大象传媒

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This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Phil Sealey of the Somerset County Museum Team on behalf of Mr Clifton Hamlin and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions

Clifton Hamlin enlisted in the 259th Field Company, Royal Engineers, part of the Territorial Wessex Divisional Engineers. The Company was formed in Taunton in May 1937 comprising 250 volunteers, a number from Somerset. In camp at Exmouth in August 1940 they were mobilized at the beginning of September at the outbreak of war.
Those who served in England were posted to the South Coast and were engaged on coastal defence work in Kent and East Sussex. As they prepared to mine the beaches and plant explosives to demolish strategic bridges, the Battle of Britain raged in the sky overhead. The coastline around the town of Dymchurch and the area inland, Romney Marsh, was thought to be a possible landing site for the expected German invasion and plans were made to breach the Royal Military Canal that runs through the marsh and flood the region to resist the invasion. Clifton recalled the difficulties of laying mines on some beaches because of the large size of the pebbles.
There were some 60,000 troops, regulars and home guards in the region and, to fool the Germans into thinking that there were more, the units were constantly on the move from place to place all over the area. During 1941, Clifton was stationed at Normanton, Yorkshire; Wallingford, Oxfordshire and at Colchester, Essex. He remembers that at Tenderden, in Kent, eight men died in an accidental explosion. He said it was here that Bangalore Torpedoes were made [explosive devices in a long metal tubes, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers].
A senior officer once asked Clifton what he thought was the most important attribute that a soldier in the field could have. He replied, 鈥淚mprovisation Sir鈥�. And improvise he did. On one occasion he constructed a diving helmet out of a five-gallon oil drum. Two apertures were cut for the arms and, to allow vision, a slit was made covered with Perspex for the eyes. A cushion seal around the bottom rim of the drum was added and weights were attached to his feet to take him beneath the water. To allow him to breathe an air supply through a flexible hose and Schrader valve came into the top of the drum. This makeshift diving suit was used in earnest when salvaging equipment from the bottom of the river Thames. He worked underwater, feeling his way in the dark, cutting metal with an acetylene torch.
Clifton鈥檚 ingenuity was noted and he then found himself attached to an experimental development unit based at Ripon, Yorkshire. There he became an instructor and was eventually promoted to the rank of sergeant. One development project he worked on was a portable drinking water treatment plant. Two of these treatment plants were transported by air to Italy and dropped by parachute for the use of troops fighting at Monte Casino but unfortunately they were damaged beyond repair on impact.

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