大象传媒

This is Hugh Headland鈥檚 story: it has been added by Pauline Colcutt on behalf of the Fernhurst Centre, with permission from the author who understands the terms and conditions of adding his story to the website.

I was fourteen years old when World War 2 started and lived with my parent鈥檚 sister and two brothers in the little West Sussex village of Fernhurst. As a family we were not that well off by today鈥檚 standards. My father I think was earning about 拢2.00 per week in his job as a teacher but we seemed to cope quite well.

To my mind we children at times lived an almost idyllic existence and food wise did not lack for anything. We grew all our own vegetables and in spite of rationing other food stuffs did not seem to be a problem either. There was always the odd rabbit or chicken and a few eggs to supplement the meat ration and on one occasion whale meat appeared on the menu 鈥� not a good idea 鈥� it was horrible! Some people did like it I believe.

We had no hot water on tap in those days although mains water was installed just before the War started. All water had to be heated in a wood fired copper which was built into the corner of the kitchen. This was used for washing clothes and doubled up to heat water when we wanted a bath - a tedious affair as the water had to be carried from the kitchen to the back room where we kept a long tin bath. Specific days were allocated for the bath, normally Friday night and wash day was on a Monday, very traditional!

We were fortunate that we had mains electricity a fairly recent innovation. Previously it was candles and paraffin lamps to provide lighting. We did have the luxury of a mains radio so we were able to keep track of what was happening in the War as well as listen to Lord Haw Haw broadcast from Germany. Earlier our village had been host to many children evacuated from London and we had all been issued with gas masks. I will always remember the horrible smell of rubber when we put them on. They were normally kept under the stairs staying there fortunately until the War ended.

Among the evacuees was a complete girls鈥� school which came to nearby Midhurst to share the grammar school with the local boys causing as you can imagine some excitement amongst the boys.

One the evacuees to the village was a boy named Bill Lesage who later became a well known jazz musician playing the vibraphone although when I knew him he was playing the piano. He spent time at our house playing my father鈥檚 battered and out of tune piano and on occasions was known to give impromptu boogie woogie sessions on the Village Hall piano. Some of the other children returned to London fairly quickly and others stayed on, one at least married a local girl and still lives in the village.

Initially the War seemed to pass us by but I do remember going to Haslemere station in 1940 to stand on the platform and watch the trains pass through packed with troops, many wounded from the Dunkirk evacuation.

Later on in 1940 the Battle of Britain started. This was our first taste of war as we were only about thirty miles from and saw some of the action overhead. I remember standing on our front lawn one morning with a clear blue sky above when there was the sound of many aircraft, machine gun fire and a mass of contrails as they engaged each other. It all seemed over very quickly and I saw a Hurricane fighter being shot down. It crashed on the Downs to the south of us near a village called Cocking. Sometime afterwards I cycled down to view the wreckage and collected a few bits as souvenirs.

My father joined the 鈥淟ocal Defence Volunteers鈥� later to be called the Home Guard and proudly displayed his armband with LDV on it. They had no uniforms at this stage, they were issued later and a .303 rifle appeared eventually. This caused the children a great deal of excitement as we played with it heavy though it was. It was quite safe as no ammunition had been issued. That too arrived - only five rounds - so our fun and games came to an end. It remains a mystery if my father ever fired the rifle although he did attend regular training sessions and stand guard duty. This was put to the test on more than one occasion when the platoon had to go out at night to look for German airmen who had parachuted down in the area. I believe they took at least one prisoner.

There were many incidents in our area in the early part of the War. One morning a German plane dropped a small bomb on the centre of the village which fortunately did not cause any major damage leaving a crater at the crossroads and some damage to nearby buildings. I remember going to school in Midhurst on a very overcast day when a German aircraft appeared out of the cloud and fired off a couple of bursts from its machine guns. It was all over in a matter of second and luckily no bombs were dropped.

We had a small military camp about a mile south of the village garrisoned mainly by British troops. They held regular dances there although I did not go myself. There were also Saturday night dances held in the Village Hall which were popular and well attended more so when we had Canadian troops stationed at nearby Blackdown. You can imagine that trouble was never far away when the two sets of troops met on dance nights with pitched battles outside and damage to the local gardens as they ran riot although nobody ever got seriously hurt.

At that time I got friendly with French Canadian soldier and we used to go to dances in the locality and would think nothing of walking there and back sometimes five or six miles each way. Sometime we he would get hold of an army bicycle which would speed things up a bit although I would not recommend riding on a cross bar for any length of time.

On the whole the Canadians were a friendly bunch and us lads got on really well with them although they did try to ply us with drink at every opportunity. Their favourite ploy was to fill a small tumbler with a concoction of various spirits which they would bring out to us. Naturally we never refused totally unaware of how lethal the contents were. Fortunately we did not have far to walk or should I say stagger home as the pub was not too far from where we lived. However when we did get home more often than not we spent the next hour or so at the bottom of the garden trying to sober up clinging to one of the fruit trees, trying hard to keep upright and hoping things would stop spinning around. I guess we were very grateful for the support they provided. At least we kept out of the house and so escaped all sorts of other problems.

During the course of the following years I left school and started work as a clerk with a London firm of shipping merchants who had relocated to Hindhead. I received two and sixpence a week for my trouble which was increased to five shillings a week by the time I left.

I used to cycle to and from work every day a journey of some six or seven miles each way. I remember cycling home one day and seeing part of an aircraft wing falling through the air. This turned out to be part of a Havoc bomber which had blown up in mid air and crashed half a mile in front of me in the middle of the road at Junction Place Haslemere opposite the old Rex cinema, alas no longer there. One of its engines actual fell through the roof of the Rex. Sadly all the crew were killed despite the efforts of the rescue services. I recall seeing them remove the bodies in an ambulance.

When I left school I joined the local Air Training Corps at Hindhead and eventually took my tests and passed for Aircrew Cadet. In 1942 I went to Oxford for aircrew selection which I also passed and in 1943 joined the Royal Air Force and a host f other memories.

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