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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by volunteer Stan Grosvenor from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Cleveland on behalf of Harry Foster and has been added to the site with his permission. Harry Foster fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Defence Against Invasion

After France had fallen, we were open to a German invasion. Redcar was inundated with Services units: the sea defences needed to be installed, tank traps and other obstacles built, barbed wire laid and walls erected. The Royal Engineers and Pioneer Corps were heavily involved in this.

A series of land mines were laid from close to the South Gare along to the golf club and others from the East end towards Marske. Sad to relate, a number of youngsters were killed on the golf links. I was walking along one day when a number of land mines went off; they were set to explode in series. There was lots of barbed wire, but smaller children were able to wriggle through it, to their deaths.

The Royal Artillery came and put gun emplacements in at the East end for both coastal defence and anti-aircraft. In the area near the paddling pool there was a gun that was submerged until needed and there were also guns on the South Gare.

The first battalion of troops in Redcar, to act as a counter-invasion force, were the East Sussex Regiment who were stationed at a convalescent home on the site of what is now Redcar Bowl. They arrived just in time to replace Redcar Cricket Club lads who had been called up; players included both officers and men. At that time Redcar was in the NYSD League.

Following the Band

The following year The East Sussex Regiment were replaced by the Royal Welch Fusiliers and again the Club was pleased to welcome a new supply of cricketers. I also remember that they had a magnificent band. It would be led by their mascot, a goat. I was so taken with the music that I would join in the march. This Regiment was followed by the South Staffordshires.

At one point the whole of the promenade was taken over by the RAF for square bashing. There were hundreds of new recruits, all billeted in Redcar, and each house had to take some — we took two of them at our house.

In the Company of County Cricketers

Even so, we would always be short of players because of call-up so I, as well as being Scorer, would also have to bat — at number eleven. I remember one Saturday game against Billingham Synthonia, at their ground: the match had finished in the early evening when the sirens sounded. Billingham was covered by the anti-aircraft smoke-screen and we could barely see and it took us ages to find the bus-stop. Some of the older Redcar players were brought out of retirement to supplement the younger men. These included Sam Tiplady and an old Pro called Harold Pedley who had come to Redcar in the twenties; he became groundsman. Players I met who were provided by the military included RAF Sergeant Jack Iley, a Durham County player and a man called Griffiths from the Welch regiment who played for Glamorgan. Gilbert Parkhouse, a young Glamorgan player on the fringes of the Test team was in the area, but I never came across him.

So for a while, Redcar bustled with the appearance of a garrison town and it seemed right that there should be all this activity. Years later there were hundreds of vehicles in every street around where I lived. It was a big troop movement exercise in preparation for D-Day.

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