A gang of us were tending teh Headmaster's roses when a V2 fell north ow Whalebone Lane. We naturally ducked but what amazed me was it was an air burst and pieces floate ddown like charred paper. A very lucky excape - the pieces we picked up were freezing, covered in frost!!. I left school in March 1945. VE Day was May 8th when I was working at Albert Manns Engineering Co. Mum and Dad and I walked in the country near Havering for the day - it was peace at last. The atom bomb was used in August followed by VJ Day - eventually the war was over.

I joined the Royal Navy in May 1947 aged 16 years as boy Seaman 2nd Class. I left the Navy as a Chief Pety Officer in March 1971 -so my long interest in the Royal Navy was fruitful.

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