大象传媒

(This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Three Counties Action on behalf of Arthur Hinks and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Hinks fully understands the sites terms and conditions).

I lived in London near to the White City Stadium. Me and my mates on September 3rd 1939 (it was a brilliant and sunny day) went down to the local swimming pool. The sirens went off and we had to get out of the pool. As we came out people were running up the road worried about the air raid but it turned out to be a false alarm. Eventually that swimming pool became a morgue for all the people. That was my first memory of the war. And the next day was my 19th birthday - so I was born on the date after the war started!

I was exempt from the war because I had a bad leg so I worked in a shoe shop called the 鈥淣orthampton Shoe Renovators鈥� in London 鈥� a shoe repairer. Because of my disability I went to school and learnt how to make and mend shoes, but most of it was repairing. It was a big firm in those days. I was transferred to several branches including Kings Road in Chelsea. On the 15th September 1940 the Battle of Britain day I was working in Kings Road and we stood outside and watched the Battle of Britain and we could see everything. It was vivid 鈥� all the vapor trails.

On another day a bomb blast burst all the windows of the shop. They blew out during the day and they were repaired, but by the evening they were out again!

My friend and I - Bob Hall used to go dancing, we loved ballroom dancing. We used to go to all the big competitions in London at the Pally and the night of the fire of London we decided to go to Streatham to a big dance competition and coming out we got on the train to come home, and there were no light on the train and looking towards London we could see a vivid red glow in the sky and when we got back home to the station we could see the great fire and then that鈥檚 when we realised how bad it was. It was a big night- we were so worried, frightened and scared.

We used to go ice-skating at Wembley stadium and when we went the Battle of Britain pilots who had been terribly injured and burnt (their faces were scarred from all the plastic surgery they had to have) were guests of honour at the ice rink. They must have suffered terribly. That was a terrible memory seeing them all there.

Prior to this I worked in Edgware Road near Marble Arch and prior to the invasion every day invasion armaments came down from the North going to the coast. There were tanks, trucks, gun aircraft and anti-gun aircraft; basically all the invasion force came down that way. The Americans would come on their Harley Davidson bikes, stop at the junction and hold all the traffic up. It was an amazing, marvelous site to see, it was fantastic. Week after week that happened. Everyone stopped to watch it. It think all the invasion armaments must have come down that road.

I also remember the day the 1st V1 was dropped on London. It was dropped in Chiswick, which was about 6 miles away from me and the plate glass windows in the shop shook and that was 6 miles away! Everything vibrated even from that distance!

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