大象传媒

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I was born in Chesham in 1928, At the outbreak of war I remember the fear I had as a boy of the impending comings, and what sticks in my mind vividly is the time of 1938 when it was known as 鈥楾he Crisis鈥� Germany looked as though they were going to go to war. My mother who had six children, I was the youngest but one of that six, her two eldest children were of 鈥榗all up鈥� age. She had seen the carnage of the First World War and had experienced the casualties, her neighbours and friends being widows of the First World War; so I can now appreciate she would have been in fear of this impending war with two sons of her own who were likely to be called up. I remember so vividly coming home one evening to see her sitting in the chair when the news had just come through that the Germans had marched into Danzig. That word Danzig didn鈥檛 mean anything to me at the time, but that was a word that stuck in my mind. As a ten year old boy I didn鈥檛 understand, but I could see the fear and that stayed with me.

Low and behold 1939 came and we were at war.

In September 1939 I was amongst the crowd at the local school when all the evacuees were coming out of London. The Billeting Officer was taking them to the different households who were coming down and choosing them. One said that they wanted a boy, another said they wanted two boys, one said I just want a girl 鈥� this kind of thing and; I suppose it was something like a cattle market selecting your prize ones. It was all very exciting for us children to watch all this going on. Eventually they got housed, and settled in. A lot of them went back to London when the bombing didn鈥檛 start and during the Blitz in 1940 when the bombing started in earnest then there was a big flow of not children but adults, families coming off the train into this little town of Chesham which had a population of only 10,000 at that time. My mother being such a character with compassion she had a big, close knit family and she always felt for the underdog. So she took in anybody who knocked on the door wanting help.

I remember as a boy, one Sunday morning, I came running in 鈥渕other there鈥檚 some people down the road with suitcases and they want digs鈥�. 鈥淭ell them to come in鈥� she said. My brothers had been called up by then and there was room in the house for them.
We took them in, and they were Jewish; there was two sisters and a husband so they had two bedrooms upstairs (we had got our beds downstairs). These Jewish people stayed with us just one week and my mother had to evict them, they had burnt all our saucepans, they took over the house, and when it came to the rent on the Friday, which was ten shillings a week, they failed to be able to pay 鈥� they made some excuse. My mother was the kind of character who would be generous to anyone, but if anyone crossed her and done her down she would be on the warpath.
It was the same again later on; a 鈥榩lausible rogue鈥� he was called when he was hauled up in court. This gentleman came into Chesham on a Sunday morning, and he was in the local public house and he was enquiring for some digs. He said that he had been bombed out in Portsmouth and he had lost his home, lost his little doggie, lost his little lock-up shop and that he was a cobbler. So our next door neighbour said 鈥淥h Mrs Jones, she will take him in鈥�, so he came along on the Sunday afternoon. We had already had our lunch, but mother managed to find something for him. He was a big man and he enjoyed the Sunday lunch that mother gave him. Then he wanted to go and have a sleep on the bed; which he did. He stayed all week. He said that he had been to see the local estate agent who had a little lockup shop that he could have, and that he wanted to buy some leather, so my mother loaned him a pound (which was equivalent to half a man鈥檚 wages in those days). It came to the Friday night he never turned up, then it got to eleven o鈥檆lock 鈥� we never went to bed waiting up for him. Then the penny dropped, he wasn鈥檛 going to come back was he? My mother went to the CID, eventually he was arrested and it was a court case. My mother had to go to court.

There were one or two bombs and we had a dugout built. We, in Chesham, did not suffer any real damage. We were, however, in the flight paths of the bombers that were going to Coventry so every night we heard the sirens go and the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� would go about 4 o鈥檆lock in the morning when they were returning. If they still had any bombs on board, they dropped them on Chesham on their way home, and there was just one fatality in Chesham 鈥� that was in 1941.

My two brothers had been called up in the early months of 1940. As a boy, for me, I imagined it was exciting in a way, but very fearsome in another. I was now twelve years old in 1940, and my brother who was 23 (the younger of my two elder brothers) and within three months he was on the water on his way to Malta. He was there for two years during the Blitz there. At that time, during 1940, we were expecting to be invaded, so there was this fear of invasion in a young lad. I used to read in the papers how to recognise a German parachutist. Opposite where we lived were fields and I used to have nightmares of these German parachutists coming out of the sky, and of the bombers coming over and dropping them in these fields.

In August 1940 my other brother got called up in the Air Force, and he went to Blackpool to train to be a Radio Operator. Being a bit older he didn鈥檛 go abroad, until the invasion of 1944. Then he went to France, Belgium and Germany.

So my two brothers were in the forces and I was still only a young lad.

Our schooling was disrupted due to the batteries having to be accommodated in the schools. Some of the teachers were called up for the armed forces and we had a lot of London teachers took over. Some teachers came out of retirement, we had some strange relief teachers; they seemed strange to us because we were used to a different type of teacher. Some of these teachers from London had a much different image to what we had. I remember going to school one day; there had been a raid on the Sunday night in Coventry and the sirens had gone early in the evening, then you would get the 鈥榓ll clear鈥�. Then when they had done their dirty work in Coventry they would be coming back over the flight path coming over towards Chesham back to their bases. If they had any bombs on board they had to ditch them and there was a string of bombs. I recall that incident, it happened about one o鈥檆lock in the morning and we were up because the sirens had gone and we had the blackout boards up which my brothers had made with black headboards. I heard this bump, bump, bump, bump and this fear, I don鈥檛 know how to explain it 鈥� I had never experienced anything like that. They just dropped a mile away, one was a land mine. My mother was scared, so I suppose she put the fear into us. I was scared; it didn鈥檛 help a lot of course. Next day we went to school, I passed where the bombs had dropped; it was near where the school was. I passed by where there were shrapnel holes in the side of the houses and one house was demolished completely, there was one fatality there 鈥� an elderly lady who had moved out of London to escape the bombs only to be bombed in Chesham. There were a lot of incendiary bombs dropped too. We, as boys, went up into the fields and saw the little craters from these incendiary bombs.
There was another bomb dropped only just a few hundred yards from us in a field which left a big crater. Again all excitement, the young lads went up to this bomb crater and tried to get bits of shrapnel.
Schooling was disrupted in that way as regards teaching. It was voluntary, we could go on the farms and dig up potatoes and for that we got half a crown (12 陆 p) a day. That meant boarding the lorry to go to the farm at 9 o鈥檆lock and having our register marked. We would be out there all day and I found it very, very boring and hard. You watched the clock waiting for 4 o鈥檆lock to come so that they would pick us up to go home. It was a very hot summer in 1942 and I was 13 because the Americans were here only a mile or two from my home in Chesham, it was Boverton airfield. There was no security at the airfield we, as boys, could go up to that airfield and watch them load up the ammunition on to the Flying Fortresses, and it was very interesting for us lads.
In this potato picking field, in the corner 鈥� right by the airfield there was an aircraft 鈥� a Flying Fortress that was being maintained by the Americans. We also worked with the Land Army girls, there was a bit of fraternising going on with the Americans, it was something new to us.

In October 1942 we had news that my brother from Malta was coming home. We waited all day for him; I remember so well because I was the one who opened the front door for him. It was about nine o鈥檆lock at night and he stood there on the doorstep with his kitbag and he was very, very thin. That was due to being starved in Malta during the siege. We used to write to him and my other brother every week; I can now, at the age of 75, still recall their service serial numbers, because I had written them down so many times on letters to them. My eldest brother who was later in France, Belgium and Germany 鈥� after the invasion; he went in July 1944. The Tactical Air Force was following up; he passed away just two years ago. I surprised him when I told him (we were in conversation talking about the war) that I remembered his Service Number. At the end of the war I got called up and did my National Service of two years, three months. As any serviceman will tell you, you never forget your Service Number. It sticks with you for the rest of your days, anyone who says that he has forgotten his number was never in the Services.

During the bombing of this country, as I said, Chesham was in the flight path of the bombers. I recall coming home from school in 1941, at 4 o鈥檆lock on a lovely, sunny afternoon the sirens went when I was on my way home. In those days there was no traffic about, there was very little activity, and the streets seemed to be deserted. Everybody had gone under cover. To see these very, very small glistening dots in the sky and them going over Chesham that high, they were only just small dots. They were going to bomb Luton where the Vauxhall Works were situated. There were dog fights over Chesham and over Dunstable. Reports came in that there was a Spitfire shot down near Dunstable Downs. I managed to get home from school only to find that my mother had got the blackout boards up which (they were to save the windows shattering the glass) and we all got under the table until the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� went. I remember that she couldn鈥檛 get up from under the table. I went out into the road after the raid and there was some pit holes in the tarmac and Mum said they were where the bullets from the dog fight came down.
On that particular day there was a school that caught a direct hit near Long Marston, near Tring 鈥� fortunately all the children had gone home and there were no casualties. This school was right opposite a public house that still stands there today, but where the school was there are now houses.

We had had the American Air Force here since 1942 courted and eventually married one. She was one of the first GI brides and she went to America in 1945. We were used to Americans who were very smartly dressed, very polite and then in 1944 leading up to the invasion we had the American infantry in Chesham. They were a different kettle of fish, they were a rough and tumble lot, different types all together. Again we gave them hospitality, we had them in our homes in the evening and in the afternoons, it was a lovely atmosphere and they always talked about the pending dangers they had to face up to in the next week. It was sad when they were confined to camp a week before they had to go. Their camps were up in the woods, not far from Chesham and the surrounding areas, then the invasion came and they were all deserted.

My younger sister, who was now seventeen, went out with a lieutenant just for a couple of months and she got a letter back that he had been wounded and he later died. He was in action at Saint Lo and her letters were returned marked 鈥榙eceased鈥�.

When the invasion came in 1944 I was sixteen years old and I was working in a munitions factory, I started at fourteen, making the gun sights. I recall the armada of planes going over on that day, and also in September when they went into Arnham with the gliders being towed by the Dakotas across my town of Chesham. It was a sight that I shall never forget; the sky was full of them, just one long continuous drone, and wave after wave.

In 1944 there came the buzz bombs, doodlebugs, they were all meant for London, but if the Germans loaded them up with too much fuel or if the wind was in the right direction they overshot London and went on to Chesham. One afternoon the siren went and I saw this bomb floating over our rooftops, we watched it, it went out into the country and the engine cut out. It came down; we all clambered on to our bicycles and went out into the field to find where it had dropped. It had got right by a country house, it had done no damage.

During the war we had many different regiments pass through the town and there was convoy after convoy. They would stop and chat with us; they would say to you 鈥済ot any sisters?鈥� They were hungry and I recall going home and looking in my mother鈥檚 larder, there was no one in at the time, so I had free range of the larder. I picked up a tin of fish and took it to them. They would be in the town for quite a few hours, then the despatch riders would come along with the orders and they would then get on the move again. This was seen, as a youth, many times.

Then the end of the war came and I remember coming home from the cinema, it was the night before it was officially announced 鈥� May 8th 1945. It was all over and coming up from the cinema in the evening, it was a lovely feeling. People were saying 鈥渋t鈥檚 all over, it鈥檚 all over鈥� and then I went to work the next day only to find that it was a public holiday. I turned around and came home and we put the flags out. It was jubilation in the small town, we lit bonfires, it was a lovely feeling. But of course there was no beer; they had run out of beer in the local pubs. So it was a pub crawl to find who had got beer, because at that time I was nearly seventeen so I could go in pubs and drink beer for the first time.

First to be demobbed was my eldest brother, it turned out that the older ones were demobbed first. My brother, who had been to Malta, was demobbed in January 1946. During his time in England he had met a WAF, married her and brought up a family of four boys. My other brother never did get married.

In 1945, before the end of the Japanese war, my sister went to America as a GI bride. We all went to London to see her off. She never came home again until 1948 when the Berlin airlift was in operation and Americans were back here in England. My brother in law was in Ruislip, it was a different era, but here we were all together again. They were times when disrupted families, we were only one of thousands, who were disrupted and we had this lovely time and some sad times. I had other elatives in the war; my cousin who was 20 years old had been in the Navy and lost his life at sea. But it was an experience we should never need to go through again.

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