大象传媒

World War Two pt 2

I was one of a group of cyclists who were trained to know all the significant parts of the town, we were called Bideford Messengers and might possibly have been of some use if the threatened German invasion actually happened and normal communications broke down.
I remember that there was a military exercise in the district for the Home Guard. An army unit was supposed to be trying to capture the town. After some blanks had been fired I heard鈥� Youm dead鈥� followed by 鈥淣o I ain鈥檛 yer missed鈥� I thought they sounded like small kids.
Our headmaster, Mr Turner 鈥� he liked to be called F.T. 鈥� was billeted at a large posh house called Glenbournie. It had a field in front in of it where cows grazed and a small wood with a stream running through it. He revived the 2nd Bideford Scout troop. It met at the Geneva School. I joined. We used the wood for 鈥榝ieldcraft鈥�. Once I fried an egg over a wood fire I had lighted there - it was a bit sooty! (I noted that in 2003 the estate is now full of newish houses,)
I was one of a group that cut logs with a two-handed saw for a convalescent home along the Abbotsham Road. This was really special because when we had a break we were given sandwiches with real honey, this was a rarity during the war
The school helped the war effort a bit agriculturally. Farms were short of manpower because many farmhands had volunteered for the armed services. Once a lorryload of us were taken to Torrington to lift potatoes on what is now part of the common at the top of the hill above the railway station. A tractor went before us turning the soil over and exposing the spuds. We then picked them up and put them in sacks. There was a government sponsored 鈥淒ig for Victory鈥� campaign to grow our own food 鈥� many of our merchant ships were sunk by submarines. So some of us were supervised as we dug up some grassland near the long jump pit and then planted various vegetables there. Mr Wheeler assured us they would 鈥済row like one o-clock鈥� I can鈥檛 recall harvesting them. The school also organised a 鈥楬arvest Camp鈥� at Enmore Castle farm somewhere near Bridgewater in the summer holiday. We slept in ancient army surplas bell tents amongst other things we pulled flax and stooked corn. Sadly one of our masters drowned in the lake there. He had been bathing during the day while no pupils and few staff were there.
There were fewer pupils in Bideford than in the pre-war days and we were consequently under pressure to take part in almost everything. Thus I took part in the cross-country run for the glory of the house [gamma house, all Greek to me] I was very surprised to be overtaking some hulking 鈥渕en鈥� of the 6th form as we came towards the finish. This probably started my interest in athletics; here was something I could do better than many of my contemporaries, including Martin!
During this time there had been a steady trickle of pupils returning to Croydon and by the autumn of 1942 there wasn鈥檛 a viable group left, our evacuation ended and we went home. I had enjoyed my stay in Devon, which is why I applied for a job in Ilfracombe 16 years later and have spent more than half my life there.

Our return was not well timed; we went home in time for the V1 and the V2. These were both 鈥渢error weapons鈥� which Hitler launched against London, supposedly to cow the nation into submission. Neither were manned craft and in those days the weapons were not very accurate. I watched one of the earliest 鈥榙oodle bugs鈥�, as we called the V1,. It was daylight. The air raid sirens had 鈥榞one鈥� I heard it first. An unusual droning from it鈥檚 engine. Then saw it. There were flames coming from the back. Good, I thought, it鈥檚been hit. Then the engine suddenly cut out. An eerie silence as it nosedived. Oh dear, could it possibly hit waste ground, or an empty park? I鈥檓 glad it has already passed me. A loud explosion as it landed. That was it. During the next few weeks I heard many more. Very worrying at night, the drone, the engine cut, then where will it land? It was soon made public that the doodlebug was an unmanned aircraft with a primitive jet engine, packed with explosives, aimed vaguely at London but likely to land anywhere. The V2 was a rocket, the first ballistic missile, packed with one ton of explosives, not very accurate but unlike the V1, there was no warning 鈥� just the bang as it landed. There was no defence against the V2 once launched. Our tactic was to bomb their launch sites or capture them.
I was living at Coulsdon, and cycled to school daily. Sometimes I noticed a gap where there had been houses the day before, but this was rare and most missiles landed nearer London. School continued normally. When the siren went classes were held in a long corridor on the ground floor. It had brick cross walls at each end, to reduce the effect of blast if something hit the building and the windows were boarded up to prevent glass flying about if there was a near miss. By that time I was in the 6th form and we were asked to go around the upper floors and use a hammer to smash dangerous looking sharp edges of broken windows. We managed to break one or two undamaged ones as well.

I did do something useful during the war. Dennis Burley, who subsequently became a doctor, and I volunteered to help at Mayday, the local hospital. We spent one night a week there on duty as emergency stretcher-bearers. At the height of the V bomb offensive we had to carry casualties from ambulances to the corridor to see a doctor. Sometimes we carried them to the hospital mortuary.

By this time the war was nearing it鈥檚 close. The allies had landed on the French Coast and pushed on towards Germany. The Russians were racing after the remnants of the Germans that had invaded them. I saw one of the 鈥�1,000 bomber raids鈥� starting off. It was amazing. Everywhere I looked around the cloudless sky there were aeroplanes. `The ones I saw were mainly American four- engined bombers, the 鈥楩lying Fortresses鈥� . The air throbbed with their engines. Although they were on our side, I did spare a thought for the people in the target zones. But I also thought 鈥淚t was the Germans who started mass bombing raids, serves them right鈥�. It now seems whichever side has the greater power will use it. Some 3 months later Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered. Great relief, no more blackout ,bombs or missiles. But we were still at war with Japan.
Just before the war finally ended鈥� 1945 鈥� the school had organised another harvest camp at Clandon Park, near Guilford in August. We were there when we heard over the wireless that an atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan . We quizzed our science teacher about this and to his credit he did have a vague idea of the technicalities involved. A few days later Japan surrendered. This is what we had waited nearly 5 years for. I and most of my friends cycled into London and joined huge crowds around Buckingham Palace - we saw the Royal Family and Winston Churchill on the balcony, waving to us.

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