大象传媒

When I was 16, in 1940, I was working in a shop and living at home with my Mum and Dad and 3 brothers and sister. The Germans used to drop landmines on parachutes which would detonate when landing on the ground. One day one fell into a nearby oak tree. We had to call the Naval disposal squad who took it away and disconnected it. I saved a bit of the rope it had been attached to. As kids we never thought about how dangerous it was at the time, just how much fun you could have.

On Wednesdays we had the day off work and used to cycle to St. Paul's to see the bomb damage. Silver Town was the Tate and Lyle Depot. One day it had received a direct hit and there was no building left just a mountain of sugar.

I joined up at the age of 17 and was stationed in Scapaflow. The Scharnohorst battle ship was sunk in the North Sea and very few people survived. The prisoners were taken ashore and interrogated to find out what had happened. The information officer told me afterwards that the survivors were so hyped up with propoganda from Goebbels that they really believed that the German army had landed in the south of England and were marching on London. They believed that the british would soon be taken prisoners by the Germans and we would then by their prisoners not the other way round. He said they were insolent and spitting and very confident of their information. They were taken prisoner and sent to POW camps in Scotland.

One of my friends Nick Green, who had three young children, joined up and died on the HMS Barham which sank in the Middle East. Another friend, Bert Jordan got married, had one leave at home and then was killed in Dunkirk. Hearing of their deaths was one of the reasons by I wanted to join up.

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