大象传媒

Staffordshire County Council libraries, on behalf of the author, have submitted this story. The author fully understands the rules and regulations of the People's War website.

I vividly remember the start of the Second World War - 3rd September 1939. My father, my two brothers and myself were listening to the radio when the dramatic announcement came through that we were at war with Germany. I was sixteen, my younger brother was fourteen and my older brother was seventeen and a half years old. My father, who only twenty one years previously, was in the trenches in the first world war turned to us and said "All you three will be in it". So he was in the traumatic situation where he knew that all his sons would be at risk and any day he and my mother could receive a telegram reporting any of us "killed in action". Even after all this, he joined the Home Guard. However, all three of us survived.
I went into the RAF as a wireless operator and fortunately the only real danger I experienced was when I was stationed in Dover. From the top of the cliffs we used to watch the flying bombs coming over from the French coast, never knowing where they were going to land. In addition, we had to endure the cross channel shelling of Dover. Unlike an air-raid where there was a warning, the only indication was the explosion of the first shell.
At the end of the war in Europe (VE Day), along with thousands of other wireless operators, I was redundant and sent to a transit camp. This was an absolute shambles, with all sorts of time-wasting activities. I once spent a whole day sweeping rubbish round the floor of a room just in case an Officer walked in.
Eventually, the atom bomb was dropped and Japan capitulated.
Demobilisation was a very slow process and I found myself being sent overseas to Hong Kong instead of returning home as I hoped. It was another twelve months before I was demobilised.

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