大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Ian Hollins on behalf of Desmond Taylor. The story has been added to the site with his permission. And Desmond Taylor fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

My first memory is of preparation for war at the time of the so called "Munich Crisis" in September 1938, when an army battery set up anti-aircraft guns and searchlights in Central Park, near where I lived in Beaumont Street, Milehouse. I remember going to the park after dark and standing behind the searchlights to see their brilliant beams sweeping across the sky an awesomely powerful sight for a boy of twelve. When Mr. Chamberlain returned from Munich, waving the infamous "peace in our time" scrap of paper signed by Hitler, the Army departed from the park and life returned to normal.
Like most people who have survived danger of death during attacks by the enemy I have very vivid memories of the war. I was a 13 year old pupil at Devonport High School for Boys on 3rd September 1939 and I can remember listening with my family to Mr. Chamberlain announcing on the "Wireless" that "- - I have to tell you now that we are at war with Germany." A very serious moment for my parents who had lived through the "Great War to End all Wars", for which my father had volunteered and served in the Army and RFC; they knew what to expect.
I recall being fitted with a gas mask and instructed in how to wear it and test for leaks. People soon got fed up with carrying these everywhere, in a cardboard box suspended on string over the shoulder, and they were relegated to the cupboard, there was never any fear that there would be a gas attack. We were also issued with Identity Cards giving our name, address and a number which consisted of a four letter area code, a family unit number and a number for each member of the family. Changes of address had to be registered immediately and the card had to be produced when collecting new food and clothing ration books. I still have mine together with a wrist chain and tag bearing the number which would have identified my body had I been killed by a bomb!
I suppose my first wartime experience was walking through the black-out with two other boys to a fire station in Devonport to train for my boy-scouts Fireman's Badge. The old fireman who taught us was ex. RN and showed us the slick naval way to tie a bowline knot which I have found invaluable ever since. I remember him explaining the complexities of hydrants with different screw and bayonet connections as each local authority had their own design. When the wartime National Fire Service came into being they needed adaptors for different areas until all hydrants had been converted to a standard design. Bombing could destroy water mains so during the Blitz, supplementary 4 and 6 inch steel water pipes were laid above ground at the edge of roads, supplying circular corrugated iron water tanks holding 5,000 gallons at strategic points, to provide local reserves from which the fire brigade could pump. Although more vulnerable than underground mains these pipes could easily and quickly be repaired if damaged by a bomb.
In December of 1939 I watched the badly damaged HMS Exeter steam into her home dockyard at Devonport after the "Battle of the River Plate" the first sea battle of the war. She was one of three British Cruisers which fought the German pocket-battleship "Graf Spee" which was damaged and finally scuttled when she had to leave her refuge after three days in Montevideo, Uruguay. This was a victory heartily celebrated by the citizens when the Exeter's crew paraded through Plymouth and then Exeter in those early war-time days before the defeats and disasters began. I remember the First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill's broadcast with a strange pronunciation of that Capital's name in two syllables "Monty Video" (as in VHS tapes) instead of the usual single word with emphasis on the last syllable.

I remember in June 1940, at the time of Dunkirk and the French capitulation, seeing their sailors marching through Plymouth wearing their striped shirts and blue berets with red pompoms, together with British troops after their evacuation from western France. Some British soldiers were temporarily billeted in our Church Hall, S1. Bartholomew's in Browning Road, where I was a choirboy. When I went to see them they showed me their rifles and bayonets and let me handle a revolver - very exciting for a young boy.
School continued normally and I joined the Air Training Corps but all the equipment we had was a derelict fuselage from an old bi-plane which was dumped in the playground! In the summer vacation of 1940 secondary school pupils had to report to school to help the war effort unless they went away with their parents for a holiday. Few did this because Plymouth, being a garrison town, most parents were in the Royal Dockyard or in one of the three services, all had bases there. Various tasks were available so I opted with about 20 others to "Dig for Victory". We were allocated a piece of derelict ground in Outland Road opposite the "Argyle" Football Ground where under the direction of a Master we dug up very poor and stony soil to try to turn it into allotments. To this day I religiously follow his exhortation to remove every piece of couch grass root that turns up however small! We must have become such a vital part of the war effort that in March 1941 the Luftwaffe dropped a bomb on our allotments! Later that year I returned to find a few carrots and radishes growing around the rim of the crater but our venture was over. Houses were built on this land after the war.
At Christmas 1940 I earned 拢6-10s working for 10 days helping with the postal rush at the GPO Sorting Office in Plymouth. I spent 6 guineas of my earnings, more than 拢300 at 2005 wage rates, buying my first wrist-watch at B H Worden, County Jewellers; in Devonport (I still have the bill). I was lucky to get it just two months before the whole of Devon port bordering the dockyard was obliterated in the "Blitz". For the rest of the war new items of all sorts were difficult to obtain as production was concentrated on the war effort. The German tactics were said to be to kill and terrorise the workers, so putting the dockyard out of action without destroying it, because they wanted it when they won the war. In this they failed, thanks to the imbued fighting services ethos, patriotism. courage, discipline, resilience, hard work and self-reliance of the townsfolk, many of whom had been raised under those excellent Victorian precepts. Visits by the King and Queen and by Winston Churchill gave a great boost to morale. After the war a large area of blitzed Devonport was taken into the Dockyard and a high wall was built to enclose it. It is interesting that there is currently a proposal to retract the Dockyard to its original size and restore this area to civilian use
Food rationing was in place by that Christmas and for my lunch my mother used to make me chip-butties which were cold by the time I ate them in the sorting office. Once a week she would queue for a whole morning at the fishmongers waiting and hoping for fish to be delivered from the "Barbican", the name of the ancient fishing harbour and market. Fish, which could not be rationed due to uncertainty of supply, was a very nourishing and tasty supplement to our meagre and plain rations. I still have an old ration card. Farmers continued to bring their produce, mainly vegetables and fruit, as they always had done on Saturday mornings to the Devonport "Pannier Market" until this was destroyed. This practice has recently been revived countrywide under the title of "Farmer's Markets" but now only monthly. Rationing continued for a period of 15 years until 1954, today few people are aware of this.

Continued in Chapter 2 - Story A5920760

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