大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War site on behalf of Mr. Alfred Edward Hobbs by Jenny Ford and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

"At the age of 16, I left school and took up employment in the Retail Trade under an apprentice scheme for three years. The year being 1937, and as the year passed into 1938, war was in the air and we were urged to join or learn about the Air Raid Precautions. I then joined the ARP as a boy messenger(cycle)and carried on with my job.

War being delcared in 1939 I was seconded to the local Town Hall for ARP duties as most of the civilian population did at that time, until I was called up to the Army in 1941. I went into training with the Royal Artillery, AA, and passed out for active service approximately September 1941. Active service as seen on anti aircraft gun site was a varied one. The German raids were many and their targets spread, so our locations were all over the country: Southampton, Bristol, Kent area, Windsor, South London and the Orkney Islands.

Service in the Orkney Isles were rather bleak at times but essential for the defence of the islands and Scapa Flow.

When the Battle of Britain was won many units were sent for re-training and I re-trained for the Field Artillery. From there I was seconded to West Africa Defence Force, Gold Coast and Nigeria. Our main job was to demob the native troops returning home from the Japanese war. I served nine months and then I was next back to England with the rank of Sergeant to be demobbed at Guildford and from there returned to civilian life."

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