大象传媒

I was an ARP officer for a year and a half in Sholing and Woolston before I joined the RAF. I had an easy war, I never killed anyone and no one tried to kill me. I was posted all over the UK as an air field defence officer, so I was one of the lucky ones.

It all started in 1937 when I tried to enrol in the ARP at 17 yrs old. They wouldn鈥檛 have me as I was under 30 years of age. If I鈥檇 been taken on then I would have been paid 拢3 a week, 拢1 for me Mum and a 拢2 for me! In 1938 I became a volunteer which was unpaid. But when the war did start I became a full time warden and then I was paid. For the first 9 months of the war nothing much happened. All we did was patrol, gave demonstrations of fire fighting with buckets of sand and all that lark and generally made ourselves known in the area. Our wardens post was post no. 10 Bittern and Sholing, in the grounds of a pub 鈥� very handy for some!

I received this letter on January 9th 1941.

鈥� Dear Sir,

I have received reports of your courage, endurance and initiative during the intensive air raids of the 23rd November, 30th November and 1st December, 1940. It is mentioned in these reports that you, with other Wardens, did magnificent work in connection with the control of incendiary bombs, and the resultant fires, and you obtained a shovel to cover these bombs with earth. In the course of your activities you cut your hand rather badly, but still carried on with the good work鈥︹��

Some of these incendiary bombs had a small explosive at the end and great care was needed. We had a least 10 heavy bombs in our area and one of these killed George Hannant, a warden who was awarded a Kings Commendation. Another injured Ernie Biggs, a warden who lost a leg and was awarded a British Empire medal.

The sort of things that happened in those raids was that the telephone communications were useless. So on one occasion I went about 1 陆 miles to the report centre in Bitterne. It was a case of taking a chance with the bombs falling. But I was lucky, thank the Lord. Knighton Road was in our area and there were four houses on fire and it was no good calling for a fire engine because we couldn鈥檛 get one anyway. There was this lady Mrs Ecket working in the communications centre that night and I didn鈥檛 know at the time that one of the houses was hers. I don鈥檛 think that she would ever forgive because I told her that these houses were on fire but I didn鈥檛 describe hers.

On another occasion 2 or 3 of us were patrolling and something landed outside our area and the theory was that it was a parachute mine or a bomb and when we got there the blast had spread across the area not down into the ground like a bomb. It flattened things sideways and caused a lot of damage and casualties.

On another occasion the factory that made chip baskets was on fire and we couldn鈥檛 do much about the fire but with assistance we were able to push out the transport lorries and cars and save them. The man who helped us do that, not known to me at the time, was later falsely accused of sending signals to the enemy. I was able to speak for him in the courts and he was entirely innocent of any crime and he was released. It was ironic that his brother who asked me to speak on behalf of the accused man was killed outside the Ford motor factory in Southampton the day of the court hearing.

We were out one night with our shovels. Bob Britton got a bit in front of me and the incendiaries were popping off all around us. We had to use our shovels to put them out we were calling out to each other and checking 鈥榓re you all right鈥� and we were.

Super Marine in Woolston suffered a day time raid. Now my job as a warden was to do permanent nights, 12 hours a night and get out for day sirens that had gone off during the day. If a raid started during the day I鈥檇 have to go to an air raid shelter and stand by it. On this day I had to go and stand by my allocated shelter opposite my house. And I remember the bombers coming over and seeing the bombs fall and I shouted 鈥榊ou Bastards!鈥� The Super Marine factory was badly hit and one of their shelters was on marshy ground and a lot of people drowned. Volunteers were called for from our area to assist at Woolston. I went with the doctor to administer morphine to the survivors at Super Marine, and there were many.

I received the British Empire Medal on March 3rd 1942 from King George VI for courage, initiative and endurance. I still feel that the things we all did were not brave, they just had to be done.

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