大象传媒

Typed by a UCN Community Volunteer

Born in Old Winkle 25/02/1914, I moved to Moulton at 3 months old, and lived there until joining the army in 1940.

I was playing cricket at Pitsford one Thurs evening in May or June in 1939. Captain Drummond who lived at the mansion in Pitsford, he said to me 鈥淲hy do you always play away matches?鈥� I said 鈥淏ecause we don鈥檛 have our own cricket ground at Moulton.鈥� He said 鈥淚鈥檒l arrange an interview whereby I鈥檒l come over to Moulton. You can show me the grounds you desire and I鈥檒l buy it for you as I have done here in Pitsford.鈥�

On a Sunday afternoon in late June we had an interview. Four of us walked over to Pistford and sat in Captain Drummonds lounge. He smoked a pipe as we waited for him to begin the conversation. This is was he said,
鈥淵ou fellas, this afternoon have come over here thinking you鈥檙e going to talk about cricket. But I want to talk about this international situation. This mansion has been let out to take 4 or 500 evacuaees later on. Do you think I shall stay here? No I shan鈥檛! I鈥檒l go to the Isle of Mann when this takes place.鈥�
The shaker was to me when he said the next verse.
鈥淚 can assure you, war will be declared in September this year鈥�.
(Which It was). He sent for the butler to get the limousines out to go to Moulton to look at the land that we desired for a cricket ground. Captain Drummond went in a car on his own. The rest of us travelled in the other car. We walked up and down the ground. He said that he desired to buy it, we were very pleased. But nothing transpired as war was declared, as he had said, in September 1939. It was a waste of time.

Before the war I was a part time semi professional goal keeper for Kettering town (180 consecutive appearances). I played for Northampton Cobblers when they took Watford. I got thirty shillings for that! My usual wage was 10 shillings at Kettering with two and six bonus and half a crown for winning at home. We got five shillings in the East Midlands league. I had to sign the same forms as Tom Finnely and Stanley Matthews. However on Feb 25th I had to report as a volunteer for the services (as did everybody on their birthday as law.) I was working in Northampton on a Tues afternoon when I went down to Earl St. to volunteer for service as I knew I would eventually get called up. I thought if I volunteered I might get into the service I preferred. I asked to go in the Military police but there were no vacancies. I came out of the interview with the military officer and stood outside. Later on that afternoon, they called me back in and told me they had four vacancies for the Royal engineers, a new volunteer regiment. They sent me to report to Chatham. I joined the regiment there.

Once there I made corporal in very short time, within a few weeks. From there we moved on to Margate in Kent. It was the time of the Dunkirk evacuation. I volunteered to help get these troops who were evacuated from Dunkirk off the boats at Margate harbour. We had vaccinations at Margate which knocked me for six. We were also examined by doctors. Air raids kept going continuously at night there. I really felt ill, in this Private house called Billet. They left me there while troops moved into the square in the middle of the town.

We moved on to Kenley Aerodrome near Croydon. On the Tuesday evening our orders were if an air raid siren went we were to man the guns in the aerodrome, overlooking Croydon. We see with our naked eye these bombers over Croydon, looking out the slip trenches. 500 girls were killed in a soap factory that evening. Haw Haw said 鈥淲e should be visiting Croydon, Kenley Aoirdrome on Sunday.鈥� It was the first Sunday we鈥檇 had off in weeks. I was exhausted and lay on my bed. At one o,clock the air raid siren went off. I can assure you, there were only four Spitfires or Hurricanes available to combat the enemy. They left Kenley Aerodrome to fly over the pine trees near us. We were under the estimation that they鈥檇 hit the enemy head first. Everything was quiet for a long time afterwards. The sound of airplanes we anticipated was the sound of planes coming back. Until when over the pine trees they came, and me looking for shelter in the garden with the others, I saw the rare sign of a swastika on the plane. They weren鈥檛 ours at all, and were bombing all the way. It was a Mediterranean blue sky prior to this, but we were soon in complete darkness. They dropped bombs over the aerodrome hangers, air raid shelters and everywhere. The people training were machine gunned. The air raid 鈥榓ll clear鈥� went and my orders, with two stripes, were to march a regiment of about forty men onto the aerodrome to man the guns. We arrived outside the MI room and they dropped a bomb on one end of the shelter and then the other. People died at either end, but some were alive in the middle. We had to get them out. After getting several out, an officer came to me and said 鈥淲hat are you doing here? Get on that runway and fill the craters in so that my planes can land!鈥� We were issues with some shovels with which to fill in some craters which were approx 40 or 50 feet deep! The air raid shelters went again whereby we ran to the woods.

We left Kenley Aerodrome to go overseas. I had 48 hrs leave to go back to Moulton taking two kit bags, a gas mask and a crash helmet. We left the station outside Kenley Aerodrome and arrived at Liverpool dock yard not knowing where we were going on a troop ship. There were about 500 hundred men. We heard that two ships had gone before us and both were sunk by submarines. It took us two to four week to arrive at Gibraltar. We arrived on Oct 4th 1940. We learnt that Gibraltar was absolutely fortified. There were no gun positions, no tunnels, and no airdrome. This was all done in the period of four years while I was there. The runway ran east to west with the sea on both sides, the Mediterranean on one side with the harbour on the other.

One incident was that about 18 lightening planes came from America. It was a truly frightful day with winds blowing north to south. Several of the planes were blown over by the strong wind. I don鈥檛 know what happened to the pilots. We made gun positions on the rock, most facing the Spanish border. This was open. Spanish people came over to Gibraltar to work.

I returned home after approx three years in the rocks, it was 7th or 8th July 1943. I was married on August 2nd 1943 after our engagement in 1940. If we鈥檇 have been married my fianc茅 at the time wouldn鈥檛 have been called up, but seen as she was a single girl she was called to the ATS. I returned to Oldershot and joined an RE company. From there we went to sea view in the Isle of White to train and ride pavilion. We had outside training as well, and also lectures daily in the Royal Pavilion in regards to Pluto (a pipeline under the ocean). We went to Southend and had a long wait owing to the weather not being suitable for landing as it was too rough. We eventually went and landed at Dunkirk. From there we went to Bologne. Eventually they brought one pipeline over from Lyde in Kent, they were hoping to put petrol through to Bologne. This pipe was connected to two tugs in the front. They were the strongest tugs in the world and dropped the welded pipes by unreeling them into the sea. When the tide was well in they brought the pipe line to shore whereby we connected it to the main land where there were tanks connected to the quayside. Eventually petrol was pumped through the pipeline. The channel was completely full of petrol as the pipe leaked. Esso and BP directors were there at the quayside in Bologne. Anybodies ideas were as good as the next. One person suggestion was to press air pressure through the pipes on a calm day and send divers down onto the sea to reconnect the pipes. This did not work. The next suggestion was to send a dye through the broken pipes on a calm day, and to send divers down where it came through. They used couplings with washers to fix the gaps. This was the solution and they never looked back.

I was sent to a town near Antwerp, Heratels, where we had a pumping station to send petrol up to the front line which could only pump 20 miles at a time (owing to the gradient). I was full detail for choosing personnel to man these pumps and responsible for mending any leakages. If there was a leak you knew about it as it shot up in the air. At about 1 o clock in the morning I had a phone call to say we had a bad leak. This was done by drilling the pipes to undo the coupling to sell petrol to the Jerichos. We arrived at the canal and seen the petrol seeping towards the bridges. I said the driver so not bring this lorry and y closer. If you do it could backfire and blow us all up. I paddled through the petrol with Wellington鈥檚 above waste height. Four personnel followed to lift the pipes up, whereby I connected the coupling with plastic washers and ns screwed them down tight.

We went from there to Rouen, when we arrived there the orders were, we were going to generate our own electricity to build our own instillation. My thoughts were, 鈥榯he front line was 15 or 20 miles away, if one bomber sees the electricity they could wipe us all out.鈥� We slept in the hovels and barns over looking the rats running through the rafters. Low and behold, we worked for six weeks and nothing happened.

From there onwards I went to Eindoven and slept in the same sports pavilion as Churchill did when he visited the troops on the frontline. I had a good sport playing tennis after hiring the rackets from the grounds man. My brother who was stationed in the Antwerp said he would visit, but he couldn鈥檛 as he鈥檇 had teeth trouble and had already been to the dentist where I was stationed. So he got another fellow to come to the dentist, but really to visit me. He prayed that he wouldn鈥檛 get killed on the way. When he arrived I was playing tennis. He said 鈥渕y goodness what a life you鈥檙e having鈥�. Eventually the poor chap who volunteered to come, got back from the dentist with five less teeth! I played football for the royal engineers regularly. On the Wednesday prior to being demobbed I played my last game. The sergeant who was playing shook me by the hand and said 鈥淚f I ever play another game of football, I鈥檒l never forget the game you鈥檝e played for us today.鈥� I never played another game! I was too busy looking for somewhere to live, doing the house up and so on.

Going to be demobbed we stayed at a mansion near Calais. I was in the top room whereby there were about 10 ft passages with thousands of steps. Coming down a fellow asked us if we wanted a cup of tea and the Naffi, so down the stairs we went. He said in conversation 鈥淒o you do any horse racing prior to joining the army?鈥� I replies 鈥淵es鈥�. He said that he wanted to give me the winner of this years Lincoln handicap. I said the Lincoln was not run until March. He told me what it was. I went with my wife to Sutton Court and told all the boys at the pub that I had a tip for this years Lincoln. It was called 鈥楲ancton Abbott鈥� and it won at 7 to 1. But I didn鈥檛 bet.

From there I reported to Northampton racecourse to get my demobbed papers and get fitted up with a new civilian suit, trilby, raincoat and shoes and then I was officially demobbed.

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