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This story was submitted to the People鈥� War by a volunteer from The Chepstow Society on behalf of George Francis and has been added to the site with his permission. George Francis fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

At the declaration of war, on 3rd September 1939, I happened to be spending the morning with my grandmother at Five Acres, Tutshill. I well remember listening to the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain鈥檚 broadcast at 11 a.m. announcing to the country that a state of war existed between the United Kingdom and Germany.

I was away at school during the whole war and therefore I was only in the Chepstow district for less that a third of each year.

During the summer holidays of 1940 I recall playing tennis one Sunday afternoon et Wyndcliffe Court, St Arvans, when the Germans attacked Filton in strength and in a blue cloudless sky numerous dog fights ensued within what seemed like moments of the arrival of the raiders. From my vantage point on the hill abovr St. Arvans the whole affair was spectacular in the extreme through the eyes of a schoolboy.

It was apparent that the radar had picked up the raiders at an early stage as several squadrons and Spitfires were immediately engaged.
The sky seemed to be full of whirling planes, some plummeting to the ground pouring smoke and numerous parachutes in the sky.
Apart from being a Fighter Command Sector base it was also the home of Bristol Aeroplane Company which was no doubt producing aicraft. Nothing that I subsequently witnessed in Chepstow was so spectacular.

There was a wholesale building of pill boxes to be used by defending troops. To this day, many remain. I have one still standing and in good order built into a stone wall.

During the Desert Campaign in North Africa most of the tanks and other vehicles were shipped through South Wales ports and this necessitated
passing over the Wye via the iron bridge at the bottom of town. This was the main road used by all materials coming from the Midland factories. At one time I saw a total of nine tanks on three transporters on the bridge at one time - - some tonnage !

Not many bombs fell within the Chepstow area, although I recall one stick of small high explosive bombs falling in the fields at Tutshill but doing no damage. Quite a large number of bombs fell on open land in the Sedbury area but these were clearly being unloaded by raiders who were being chased by night fighters.

An interesting aspect of the period concerned the use of Chepstow Racecourse. The entire property was requisitioned early in the war, the stables being converted into a Prisoner of War Camp for the German Army with a portion of St. Lawrence Hospital being set aside as a Prisoner of War Hospital where severely wounded prisoners were treated. It so happened that the Royal Army Medical Corps Colonel Commandant of the Hospital was the father of a friend of mine with whom I was at school. As a result of this I spent a considerable time up at St.Lawrence during the school holdays.
The whole of the Racecourse, Piercefield park and also Oak Gove were used for the storage of lancaster bombers prior to going into Squadron Service. The aircraft arrived on vehicles called 鈥淎 Queen Mary鈥� ( a very long low loader) were assembled and parked under the trees. The exciting part was when they left the Racecourse under their own power when passing into Squadron Service. A grass runway was constructed which stretched from the most northerly point of the Racecourse at St Arvans, through the centre of the course, over the Lions Lodge entrance and across to Filton. This was an extremely hazardous exercise as the runway was too shoty for practical purposes but, with the aircraft stripped down to the basic essentials, without any armament, just sufficient fuel to get across to Filton and only the pilot on board, it proved just possible. Unbelievably no accident took place and I remember watching from the Glos. side of the Wye the planes creeping over the lower end of the Racecourse, having just gained sufficient height. It was always possible to tell when this was taking place as the engines could be heard getting up to temperature before take off.

The Racecourse main buildings were used throughout by the Army, but immediately prior to D - Day, a battalion of US Army was in occupation and under training for the landings in North West France. Part of their training took in street fighting and Piercefield house was used for this purpose with live ammunition which, as might be imagined, did not exactly improve its structure. The Battalion was commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel Lucius Clay who subsequently became General Eisenhower鈥檚 Chief of Staff when President of the USA and whose ancestors by chance were the same Clay family who lived at Piercefield park from 1850 to afte the first World War, whereupon the Park became what was then the new Chepstow Racecourse.

The only remaining recollections which were somewhat less dramatic, but nevertheless equally important were the National Savings Drives that took place which involved 鈥渂uying鈥� parts of Spitfires. The taxation system st that time involved the issue of Post - war Credits which, in effect, was a loan from the tax payer to the Government to help finance the munitions of war. Some millions of pounds of Post - war Credits were issued and huge amounts were never reclaimed as, over the years, certificates became lost or mislaid. Eventually the right to repayment was extinguished after some twenty or more years.

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