大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of John Florida and has been added to the site with his permission.John Florida fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Army Camps

I was working with a man who worked for the Italian State Railways before the war, and one morning he didn鈥檛 turn up. And we found that he had been taken into an Internment Camp, and he was such a nice chap! he was quite useful in the Office. But Mr Churchill got very worried about a fifth column, you鈥檝e probably heard about that. And of course because he had worked for the Italian State Railways, and then Italy joined the war on Hitler鈥檚 side. They took him in, just in case. He wasn鈥檛 Italian, poor chap, he was British! He had worked for them you see, and he鈥檇 had a good job with them, you know. And then of course when the war came, he came and joined us, he had to have a job like everyone else. And then suddenly he disappeared, and we all found out that he鈥檇 been interned. I don鈥檛 suppose there was anything wrong with him, but because he had worked for the Italian State Railways that was it.

Stationed in this area, were the London Scottish, and they had Pipers and a Pipe Band. And around this area and Pwllmeyric, it was nothing of a morning to see them marching with their Pipe Band. Which you can imagine being a Welsh, well Welsh English area if you like, to have a Scottish Highland Band, with the men marching in their Kilts! There were easily two or three Bagpipes, it was quite good. And a lot of the Officers were, well they had a sort of Headquarters in Pwllmeyric House.

Home Life

Sometimes these bombers would come over and I remember one night, I was coming back from Chepstow, you walked in those days. I was up by High Beech, and this plane came over. You know that in those days, how can I put it, the Germans bombed the Oil Wells at Avonmouth, but an odd plane would come over here, loaded with bombs, and let them go. Now it could be one of two things, they were either frightened or they had trouble. But there were bombs dropped over here. I remember one, I was under the wall at High Beech, you know, as he came over. He was dropping the stick of bombs, and one of them hit an oak tree, just over the side. In those days the bombs contained all manner of things. I can see now the fire going along the branches of the tree.

The War Agricultural Committee, all practical farmers, would come along and persuade people with spare land to grow food. At one time we were loosing more ships than we were building, and stocks of imported food were very low. There was no difficulty in finding buyers for the food produced and very often people would call at the house. I think what was very popular was things like lettuces tomatoes grown in the greenhouse, and cabbage and you know different things, broccoli and so forth.

Black outs yes, oh dear. In Pwllmeyric, there was a Mr Kitson, he was the Warden. In the early days, it was called Air Raid Precautions, ARP, and then it became Civil Defence. Well he had to come round and make sure that there was no light showing in your house. Of course some of them well they didn鈥檛 realise they were showing a light. So suddenly someone would knock on the door 鈥淧ut that light out鈥�! 鈥淵ou鈥檒l have to do this鈥�, and he would come round and tell you 鈥測ou鈥檝e got to cover that up鈥� you know.

Well the trouble with evacuees was they came usually from urban areas, and they didn鈥檛 like the country, and after a while they would get restless. Oh of course the evacuee system was such that they were visited regularly. Then Mother would say, 鈥渟o and so wants to go home鈥�, because he would be writing or something you know? Well they鈥檇 do their best to persuade, but you see it鈥檚 like I said with everything, it wasn鈥檛 a very strict code. I mean if the person kicked up enough and wanted to go home, and the parents supported, then there was very little you could do about it. And I mean then they did drift back there was no doubt about it.

Hospitals

I think we ought to mention there was a very good hospital at Dinham. Dr Strong, was the Doctor, and Matron Porter I think was the Matron. It was a very good hospital anyway. All manner of things were dealt with. I know at one time there were a lot of claims for compensation for different conditions. And the Admiralty would demand full particulars and that all came through the hospital.

Local Events

At Caerwent it was very much Home Guard full stop. But in the area, there was Band, a true Military Band. And the gentlemen in charge was a Captain Stokes, he was the Manager of the Beaufort Quarries, in those days, and of course a keen Home Guarder. And he had a very successful band, and when we paraded as we sometimes did, we were led by the band. (John Florida thinks there may be a photograph of the Home Guard on parade with bayonets on show, at the Museum)

I think something that sticks in my mind and which I鈥檝e photographs of. I鈥檝e praised Dr Knight, and one of things was that was very much appreciated, because of course there wasn鈥檛 much in those days you see, with all the rationing and all. We used to put on a lovely Christmas Party for the children. And he would come dressed as Father Christmam. We made a sleigh. He鈥檇 sit on it, I could give you a photograph I know I鈥檝e got it, of him sitting in the sleigh, and it was I think it was in the Cafeteria, just outside the gates. Of course there were lots of Married Quarters at Dinham you see, and the little children were given a good time at Christmas. I always remember that. Of course it was difficult you see, 鈥榗os they couldn鈥檛, you couldn鈥檛 toys and that, you couldn鈥檛 go into shops like you do now, very often some of the toys were home made, you know.

Personal Events

There was one very nice wedding where the daughter of a DASO, that鈥檚 a Deputy Armaments Supply Officer, and she was quite a glamorous girl, and she was an active member of the Dramatic Society. Her surname was Jeffries, I鈥檓 trying to think of her christian name. And she married an Assistant Armaments Supply Officer who had just come back from the Far East. We all thought that was a very nice romance and livened up the war time austerity.

Travel

We did everything we could to get people to work at Dinham; for the Production Side particularly. Most of the workers were transported daily. That鈥檚 where all the hundreds of buses that came for the three shifts and day shift every day, every day of the week, and 365 days of the year, it was so important And we went far and wide for them you know. Up to Tredegar and Ebbw Vale, coming all back down through the Valleys, Blackwood, went as far as Usk and Earlswood, we went up in the Forest of Dean, Yorkley, anywhere that we could get people, we went. They just couldn鈥檛 get them, they were desperately short. I was in the Transport Department for a while, the Personnel Officer was really responsible, but I think its fair to say that some of the staff did most of the routine work. Then of course you mustn鈥檛 forget that the Red & White were very powerful in those days. They had a very good team of Inspectors and once the route had been settled, then the buses came more or less as a matter of course. We had what we call Checkers on the buses, and usually the Checker was from the farthest destination. He was given a list which was updated every so often, and he was responsible for making sure that the bus picked up those people. And then the Red & White who were very active, made sure that they departed properly, not too soon you know. Everything was organised very well, and of course there were huge car parks there, where the buses were all lined up, and they had a certain order of departure a certain order of arrival. I don鈥檛 think people realise today the number of buses, I mean we are talking in perhaps fifty or sixty per shift, probably. And don鈥檛 forget those buses, some of them had to call at the three gates.

And then of course you see at one time motor cars, they all with hoods over their lights, so they couldn鈥檛 be seen as they went along the road.

Voluntary Organisations

Colonel Eville was in The Observer Corp, the post was up where the Men in Blue used to be, Mount Pleasant. He was quite active on it.

And I know towards the end of the war in the Home Guard, I was using rifles with a flute on the end so that the flash from the gun was not visible. So they wouldn鈥檛 know, the Germans wouldn鈥檛 know what hit them would they!

Everybody knew where Dinham was situated, including the Germans. Lord Haw Haw knew, he was always telling us he was going to attack us, but we were never attacked. We used to have guards there, and we would train them and all, you know. Well I was in the Home Guard. Look the sirens were going all the time, the Germans were concentrating their attack on Avonmouth. They kept those Oil Wells burning, and every time they came over, the sirens went, and we went running to our posts. But see things moved quickly in the war and we were terribly concerned that one night, a group of Airborne Germans would come over and knock out the boiler houses.

I was employed by The Admiralty, I was a Clerical Officer, and I was in the Main Office. After work, not every night, but on so many nights a week, we went up to the Home Guard, we had our own Parade Ground. We were trained by The South Wales Borderers, because there ninety of them there. We acted as a unit of the Defence Force and we did training like any other unit. At night of course, not in the day, and at weekends. I very often spent weekends there, then we were fed, we slept in the huts up on the training ground, that was the Home Guard.

I was also a Fire Watcher at The Royal Naval Propellant Factory. Our Headquarters were under the Main Office, but I used to sleep in the Drawing Office, that鈥檚 right, and then it was very nice, because they had underfloor heating, and when you put your bare feet out it was nice and warm. We used to have run along the corridor, up through the gents toilet, and there was one of these traps doors. There was a sort of stick affair, which you pulled the trap door down, up the ladder. Then you got on the roof of the Main Office, and you were equipped with a little bucket and spade things in case of incendiary bombs. But our main job, when we got up on the roof, was to get in the Observation Tower, connect down to the Passive Defence Officer, and the Duty Officer, who was in the basement. Then you would act as Observation. Well mainly the bombing went on over the other side of the river at Avonmouth, occasionally planes would come naturally turn and come over. We did have bombs dropped as you know, but no real attack. Lord Haw Haw was always threatening us with 鈥渨e are watching you鈥�, you know how he used to threaten. 鈥淲e will be coming鈥�, you know, and 鈥測our turn will come鈥�. But he never came, I think it was just to try and frighten people, but instead of frightening us, it annoyed us.

Continued on Index No 4066030

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