大象传媒

St. George & St. Martin People鈥檚 War stories
03/02/05
These stories were submitted with the agreement of the people and they undersatnd the rules and regulations of the Peoples War website.

Pat

I鈥檓 from a big army family 鈥� I joined up on 28th April 1939 and served for 27 years. I remember that my first wages were 11d per day 鈥� I was 14 & half years old at this point and on an army apprenticeship as an engineer based at Arbourfield.
When I was 17 I was posted to London and was there during the Blitz. I married Rose in 1944 and my pay went up to 2s 9d. What you have to remember is that I could buy 3 cigarettes for 1d and a pint of beer for 2d.
I remember that when war was declared there was only one Anti-aircraft gun in London 鈥� that soon changed and there was a ring of them all around the Capitol. There were also rocket guns, there鈥檇 be 64 on a site and they would 64 rockets in to the air in one go. The aim of the anti-aircraft fire, rocket guns and barrage balloons was to keep the German aircraft as high as possible. The planes needed to get in fairly low for precision bombing and by keeping them high it stopped key targets being hit. Mind you it did mean that they dropped bombs in a bit of a scatter gun way! The Home Guard manned the anti-aircraft guns 鈥� felt really sorry for them there were loads of mis-fires. I think the doodlebugs were the scariest things. I can hear the noise they made even now and then that silence... it was so ominous. They were vicious things.
My last posting in the war was in Germany just by the Bergen-Belsen camp. Going through the gates there was the most unforgettable and upsetting experience. The atmosphere was indescribable 鈥� sort of clammy. There were mounds of earth everywhere 鈥� you didn鈥檛 have to ask what they were. It is true that no birds ever settle in there.
I remember the people of Belsen said that they never saw anything but they must have seen the people being marched into the camp. We understood that they had to protect themselves though.

Reg

I was 10 when war was declared and I remember my parents crying when they heard Chamberlain鈥檚 announcement. I ran outside cheering 鈥� I had no idea what war meant. In many ways I did enjoy wartime 鈥� it meant no school for a while and that had to be good!
We couldn鈥檛 go to school as there weren鈥檛 any shelters for us. I remember for a while, when the shelters were being built, we went to school in shifts 鈥� a couple of days in and a couple out! We weren鈥檛 idle though 鈥� we helped neighbours to dig out for their Anderson shelters in the back yard.
I lived in Campbell Terrace in Birches Head during the war. We didn鈥檛 have much bombing but I remember going out hunting for shrapnel 鈥攖here was a raid around Broom Street. I think there was a hit on the aluminium works at Porthill too. Planes used to fly over Stoke a lot though 鈥� we thought they were on their way to Liverpool and the docks.

Richard

My dad, Maurice Pemberton was in the 1721st Lancers. He told us a lovely story about being in Burma during the war. He was walking in Bangalore Park one afternoon when he saw someone he thought he knew... it was his brother. Neither of them knew that the other was in Burma so it was a wonderful surprise for them. Dad always carried a little camera with him and he managed to get someone to take a snap of the pair of them together.
My mum Wren Doris Pemberton was in the navy 鈥� she was posted to Clayton Lodge, which was known as HMS Dadelus II.
Mum was a singer and got a part in Merry-go-round with Jon Pertwee. She went down to London to record and sang 鈥淭o hear the gentle lark鈥�. Dad heard the programme in Burma!

My Uncle flew 鈥淪tringbags鈥� in the war 鈥� otherwise known as Swordfish, it was a bi-plane. He was based on HMS Fearless. On December 19th 1944 he was awarded the DSC.

Rose

I was a cook at an army practice camp. The London Home Guard used to come down to learn to fire the anti-aircraft guns at weekends. They were cheeky chaps!
Pat and I were courting when we were at Wharton on Nase. We had a 48 hour pass and Pat decided to take me home to London to meet his parents. We got the last train back and then the milk train. We arrived in Wharton at 6am and were walking back to camp hand in hand. The CO was called Ernie Marples and he saw us walking up the road at 6.30am. He thought we鈥檇 been up to no good 鈥� at 9.30am Pat was frog-marched into the CO鈥檚 office and given a lecture on the facts of life. I got the same from my boss at 10am!

Margaret & Michael

We were married in 1942 but of course Michael went off to war. One time Michael got a 48hour pass and we arranged to meet at the YMCA by Euston Station. We didn鈥檛 realise there were two YMCAs and of course we went to different ones. Margaret stayed up all night cutting sandwiches for the troops and in the morning decided to go home. Margaret left a note with the people at the YMCA in case Michael turned up 鈥� which he did .. About 10 minutes after Margaret was safely on the train home!
We didn鈥檛 have Christmas together for five years while Michael was in the army. When we came home we went to Blackpool for a week. I got pregnant straight away. Unfortunately it was a difficult pregnancy and I was in hospital for two months 鈥� this was our 6th Christmas apart!
Michael saw lots of live action through the war and was involved in the D-Day landings on anti-aircraft. Michael said all he ever thought was 鈥淚 have a job to do and I will to it to the best of my ability鈥�
Margaret 鈥� I worked on munitions at Minton Hollins in Stoke. I was drilling fuse heads. There was water running down all the time so we had to wear clogs so we wouldn鈥檛 slip. We were taught to do the job by people from Birmingham.
My brother-in-law was in the RAF. He was gunned down over the North Sea and picked up by a German ship. He was prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 3

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