大象传媒

I was about 13 and half when the war started, I was not very tall or big as a boy but although I was a patrol leader in the Boy Scouts in Westcliff on Sea. Our Scoutmaster was working a lot of overtime and so we ran out own meetings until he arrived just before the end.
On Friday 1st September 1939, The caretaker of the Chapel hall where we met, suggested that in the circumstances that we should all go home and not have a meeting that night. We were well aware of the likelihood of war. As we gathered outside the hall, it was decided that the younger ones should go home and a group of us with bikes would cycle down to the ARP headquarters in Southend and see if we could be of help.
We were quickly set to helping with the sandbagging of the windows and entrance to the large house which had been converted to offices which was to be used as the ARP Headquarters. We were there until 11 p.m. or so before we were sent home.
Next morning, several of us returned and we were soon integrated into the ARP system as messengers, tea makers, and any other odd jobs they could find for us. Later I was sent off to an area office at the back of the Technical College hall, to act as their messenger and tea boy. I was proud that that my scout training was being put to use in helping defend my country.
Later we were told that we couldn't go back to school because the air raid shelters had not been completed so for most of a month I was busy engaged running errands and making endless pots of tea, which seemed an essential for the smooth running of the ARP.
It wasn't long before I was moved on to the College hall in which a gas mask fitting centre had been established to supply all the people who had not bothered to have one the previous year. There I was soon again with the inevitable tea brewing as well as seeing that the various fitters had supplies of gas masks in the different sizes. Queues of people went through that hall everyday until eventually supplies of ready assembled gas mask began to run out. I was taken into a small room were I was quickly shown how to assembly them with a small hand machine designed to stretch the rubber band which joined the rubber face piece to canister. For several days I worked flat out assembling masks until fresh supplies arrived.
Sadly my war effort came to an end when we were recalled to school, but it has always remain in my memory the way we, as Scouts, were trusted to do any job we were given without constant supervision, in those initial stages of getting the ARP up and running.
After that life went on much as usual the sirens became part of our life as an occassional aircraft ventured our way. The next main event was dunkirk.
The first few weeks of the war also created a problem with coping with the blackout. Living in a world of complete darkness was a new experience to everyone
Street lights were switched off, vehicle headlights were masked and bike lamps virtually useless. The houses and shops were blacked out and the local streets had narrow pavements and were lined with trees which even shaded the sky. Walking after dark was a hazardous business, as one blindly felt ones way along the road. lampposts and trees started to be painted with white bands to help people avoid them.

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