大象传媒

Soon after Christmas 1940 I was sent to teach at a school in Rock Ferry, but the night before I was to start my duties there had been heavy bombing on Mersyside. I arrived at Rock Ferry to find the school in ruins - the result of a direct hit. The few pupils who had bravely turned up for lessons were sent home. The staff were told to report to the Billeting Office to assist with re-housing the bombed out families.
Previously prepared lists of suitable accommodation were handed out and the homeless were taken in buses to be billeted at these places. In some cases they were received with sympathy and made welcome, the householders ready to help those less fortunate than themselves. Others were received with ill grace, and there were people who refused point blank to take anyone in. When we reported this to the Senior Billeting Officer he said leave it to him, and he would sort them. For three days we bussed these homeless souls around until all were safely accommodated. The rest of the week we did clerical work dealing with billeting and giving what help we could. For my part this was a labour of love as I was never paid for this work.
At Easter in 1941 I obtained a temporary post in Chagford, in Devon. The school had been built three years previously. The number of pupils had been doubled by the influx of evacuees from London. These children had been billeted with families in the area and had settled in well. They were accompanied by three male teachers, all in their late forties, and a young lady teacher, who taught at the junior school.
The London Authorities were very good and had sent books and equipment which the school was able to use for the benefit of all pupils. A film projector was a great asset and was widely used throughout the school. The catchment area for this school was very wide and buses brought children from villages eight to ten miles away. I found the children mixed well and shared their experiences of rural and city life to the benefit of all. The evacuees learnt a lot from living in a rural area with its slower way of life.
Years later, when visiting Chagford, I heard that one city boy, billeted on a farm, on leaving school at the age of fourteen, decided to stay and work on the farm. He returned to London for holidays and eventually married and settled in Devon. Others had returned to London after the war, but had later returned to live and work in Devon.
The young lady teacher was was in fact a Chagford girl, who after qualifying had got a post in a London school. She was evacuated to her parents' home and was able to claim a billeting allowance. I heard of two similar cases. Nice work if you can get it.

AIR RAIDS
In the summer of 1939 I had joined the A.R.P. in a First Aid Party in Birkenhead, and when at home was attached to a depot and had been out on duty on several occasions during air raids.
Early in 1941 I was on duty in Birkenhead during a raid. Molotov bombs had been dropped and we were out dealing with them. These bombs were made up of clusters of incendiary devices, about 1-2lb's ( a half to one kilo in metric measure) and when they exploded in mid-air the incendiaries were scattered over a wide area. We had dealt with these when there was a loud rumbling noise and a loud bang. I took shelter behind a wall, thinking it was a bomb, but there was no explosion. A plane carrying two land mines had dropped its load. These devices were dropped on parachutes which opened out as they fell. One had landed about a mile away and had caused extensive damage and loss of life. The main telephone wires from Birkenhead to
Chester consisted of about sixty pairs of wires attached to ceramic insulators mounted on telegraph poles at fixed intervals along the main road where stood rows of houses. The second mine had drifted and the parachute had gone over the wires while the mine went under. Fortunately the wires had held and took the weight as the mine landed on a wall after hitting a house without detonating. This was about sixty or seventy yards from where I had sheltered behind the wall. An immediate U.X.B. (unexploded bomb) report was made to base, we evacuated the nearby houses. About half an hour later the Bomb Disposal Squad arrived and defused the mine. Apparently the way it had rested on the wall made it less likely to detonate. Heavy equipment was brought in to remove it.
Although the wall behind which I sheltered may have saved me I realised I could have been killed by falling masonry from the nearby property had the mine exploded, as these landmines flattened buildings hundreds of yards away. I felt I had had a narrow escape and may not have lived to tell the tale.
Some time later in 1941 a bomb dropped on three large houses in Well Lane. Rescue workers had saved some lives but there were fatalities. Eventually it was thought there were no more survivors and it was four days later that workmen arrived to clear up the site and remove any bodies remaining in the debris.
It was knocking off time when someone thought they heard a noise coming from one of the cellars. The rescue party was called and started to excavate. About this time I was at my girlfriend's house and she was about to go on duty where she and my sister worked. I accompanied her to this place where a male military presence guarded the door, armed with a hand gun. Everyone knew he had no ammunition. He told me about the incident in Well Lane so I went home and put on my uniform, collected my equipment and reported to my Base. When I arrived I was told, "Sign the book, your on duty. Get down to Well Lane."
Once there I set to helping and before long I dug out an arm which I placed on a lawn of the house opposite, where it was numbered and details recorded. We were using portable lighting, as it was dark by this time, when the siren sounded and we had to reduce the lighting. As planes were heard overhead even this had to be extinguished and we worked by the light of hand-held torches.
Eventually a hole was made through to the cellar and one man managed to get through and discovered four people alive amomg the rubble. He managed to move one to the hole. A second rescuer climbed through the hole and the two men were able to lift a woman to those waiting above. In the meantime two of us had prepared a stretcher and the woman, who was now delirious, was laid on it. Two of us carried her to the ambulance which was just a van that had framework fitted to take two stretchers. Being at the head end of the stretcher I climbed into the ambulance first and put on the clamps. A voice shouted "Chidren's Hospital!", there was a bang on the side of the van and we were off. I tried to comfort the patient but she was unable to understand what was happening. Arrived at the hospital, when we took her into the light she appeard to be a grey-haired old lady. We quickly transferred her to a hospital trolley and returned to the scene of the ongoing rescue where we found two more survivors had been freed, and the fourth was almost out.
From the man who had been inside we learnt that a void had been formed because a large cupboard was taking the strain of a floor beam. Other rubble and pieces of wood had kept them apart and had to be carefully removed before they could be brought to the hole made by the rescuers and brought to the surface. At the time the first woman was brought out 100 hours had elapsed since the explosion. I never knew whether they had survived without water, let alone food.
The 'little old lady' I took to hospital was, in fact, a twenty year-old young woman, the youngest of the four survivors.
After the war four semidetached houses were built on that site and as I passed that place on my way to visit my sister who now lived in the next road, I often thought of that night. Even now, more than sixty years later, I can recall the time, and marvel that they survived for over one hundred hours.

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