大象传媒

WW2 - People`s War.
I was about 6 and a half when WW2 was declared.
I well remember the Sunday morning when the then Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, broadcast to the nation. I was at home at Kenton in Middlesex, with my family. My father, mother, elder brother (Michael) and sister (Sylvia) and I were indoors waiting for the announcement, due at 11am.
I suppose that my parents were aware of the historic broadcast about to be made and felt that we should be there, even at our young ages.
After the broadcast we children went out to play - before lunch.
After that nothing seemed to happen, for a while at least. I recall that that time was called `the phoney war`, and I suppose everybody was just waiting to see what would happen.

A short time after that I was evacuated - for the first of three times - to stay with my Uncle, Aunt and two cousins this time in Ramsgate.
On reflection Ramsgate seems to be a strange place to be sent as it was later known as `bomb alley` !.
For some reason my brother and sister did not come with me. They, I believe stayed at home. It might have been because of the ill-health of my mother, who suffered badly from asthma.
I think I stayed in Ramsgate for about 3 - 4 months, and then I came home.
I have two abiding memories of being in Kent at that time. One was the excitement of watching the
Naval ships in the channel - sometimes firing their guns. This was I am sure the start of my ambition to join the Royal Navy (which I did some 9 years later) and to travel.
My second memory was of that time was when I was standing on top of a garden shed watching aircraft (some enemy) flying over the coast toward London. On one occasion a German plane seemed to be flying directly at the shed and in my haste to get away I remember my trousers falling down !! - making it more difficult to run.

After coming back home the Battle of Britain and the bombing of London began in earnest, and I recall watching the red skies over London when so much was burning, as well as collecting shrapnel
each morning after the nightly raids were over for another day.
It was something of a competition to collect as much shrapnel as possible and there was a lot of rivalry between our school friends.
My best friend - Jimmy Clarke - and I used to go (cycle) to Northolt aerodrome to watch the Polish Squadrons of the RAF., scramble to fight with the Luftwaffe. It was very exciting to see the fighters take off and tackle, far above us, the German planes.
I seem to remember that if there was an air raid in progress before we went to School we did not have to attend ?. That would have been how we could go to Northolt during the day - or maybe it was in the school summer holidays ?.
I recall that we were not frightened, indeed it was very exciting - even the time when german fighters tried to strafe the airfield and we had to dive under a hedge.
My father was, at the time, the Chief Air Raid Warden for Wembley, and used to be out a lot at night, fire watching etc. The rest of the family often took shelter in our indoor air raid shelter - a Morrison shelter - which was erected in our sitting room, against the party wall dividing our house with next doors.
I remember that we eventually did not go into the shelter every night as we had become somewhat blas茅 about what happened - by then almost routinely.

When the bombing of London was at it`s peak I was again evacuated, on my own, to my cousins, who were then in Northumberland, near a town called Brough. I remember going to school there and very particularly that because I had a southern accent I was, I believe, resented and treated like a foreigner !. On my way to school - on my second or third day, a boy was leaning across his farm gate
watching me pass and as I did he said 鈥渁rll put ma fist in thar gump鈥� !! - which was clearly not friendly, and as - even then I believed that `discretion was the better part of valour鈥� I subsequently took a mile diversion, every day, to school to avoid trouble. I also remember thinking that living up there in the north they really did not know that there was a war on. Certainly food rationing did not seem to be part of their lives.
(2)

After I came home this time the Battle of Britain was over and things had changed dramatically.
It was the time of the V1 - the `doodlebug` and whenever one was passing over and the engine stopped we (very quickly) took shelter !.
I remember watching one VI coming over Harrow, from the London direction and an RAF Spitfire
tipped it`s wing to divert it - which it did - BUT - it then crashed on a house in Harrow, killing I think at least one person. I remember being very touched to hear that the Spitfire pilot came to Harrow to say how sorry he was at what had happened.
I also recall watching one on another day, from the roof of our garage, and being so absorbed in tracking this particular VI that I walked straight off the end of the garage splitting my chin- which required a number of stitches to be put in by the local doctor. I still have the scar !!.

Then came the V2 - if, as we often were, sitting in the Air Raid Shelter at school and V2`s came over and crashed we could tell if it was near, or close by the vibrations` through the ground. If it was close the dust rose up from the floor and the building shook. If it was some way away you just heard it, rather than felt it.
I will never forget that one day, when I was just over ten, I was sitting in the shelter at school and when the `all clear` was sounded - following shortly after what was very clearly a V2 falling very close by - my mother, who used to collect me from school did not come.
I remember sitting there for a long time, the only child left, and the teacher could not go until I had been collected. Eventually a local errand boy who was passing, and I knew, took me home on his delivery bike and when I turned the corner of my road I saw that all the windows had been blown out of the house, and there was nobody around that I knew. The road was blocked with fire engines,
wardens and other people and vehicles.

I later found that my mother had gone to a friends` house - very shaken - and just a couple of days later - no doubt through shock - she has a very bad asthma attack and died !.
I also learnt that a schoolmate of mine (in the same class as me) had been killed by the V2 - which had landed on his house, - on a day when he was home from school through illness !!.

Following that terrible time I was once again evacuated, this time to St.Neots, near an RAF bomber
aerodrome, this time with my sister - where we stayed for some months`, until things settled own and until our father felt he could have us back home again.

Later on in my life when I was serving on HMS Forth in the Suez crisis of 1956 I once again saw people being killed and killing others I really thought what fools we all are !.
This prompted me to purchase my discharge from the Royal Navy.

How futile Mans` inhumanity (stupidity) to man really is.
and we are still doing it !!.

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