大象传媒

The World War Two Story Of George William Ewens

At the time when the war first broke out I was still just a boy of thirteen, living in a small Village in west Sussex. I lived with my father, mother, brother and five sisters.

At the start of the war many evacuees, mainly from Peckham, arrived at our village meaning that we had to share our schools and do half days to make room for the newcomers. There were two schools in the village, my small school with only thirty-eight pupils and one teacher and then the Church of England school which was larger with many more pupils. There was a grammar school a few miles away with scholarships but we did not do the exams required to enter at my school.

When I was still young I worked in the butchers shop in the village, it was a good job as meat was strictly rationed. I was lucky in my war years I spent in the village as it was relatively safe and only about fifteen bombs were dropped in our area over a period of a few years. I remember once a one tonne bomb being dropped near the village but it did not explode and the authorities managed to disarm it.

There was a large airfield in the village and I remember once a Merchmit plane came hurtling down onto the airfield still intact. The airfield staff took the plane around the towns to raise money. It turned out to be successful.

On the 3rd may 1941 a bomb was dropped barely fifty yards from our house. This was a shock as the windows smashed and some of the roof crumbled so we ended up all having to live in just the one room. Unfortunately very soon after the event we all caught the measles and were housebound for a long time. This was disappointing as I had to miss the start of my new job, I joined the Air Raid Precautions as a messenger boy. I had to go and fetch Wardens and transport messages from one warden to another.

On the 16th December 1943 when I was still a young lad of seventeen I joined the navy, having been rejected at the age of sixteen. I was sent to an old Butlins holiday camp in Blackpool where I spent ten days and in that time was fully kitted up. From there I went to a different holiday camp where all my basic training took place. I then moved on to yet another camp in Scotland where I trained to be a Telegraphist and successfully became one.

I then went to the Isle of Man and after twelve weeks travelled to Fareham near Portsmouth where I was drafted onto my first ship the Landing Ship Tank as a professional Telegraphist. We sailed to Southampton loaded with canvas equipment for a camp. On the deck of the ship there were two big pontoons which were each about 30 yards long and 6 yards wide, these could be slipped off the side of the ship easily to form a landing stage. There were also three Lorries on the deck.

I remember there also being another Telegraphist on the ship I was on, who was pretty useless as he was sea sick all the time which meant that the rest of us got an extra helping of food at meal times. This was good but we ate relatively well anyway as the food in the navy was very good. I don鈥檛 recall ever being hungry.

In April 1945 we sailed to the Far East through the Mediterranean and up the Suez canal until we came to a place called Cochin in Southern India where I left the LST and joined the HMS Glenroy which carried two thousand soldiers for assault landings on beaches.

In August we sailed to Malacca Straights to make landings on the Morib beaches which were in Malaya. Before landing could be made though the end of war with the Japanese occurred but we still landed the troops on the beaches as planned and then carried on to Singapore and there for the handover back to the British.

From Singapore we were sent to Java which is now known as Indonesia to free prisoners of war known as Repatuated Allied Prisoner Of War Eternies.

We freed two thousand women and children from a camp in Surabaya and brought them back to Singapore where they were transported in various ships back to Europe. They were mainly Dutch. This process went on for a good six months.

Then we went on to the Philippines to bring back a crew of LCD鈥檚 which were then handed back over to the Americans. We then went back to Singapore where the ship was sent home so we were put ashore on an Island called the HMS Sultan until we were transported back home to Britain for demobilisation. I left the navy on the 29th December 1946.

I was handed a ration book, a clothes token book, a suit, hat, shirt and shoes when I was demobbed.

I have five medals now that I received for various duties I did during the war. Four for the war and the general service medal for the operations in Java.

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