大象传媒

The Second World War
The Martin Family
Chapter 1
A Schoolboy鈥檚 View

The 3rd of September 1939 was a day that is still etched firmly in my memory.
It was a fine Sunday morning and we were still recollecting the time we had on holiday during the last two weeks, in the Isle of Wight.
My father then switched on the wireless to listen to Neville Chamberlain鈥檚 speech to the nation. He explained that a communiqu茅 had been sent to Herr Hitler stating that unless he undertook to withdraw his troops from Poland by 11a.m. then a state of war would exist between Germany and England.

He continued 鈥淚 can tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and we are now at war with Germany鈥� These words that are as fresh in my memory as they were all that time ago.

My father served in France during the First World War and I caught the ominous glance between my parents at that moment.
As a 13-year-old schoolboy I did not fully comprehend the import of those words.
Little did I imagine that, I too, would be in the Armed Forces before the war was over.

My parent鈥檚 initial thoughts were for my brother, Len, who was approaching his 19th birthday and would no doubt soon be called up for the Armed Forces.
Len left school at 14 when there was an opportunity to go into鈥� The Print鈥�. The printing industry was one of the highest paid industries and the conditions were jealousy guarded by the trade union. To obtain employment it was necessary to know the 鈥楩ather of the chapel鈥� i.e. trade union President.
Len had further ambition and was studying at evening classes for Matriculation.
We had little enough time to think about anything before we heard the Air Raid Siren! Without thinking we all rushed out into the garden, as did our neighbours. We breathed a sigh of relief when the 鈥楢ll Clear鈥� sounded very soon afterwards.

A little later Len joined us. He was a keen cyclist and a member of the Addiscombe Cycling Club. He had been out since very early morning participating in a 25 mile Time Trial race. He seemed unperturbed by the news and took it in his stride

We were all too soon to become more fully initiated into a wartime environment. Gas masks had already been issued to everyone in a cardboard box, with the instruction that they were to be carried at all times. All public places of entertainment were closed. The issue of Ration Books soon followed. Street lighting was abolished.
Cars and other vehicles had covers to their headlights, which only allowed a small downward beam. Windows had to be blacked out at night so that not even a glimmer of light showed. Most housewives became adept at making removable frames for every window in the house.

Piles of sandbags were protecting the ground floors of public buildings and the windows were criss- crossed with sticky brown tape to prevent shattering.

It was not long before the first 鈥楢nderson鈥� Shelters began to appear in back gardens.
They comprised of corrugated iron sheets inserted in a hole in the ground and then covered with arched iron sheets. The whole was then covered with a thick layer of earth. There was no heating, lighting or toilet facilities in them. Later on my father opted for a鈥楳orrison鈥檚helter鈥�. This was like a steel dining room table the size of a double bed and was intended for use inside the house. It was much more comfortable and probably a good deal safer.

All the iron railings in the Parks and in front gardens were taken down for the war effort. Signposts were removed to confuse any invasion force.

My mother was not very happy when food rationing was introduced in Spring 1940.
Initially the weekly ration per person was Butter 4ozs(125g), Sugar 12 ozs (325g)
Ham 8ozs (225g).
This was soon to change, after the fall of France it was reduced to, Butter 2ozs (50g) Sugar 8ozs (225g) and Ham 4ozs (100g).
A tea ration of 2 ozs (50g) was introduced.

There were, of course no supermarkets or refrigerators, so the housewives had to queue at individual shops for almost every commodity.
If she had spent 陆 hour queuing at the butchers and it was said that he fishmonger had a delivery, she had to decide whether to leave her place in the butchers queue, to join the fishmongers queue or not.
Fish was not rationed, but in very short supply and the fishmongers stock might be exhausted before she reached the head of the queue.
Sainsbury鈥檚 store was different. They sold all the grocery products, sugar, eggs, ham, but each product had its own queue. Whilst my mother was in one queue I would join a longer queue to keep a place for her. I am not sure of the ethics of this but it seemed to be an accepted practice.

During the first few months when the German Siegfried Line of concrete gun emplacements, was in stalemate, with the similar French Maginot Line opposite, we used to sing the popular song 鈥榃e are going to hang out the washing on the 鈥楽iegfried Line鈥� This lost its popularity when the Germans romped through Belgium and France.

After the evacuation of the British troops from Dunkirk my father joined the Local Defence Volunteers, which was intended to form local Resistance in the event of a German Invasion.
Whilst initially they were without uniforms or weapons, they graduated into a fully organised fighting force, renamed the Home Guard. It was probably due to his previous war experience that my father was promoted to Lieutenant.
My mother was not overjoyed when he returned from exercises in the field where Mr Sopp, the Dairyman, kept his cows.

During these early days my friend, Colin, and I continued to cycle daily two miles to school, back home for lunch and return for the afternoon session.
There was a certain lack of continuity in our education when the younger schoolmasters were called up for war service.

From early June 1940, the Luftwaffe attacked the channel ports and convoys and latterly they attacked the R.A.F stations in the South. The R.A.F Hurricanes and
Spitfires were to be seen overhead engaged in Dog Fights with the Germans.

The majority of this action was during the school holidays and we did not have to seek cover from the aircraft bullets or the Anti- aircraft shrapnel whilst cycling to and fro to school.

The London 鈥楤litz鈥� started on 7th September when 1000 bombers attacked London鈥檚 East End in a night raid and burned out the Docks.
We became used to the Air Raid Siren sounding off every evening at about the same time. It was so regular, that if it did not sound its awful wail, someone would say, 鈥淭hey are late tonight.鈥�
We did not have our Morrison shelter at this time and I was told to do my homework
at the safest place in the house--- under the stairs, in a deck chair!

London was the bombers target, and as we lived in Surrey we were not their focal point. This is what we told ourselves as we heard the unmistakeable throb of the
Junkers 88 bombers and the noise of the ack ack fire.

The people of London began to take matters into their own hands and slept overnight in the Underground stations. These were up to 600 feet below ground and a lot safer than other local Shelters. It soon became the regular thing to do. Just before the sirens sounded, thousands trooped down in orderly fashion, taking their bedding with them together with flasks of tea and snacks. People began to have their regular places and fostered a local community spirit.

Len had joined the R.A F. as a Wireless Mechanic trainee and we occasionally saw him on a 48 hour leave.

I am not sure when the school decided to evacuate from Mitcham but it was during the latter months of the year, probably September/early October 1940.
I cannot recall anything of the journey but late one afternoon we arrived at a Church Hall at an unknown destination. Local stewards came to take us to temporary accommodation for the night. My group were billeted in a large house on the seafront with a lovely view of a steep sided island out at sea. This we came to know was Steepholm with its sister, Flatholm, a few miles away in the Bristol Channel. We had arrived at Weston super Mare

The following morning eleven of us, all boys, were taken to our billet.
This was a small three bedroom terraced house. Downstairs there was a front room, a middle room, and a kitchen at the back, with the toilet behind.
It was located in a narrow service road behind the High Street shops.

Our Foster Parents had the use of two adjacent houses, one of which they occupied together with two older evacuees, Ken and Bert from Barking Abbey School.
All 13 evacuees had the use of the front room in this house. This was our living room for meals and recreational purposes.
The ground floor of the other house was used for a newspaper distribution business, Lola; the 鈥榤aid of all work鈥� occupied the smallest bedroom. We had the use of the
other two bedrooms, which were furnished with two double beds and one single bed for eleven children.

One older boy had the custody of his two young brothers aged five and seven and not unreasonably claimed one double bed. This left just one double bed, and one single bed, for the remaining eight evacuees. We slept five to a double bed and three to a single bed.
There was no bath available to us in either house. We were obliged to use the Public Slipper Bath at the end of the Promenade

We rarely saw our Foster Mother who was a very large person. The one occasion I do recall seeing her was when I was asked to visit her in the middle room, the only time I was allowed in there. She then asked me if I would go to the butchers for some stewing steak, as Lola was indisposed.

Upon my return I was offered a sweet from a huge box of chocolates. It did not occur to me until later that the chocolates were probably obtained with our sweet ration, which we never saw.

I cannot recall having any conversation with my Foster Father. He would sometimes come into the house dressed in a collarless shirt together with a dark jacket and trousers, the legs of which were tied up with string at the ankle.
Lola was the person who did all the housework, the cleaning, and served our meals.
At teatime each person鈥檚 plate would have his allotted share of butter/margarine and jam.

We used to cycle about 1陆 miles to the Grammar School at Uphill. It was a modern school, one half for the girls, and the other for the boys, with a central Administration Block.
It was now used not only by the local children, but also by others from Barking Abbey and Mitcham County Schools. Needless to say our education was very limited.
We had the use of one half of the school in the morning only from a Monday to Wednesday and again on Friday morning. Thursday morning we did supervised homework at a Church Hall.
It was not really practicable to use the house for homework with 12 others also using the room for various activities and Lola wishing to lay the table, clear the table, cleaning etc. The only alternative was the Library, which I used from time to time.

I did not wish to worry my mother unduly, so I said nothing to her about our living conditions or our education. She had enough to concern herself with the nightly Air Raids and my brother in the R.A.F.
To quote the popular saying of the day to anyone who complained about anything
鈥楾here鈥檚 a war on you know!鈥�
We were all exhorted to help the war effort in one-way or another. I joined the Air Training Corps and decided that if ever I had to join the Forces I wanted nothing to with the Morse Code. A valuable lesson learned.

Like a lot of other evacuees I had my bicycle at Weston and used it regularly to go on local trips to Cheddar, Wells etc. Always remembering to take my Gas Mask, of course.
One Easter, I organised a party of four, to cycle home for the Easter holiday. We met at the traffic lights on the Locking Road at 6 am and despite a headwind we arrived in Marlborough about lunchtime. For the latter part of the journey we took it in turns to be the leading pair. We finally reached home in Carshalton, Surrey at 9 pm, after a 150 miles cycle ride in the one day, very tired, but triumphant.
One day, three weeks later I cycled back to Weston super Mare.

Dig for Victory was major plea for we now had to be more reliant on producing our own food. People responded to the many requests made of them. My mother joined a local factory making radio parts for the Forces. She had never seen the inside of a factory before but she soon learned the art of soldering parts together.

The decision was also taken to give up their egg ration of one a week (if you were lucky) and to rear chickens instead. This involved boiling up the 鈥榤eal鈥� for them and of course keeping them clean, but the rewards were worth it.
In May 1941 the weekly ration for an adult was as follows-:

Milk 3pints Tea 55 grams Cooking fat55 grams Jam 225 grams
Butter 170 grams Sugar225 grams 鈥�
Bacon 115 grams Cheese 30grams
Meat One shilling worth (5 pence)

Tinned goods were treated separately on a 鈥楶oints 鈥� system according to the product and size. The following month, clothes rationing was introduced on a Points system

All the exotic foods, bananas, oranges etc had long disappeared from the shops but my mother delighted in serving banana sandwiches when she had guests to tea. They always caused a stir and the guests wanted to know how she obtained the bananas.
Sometimes she would let it be known that they were not bananas, at all, but parsnip with banana essence. It was so long since anyone had tasted a banana they could not tell the difference.

My pocket money at this time was two shillings (10p) a week which did not go very far towards the purchase of necessities like Postage stamps, toothpaste, hair cream and writing materials. I decided it was about time that I did a newspaper delivery round for my Foster father for the sum of five shillings (25p) a week.
This entailed getting up at 6.30a.m. when the papers arrived, in order to complete the paper round and be ready for breakfast at 8.am before cycling to school.

One June night I was awakened by the sound of very low flying aircraft, which may have just taken off from the nearby Locking Airport. Almost immediately the Air Raid Siren was sounded. We hurriedly dressed and went into the surface Air Raid Shelter almost adjacent to the house. We were soon joined by a number of other people, who also thought that the aircraft we heard, were Beaufighters from Locking.
It was not long before we heard some bombs whistling down but they were not accompanied by the loud thud or explosion we had heard at home during the 鈥楤litz鈥� It transpired it was an incendiary raid.
Some hours later, when we were allowed to leave the Shelter, the little service road was full of fire engines and ancillary equipment. Hoses were everywhere. It was then that I noticed that Marks and Spencers on the other side of the service road opposite our house had been completely destroyed.
We were very lucky.
Later that morning I cycled to school to commence our School Certificate examinations.
Unfortunately the school had received a direct hit by a bomb, which had destroyed part of the building including one set of exam papers.
We were locked in the hall whilst the local children went into the classrooms to commence the examination. We were then dismissed with instruction to return at a particular time.
When we returned the examination had finished, all the papers examined and whilst we were again locked in the hall the other children were then dismissed.
We then entered the classroom and commenced the examination with the same examination papers.
I subsequently learned that I did not do very well in that exam and pondered whether our receipt of only 40% of schooling had something to do with it
.Further schooling at Weston was obviously out of the question and we all returned home.
Later I re-sat the examination at Mitcham and passed the School Certificate.

Continued in Chapter 2

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.