´óÏó´«Ã½

For me the war started at Grammar School.
Some say it started in 1938 when the Germans went into Czechoslovakia and not in 1939, some say it started in 1936 with the aggression in Austria.
I passed the entrance exam at Birmingham Grammar School and I was due to start in 1939.
My first memories of the war are of school.
I was waiting for Neville Chamberlain to come back.
Everything quietened down though and we did start school.
The headmaster was convinced there would be a war.
We were all issued with gas masks and the school had full procedures ready.
When it came to the crunch and things began to happen the school had a fully planned system.
We were all marshalled in to the school hall two days before war broke out.
The luggage was sorted out and we had an overnight bag.
Our parents were told to collect a bag of rations — tin of ships biscuits, can of condensed sweetened milk, chocolate, fruit. We didn't meed the 'iron' rationing for the purpose it was meant for and we just ate it whenever.
We think the milk was to pour over the biscuits as they were like cardboard.
We were assembled on the platforms just as you see in the old news reels.
A lot of people were separated from their families — I was separated from my brother who was seven years younger than me.
I got on the train with the parents on the platform all waving us off.
One boy managed to open his tin of condensed milk and held it out of the window — people jumped back to avoid getting it on their clothes and their hair.
Some hours later we arrived in Monmouth, a small town in South Wales.
I was only in the 3rd form — the older boys got to share their lessons with girls — we were very jealous. We shared the school mornings and afternoons.
In Birmingham there no bombing for the first 12 months so the parent didn't see the point in the children being evacuated and started to bring them home. A number came home including myself.
In September 1940 the Battle of Britain was the main thing going on.
Soon after that the bombing started.
Where we were living was seven or eight miles from the centre of Birmingham.
Although parts were quite heavily bombed, others were quite normal.
I would get the bus to school every morning and can't remember many days that this was effected.
The nearest bombs I can remember were months away.
There was a factory in the country making parts and they tried to blow it up with an enormous land mine bomb by parachute.
This was relatively minor as to what was happening elsewhere.
Our house was at one end of a block. There was an open field on one side of us. One particular night when bombers were somewhere around there were loud bombs and tiles came off the roof and windows came in but it didn't cause much damage.
In 1942 I was 15 years old and I took the equivalent of the GSCEs. That exam was called the School leaving certificate. If you were at Grammar School you could take the high school certificate. There was only a 6th form in Monmouth so I couldn't stay in Birmingham. I looked at my options. I was offered a job at Birmingham University but opted to go back to Monmouth.
I passed the required six subjects but didn't do that well.
I failed mathematics so had to think which subjects to take. I chose Biology which I had never done before. I couldn't draw and still can't make anything look like it should, so I didn't expect to pass Biology.
I went to Monmouth and found a place to stay which could only be called unusual — a Manor House on the outskirts of Monmouth. It belonged to the Crompton Roberts Family. All family members but one had been killed in the war. The only surviving member was an old lady in a wheelchair and she was looked after by staff.
There were 25 to 30 rooms, many locked. Others were open but everything was covered in dust sheets. There were ceiling to floor tapestries.
They had got oil paintings and other items.
A colleague from school was with me and we shared the billiard room as a study.
They had been a wealthy family and it was a wonderful place to stay. Some people came from London and opened cupboards which were packed with exquisite pottery and glass.
We didn't appreciate this at 15 / 16 years old.
It had a fantastic kitchen garden with one gardener and a couple of people who came from the town. We lived on vegetables and fruit which was a very healthy diet.
Early in 1944 I realised that I wouldn't pass biology and at 18 years old would be conscripted anyway. So I decided to volunteer with the Air Force.
Earnest Bevan wanted more miners and I didn't want this so I volunteered with the Royal Air Force at just over 17 years old.
I had to chose a trade. Some one I knew had chosen to be a meteorologist and this appealed to me so I chose this.
I failed Biology and so left after 6 years at Grammar School.
My headmaster wrote "A fine cricketer and efficient secretary, academically disappointing."
After coming home I got my calling up papers and reported to Bedford Street. I was collected and taken to a recruitment centre.
We were inducted, kitted out and medically examined.
After we were told what to do after a few days we were loaded onto a train.
About 4 hours later we stopped at what was obviously a terminus. We all piled out and got into ranks with kit bags over our shoulders and started walking.
We realised we were approaching a promenade. There was a stretch of beach, sea and guest houses and on the other side barbed wire. Another person asked "Where are we Corp?". He answered "Skegness".
We were given a billet and started doing basic training using a gun. After 8 weeks we had our passing out parade. The Imperial Guest House was the Officers Mess. I was quite enjoying it and was fitter than I ever had been.
Just because you had chosen a trade it didn't mean you would do it, but luck was with me and I was piled on to a train and sent to London, Cork Street to do my course.
I checked in and was handed a pass at reception and was told "That will cost you half a crown".
It was a pass to the Queensby Club.
It opened 7 nights a week for service people based in and around London.
I was at school and went on the tube. I occasionally did fire watch but other than that evenings and weekends were free so I started going to the Queensby Club.
Saturday evenings was dancing, Sunday was cinema and for the other 5 nights the ´óÏó´«Ã½ used it to record live shows. These were Big Bands like Ambrose, Joe Loss, Lou Stone.
There was a whole series of them. They were big names back then.
They were recording half an hour shows.
There was the Squadron Airs — a dance band of the the air force. They did a lot of broadcasts.
The Royal Marines Corp dance Band and there were some Overseas bands aswell.
The absolute ace of the pack was the band of the US Army Training Corps — that was the band formed by the then Captain Glen Miller.
They had come to London a couple of months ago and would do one show a week that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ would record.
It was packed to the rafters — the most popular dance band of the world.
I saw the band 6 or 7 more times.
It was a fantastic band.
I can say I remember seeing Glen Miller, this was shortly before he disappeared.
Gerry Grey his arranger made some fabulous arrangements, blending in strings with the other instruments.
That was the highlight for me.
During this period there was a lull in bombing and so there was literally nothing in the way of bombing and it was a peaceful time.
I got my first posting at Nuneaton. It was comparatively easy for me to get home. I was quite happy for the next 6 months doing what I was doing. We were flying these Wellington bombers and our job was supplying weather forecasts for them. It was very interesting, especially if you had a spell of weather which was clear. We plotted the charts.
They got itchy when the skies were clear and humidity was high because of fog coming in. If there was any mist or fog they couldn't see the lights and they would be re-directed elsewhere.
We had to run out and check the temperatures.
In those days fog was a real problem due to the smog.
Then there was VE Day when war in Europe finally finished.
The war with Japan was still going on — I got a posting sending me overseas.
I had to report to Blackpool and was kitted out with tropical kit and a helmet and in due course I was loaded on to a boat.
July 1945.
I didn't know where I was going but I knew it was somewhere hot.
It took three weeks to get there and we ended in Bombay.
It was pretty hot and not comfortable but we were young and interested.
We disembarked in Bombay.
The first thing they did was to reissue our kit. We had bush helmets. Then we were loaded onto the train — it was the worst experience of my life.
The weather was full monsoon and we were crammed into small carriages with no proper toilet facilities.
The journey took 5 days and nights.
We traveled miles to Calcutta.
A lot of this was single track so we had to let other things go past.
The food was not very good and I was not familiar with Indian foods like curry.
One very vivid memory was when we stopped somewhere for cook to make a meal.
This would usually mean stopping for 2 to 3 hours.
Hoards of local people would appear round the train selling fruit or craft items.
We'd been served our meal and there was a lot of food left. The local people would crowd round with all sorts of containers to have food ladled into.
There was about 25 of them.
The cooks had seen it all as they were long serving.
Cook gave out the food to the people and suddenly from underneath the wagon appeared a little head.
The boy stood there in the pouring rain, wearing only trousers and holding his hands out for food. The Corporal Cook made him realise that he needed something to put the food in.
The boy ran off, up and down and then came back.
He pulled down his trousers and wrapped them round his hands and held them out.
The Corporal Cook had tears on his face and he went and found a tin to give the boy some food.
Before he took it he did the traditional Shalom before taking it and running off.
When we were in Calcutta in a restaurant eating roast duck, there was a loud noise at the door.
Corporal came in and shouted "War is over. The Americans have dropped a bomb and the Japanese have surrendered."
We were going to the border of Burma — there were still active troops there.
We were there for 6 weeks and traveled there on a paddle steamer.
It took 30 hours to get back with the monsoon.
We went back to Calcutta and then followed by what can only be described as a holiday in Paradise, south of Calcutta.
There were 4 enormous hangers at the aerodrome. The Yanks had gone and it was being used as a transit centre for army and air force being collected.
A lot of them were waiting to be brought back to England.
During this period there was not a lot of flying but you still needed to operate the met. Office.
Twice as many people as needed where there. I got 5 days off due to this.
The Americans had left excellent sports facilities. Badminton courts were marked out in hangers. There were very good sports people there. We were coached to a high standard.
One morning I was in a hut where we slept. There was a lot of cubicles there with wash areas. One local guy was there cleaning it out. I asked him what it was built for. He smiled then said "Jig a Jig — you know ladies and gentlemen!"
Eventually we were loaded onto a plane — the first time I had flown — to Calcutta. We were there for a couple of days then loaded onto another Dakota.
I remember landing very well but there was the most appalling noise that I had never heard before.
It was too dark to see where we were. As it got light, we realised we were in the jungle and had landed on steel strips — hence the noise.
We lived in tents pitched in fairly large co-conut groves. There were no toilets and water was drawn from the ground. We would strain it through muslin — it was a grey milky colour.
We excepted it and did as we were told.
We were there for about 6 weeks.
We had Indian beds and there were two of us in a tent.
This particular day I was half lying in the bed trying to keep cool when the guy I was sharing with came from the admin. building with an old gramophone and records under his arm.
As he went through the pile his face got darker and darker and he went back to the building.
I was curious and looked at them and amongst them there were Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
I was into jazz and big band music but I listened to these and after I had listened to it often enough I liked it and began a love of classical music.
We were there for about 9 months.
By July the station had been told we were winding down and there was a big lunch. Some of us stayed for a number of weeks.
I was sitting one afternoon and was off duty and decided I was thirsty and found myself a bottle with a crown top. The neck of the bottle broke. My thumb started to bleed quite profusely and I went to the medical orderly. I saw a plane taking off. It disappeared into the distance. I went to the medical orderly and we chatted and he bound up my thumb. It was a rather deep cut so he asked that I came back and have a few stitches in the morning.
I heard a plane approaching, all alarms started ringing.
The medical orderly sprang up and I walked back to my billet.
Later one of my colleagues came back and said the plane ran off the end of the runway and everyone was killed.
It was only about 10 years ago on the radio when I heard what had happened.
The plane had set off and then turned back as it thought there was a problem, but people had gone onto the runway. The pilot had tried to land the plane on the other side of them, but there was not enough runway left and they had crashed.
I was posted to Malaysia.
On days off I'd go on the ferry and they'd be the most wonderful clear sand and clear luck warm sea water and co-conut bays.
We spent a lot of time there when we were off duty. It was the coolest place to be when it was hot.
After 4 or 5 months there I went to the forecast centre and I spent a lot of time in the office typing rather than plotting chart.
We spent the last 2 weeks in a rubber plantation waiting to come back.
1947 December.
We were there for Christmas and there was nothing to do.
28th December we got our travel plans.
The Royal Airforce where using proper transport planes.
We flew from Singapore to an airport in Ceylon, then to India, then to Iraq.
I remember getting out of the plane and feeling very cold.
We were walking across to the huts and treading on something shiny that broke — it was ice.
We had been in the tropics for two and a half years.
!947 New Years Eve.
The following day we flew to Malta. There were strong winds and we had to re-fuel.
We were all very excited about being back in Europe. We were planning a night out. To our absolute dismay everywhere was shut — restaurants, coffee bars, pubs — Malta was predominately catholic so everywhere was closed at this time of year.
The following day we landed in Oxfordshire and from there I took a bus or a train and finished up at St John's Wood in London at the DeMob centre. We were examined — medical and dental. We were kited out and given a travel warrant to return home to Leicester.
My parents had moved here and I didn't know anyone.
I went to the Youth Fellowship with my younger brother and there I met my wife — we are still married.

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Lisa Reeves of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Victor Blease and has been added to the site with his pemission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditons.

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