大象传媒

East Grinstead Winter 1940-41.
Having arrived back from a course on new equipment, promoted to Bombadier at the ripe old age of 17 I was sent to command a new searchlight cluster site at East Grinstead. On arrival I found a 150cm searchlight,120cm circa 1916 and a 90cm (searchlights are named after the diameter of the reflector i.e,90cm) and a Mark 8 sound locator and generators. They were 30 men and one L/Bombadier. No officers or senior NCOs the nearest being at troop headquarters six miles away. We had two huts and a cookhouse complete with cook (more about him later). The men were a mixture of prewar territorials and un-trained conscripts, fortunately, mainly from London. In 1940 the threat of invasion was still with us so, apart from our night operations, we had daytime ground defence duties in a platoon defensive position. It was very much "on the job" training. Because of the rapid expansion of AA defences skilled personnel had been taken to form new units (I think I survived because I played in the first 15 for the regiment). I got a good telling off from the commanding officer when I volunteered for the commandos and a very large NO.

Being under the main bomber stream we were in action every night and I spent most of my day calibrating the equipment and supervising maintenance. The 30 men soon whittled down with leave and sickness until we were very short handed. I needed 12 men per night to operate efficiently. The men,mainly from the East End of London, felt they were doing something in defence of the city. Unfortunately our illumination rate was about 2%, as we were in a fighter zone the likelihood of a fighter being in the right position when we illuminated a target was minimal. By the middle of winter everybody was pretty exhausted. Bombers often thought the searchlight site was a better bet than flying into the barrage, fortunately we didn't get any direct bits although several sites did. One morning a Royal Engineer sergeant walked onto the site and said to me "that's got rid of that" "rid of what? " I inquired "oh didn't you know? I'll show you". We walked across the road and 30 yards from the farm buildings where the generators were parked was the largest aerial mine I had ever seen just being lowered onto a lorry from the tree that it hung in by its parachute. "Don't worry we have defused it" "Er what would have happened if it had gone off" "Oh probably wiped the buildings and generators and probably turned your searchlights over as well". What you don't see you don't worry about!. Another time my troop officer was looking at our ground defences fairly late in the day and said "I want a slit trench there and I will be round at 8 tomorrow morning to see it is done". As we were likely to go into action in an hour or so my reaction was "you'll be lucky" but under my breath. Having been in action until about 4 a.m. I got up about 7 to get a cup of tea from the cookhouse No cook! so I went to look for the sentry No sentry.! Looking around I saw the sentry hauling a bucket out of a hole. At the bottom of the hole was the cook "What do you think you are doing". "Well I heard the geezer tell you he wanted a slit trench here so I've dug it" I should tell you that the cook was a London tunnel miner an ABA boxing champion and came from the Mile End Road and as tough as they come. "Couldn't see you getting into trouble Bomb" Needless to say no 8 a.m. inspection but two days later "Would you like to see that slit trench, Sir" anyway it was full of water.鈥滲omb there is something wrong with this light鈥� said the operator of the 150cm searchlights when he was testing one morning 鈥渨hat鈥檚 the problem鈥� 鈥渋t won鈥檛 strike arc鈥� 鈥淚s the power on鈥� (75 volts 150 amps)鈥漎es鈥� so I climb onto the platform which is about 6ft off the ground and look inside at the lamp (Carbon Arc several million candle power) the carbons were locked back. I leaned forward and unlocked them. After picking myself up off the ground I realised he had left the main switch on and the arc had struck in my face. Fortunately no damage done Just a couple of weeks in the life of a 17 year-old.

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