The George Adams Interview - Part One

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bill Ross of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of George Adams, and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Adams fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
Other parts to this story can be found at:

INDEX: A7544630

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This is a transcript taken from audio footage made by the Department of Sound Recordings at the
Imperial War Museum,
Lambeth Road,
LONDON SE1 6H7.

It has been copied almost exactly as recorded, therefore the terminology and grammar are as spoken and have not been manipulated in any way. Where place names that could not be found in an atlas, and/or unfamiliar terminology are mentioned, phonetic spellings are used and are subject to alteration.

On some occasions, sentences were not completed; the following symbol is used to denote that: ……………………
Only repetition has been suppressed.

Bill Ross — BBC People’s War Story Editor.
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Interviewer: Er, could you tell me when and where you were born Mr. Adams?

George Adams: 19th of January, 1922 at New Whittington, Chesterfield.

Int: What did your father do for a living?

GA: He was a works clerk at Staveley, he worked at Staveley.

Int: And how many of you were there in the family?

GA: Just mother and father and myself, just the three of us.

Int: Which school did you go to?

GA: New Whittington first of all, then on to Tapton.

Int: What did you want to do when you left school?

GA: I didn’t know actually, it just happened that this job came up at Staveley where my father worked. They asked if it would be any use, they said, “Yes, send him down,” so I went to see them and I went into the laboratory there on the foundry side.

Int: What were you actually doing?

GA: Training as a metallurgist. I stayed there until I went into the forces in 1940.

Int: Had you been in the Boy Scouts or the Rover Scouts?

GA: Yes, both the Scouts and Rover Scouts.

Int: What sort of activities were you doing with them?

GA: Camping, walking, all that kind of thing.

Int: Did it have a military side to it?

GA: No.

Int: Were you in any other boys’ organisation?

GA: No, none whatsoever, just the Boy Scouts.

Int: Were you keen on sport?

GA: Yes; football, cricket, playing with the school, I played after I left school at fifteen. I played with New Whittington and then the Derbyshire League. I played football just on the local sides.

Int: Now, what do you remember about when the war broke out?

GA: Well, the first thing I remember, that really involved us was when we became messengers with the wardens in the village.

Int: What did that entail?

GA: So many nights a week in the wardens’ post. You’d go out with the wardens, and if there was anything happening —nothing, thank goodness ever did whilst I was there, before I joined the forces, if it was needed, they’d send you off to pass messages on to other sections.

Int: So, you were acting as a runner.

GA: That’s right.

Int: Were you on foot or did you have a bike or something?

GA: On foot.

Int: But nothing actually happened during your period.

GA: No, not during that period before I joined up.

Int: Where were you based?

GA: In New Whittington, they had them in all the villages.

Int: What sort of post was it?

GA: It was an office at the Wagon Works in New Whittington, and we also had another post, the main one which was a brick built place, built specially right in the centre of the village itself.

Int: How many wardens and runners were there to cover?

GA: I can’t tell you exactly, but they’d enough to do two nights a week, then they’d enough to cover so they could relieve, then get two free nights, working much as they did on guard duty.

Int: So, you just walked round the whole of the town.

GA: That’s right, round the village, yes; just checking on lights and seeing that everyone had the blackout up and no light showing, things like that.

Int: Now, did you think the war would involve you, to a greater extent than that?

GA: Yes, I think I’d made my mind up. I was too young when it started, but I made my mind up that I would go into the forces.

Int: Did you volunteer or did you decide to……..?

GA: Yes, yes I volunteered.

Int: Why did you actually decide to volunteer?

GA: I think, like a lot more people, that it was a great thrill, and you’d see things, and also, my wife — my girl, as she was then - her brothers, two of them had been called up and I thought this seemed a bit unfair, so I decided that I would go too.

Int: Were you patriotic at the time?

GA: Yes.

Int: Where had you got that from?

GA: I think from my father and the family. My father had been in the First World War and I think this is where it came from, from people who had been in the First World War, and I think this is how it spread myself, this patriotism.

Int: Had he told you much about the war, the First World War?

GA: Yeah, quite a lot. He contacted an ex Commanding Officer whom he found out was in Sudan on a cotton plantation, so he wrote to him. When it came over, they fixed reunions and they continued that right up to after the Second World War.

Int: Had he had bad experiences, your father, or had he got through…….?

GA: He’d had some bad experiences in the front line, on the western front, yes.

Int: Had he talked to you about it, before you went in the forces?

GA: Yes.

Int: You said it was a bit of a thrill, had he not sort of………….?

GA: Yes, he tried to play it down quite a lot, “Keep out, wait until you’re fetched.” Because he’d done the same, he’d volunteered and they had a really rough passage those people did.

Int: So, you were patriotic and your friends had gone, were there any other reasons you decided to join up?

GA: Er, not really, no.

Int: Did you hope they would let you choose what you went into, you went into the army didn’t you?

GA: Yes.

Int: That was part of your reasoning.

GA: Actually, I didn’t choose a mechanic’s work, I applied first of all for aircrew, but they weren’t taking any aircrew at the time. They just put you down as mechanic, either E or A first of all, and then I went on to the riggers’ side, which was airframe, and from there, a period at Ensford, on that course.

Int: Hang on, so, you volunteered for the RAF, was that on your birthday in January, 1940?

GA, No, it was June, 1940. No, it was just before June and I went in, in July, I believe.

Int: How did you go about volunteering? Where did you go?

GA: Sheffield.

Int: Why Sheffield?

GA: That was the main place for volunteering for the R.A.F.

Int: And what made you decide on the R.A.F.?

GA: Well, I think it was the thrill of it really.

Int: The R.A.F. had that sort of reputation, rather than the army or navy then.

GA: Yes, that’s what I felt, yes. It’s be more interesting, even if it weren’t aircrew, it’d be more interesting work.

Int: Where was the recruiting office in Sheffield?

GA: I believe it was at the Cutler’s Hall.

Int: That was a specific R.A.F. recruiting office was it?

GA: Yes.

Int: What happened when you got there?

GA: We just interviewed.

Int: What sort of an interview?

GA: Nothing really, they just questioned me, the way you’re doing now, you know, date of birth and everything else, and that was it.

Int: That’s when you told them you wanted aircrew.

GA: Yeah.

Int: And did they knock you straight back?

GA: Yeah, straightaway, “We’re not taking any aircrew.”

Int: Did they say why?

GA: Well, it was early on and the big schemes in Canada hadn’t got going, they were just hanging fire and they were full of all they could take, I think that’s what had happened.

Int: Were you very disappointed?

GA: Yeah, I was really.

Int: So, they knocked you back, what happened then, did you get a medical?

GA: Not at that time, they sent for me a few weeks after, and I had the medical at the same place, Cutler’s Hall.

Int: What sort of a medical was it?

GA: Strict.

Int: It was strict?

GA: Yes, very strict.

Int: What did it cover?

GA: Er, you went through, I should say four doctors at least.

Int: Do you think you’d have passed if you hadn’t been fit, in other words, was it a serious medical or just for the form?

GA: No, it was a serious medical — everything.

Int: What did you pass out as?

GA: A1.

Int: Anything else when you reported to Cutler’s hall?

GA: No, you passed A1, then they said that they would notify you when your call up date would be, and that was it.

Int: So you went back home again.

GA: Yes,

Int: How did your family react when they heard you’d done the deed — signed up?

GA: A bit sad, but at the same time, they accepted it.

Int: What about at work?

GA: Our boss was quite annoyed, (laughs) very annoyed.

Int: How did he show it?

GA: Well, how can I say?...........His attitude was, “What do ya want to do that for?” and, “You’re all right here, you needn’t have gone in.”

Int: Could you have applied for a reserved occupation?

GA: Yes, in the lab, yes.

Int: But you didn’t apply for it.

GA: No, I didn’t apply for it.

Int: What about in the village, I mean, did you feel a bit of a hero going off to war?

GA: No, there were lots of other lads, four or five of us went together; all friends.

Int: All into the R.A.F.?

GA: Yes, we all went into the R.A.F.

Int: Had they gone with you when..........?

GA: Yes, we all went to sign on together. I think I was the first called up, I think I
was the first to go for the medical.

Int: So when were you first called up, do you remember the date?

GA: 23rd of July, 1940.

Int: And what did you have to do when you were called up?

GA: I had a travel warrant issued, we went straight through to Warrington, to Padgate. We stayed there until we were sworn in.

Int: When was that about?

GA: We were sworn in on the second day, and we stayed there a couple of days kitting out.

Int: How were you kitted out, what were you issued with?

GA: Just the two suits of blue, everything else, shirts, everything that was required for the full uniform, gasmasks, everything that was required for the R.A.F., gas capes. There were no steel helmets at that time, well, not immediately.

Int: While you were there at Padgate, were you in the barracks?

GA: Yes.

Int: What were your first impressions of the military lifestyle?

GA: It didn’t worry me really because I’d spent quite a bit of time away from home, here and there, so it didn’t disturb me.

Int: So where did you go from Padgate?

GA: Up to Hednesford.

Int: Hinsford?

GA: H E D N E S F O R D.

Int: What were you doing there?

GA: And that was — first of all, you did a week or a fortnight on drill, rifle ranges and things like that. Then you started on the riggers’ course, or anyone on engines, on the Mechs.’ Course.

Int: Right, we’ll take those things in turn, what were your living conditions like at Hednesford?

GA: The huts were pretty good.

Int: Can you describe them?

GA: Just the ordinary wooden hut, er, with the single beds, 20 or 30 to a hut, a locker, biscuits for your mattress and a shelf for your things above. Everything had to be in ‘apple pie order’, the same in the morning, your blankets had to be in ‘apple pie order’ with your biscuits.

Int: Was there any heating in there?

GA: Yes, two stoves, in the centre, one at one end and one at the other. The only problem was that on the night that it was cleaning night, you had to block the stove so you couldn’t have a fire. Next morning, there should have been an inspection, so if the C.O. didn’t get round, you couldn’t have a fire that night and it was winter, y’know, we were in that period, we didn’t leave there until December, so we had quite a lot of cold weather up there at that period, 1940. That was our only grumble at Hednesford.

Int: You were responsible for cleaning the whole of your hut were you?

GA: Yes, everybody used to take a job, buff the floors, black the stove, and everything else.

Int: Did you have a special way to lay your kit out?

GA: Yes, the kit inspections were only about once a month, it wasn’t too bad. It was like in the First World War, nothing had altered.

Int: What about washing and showers?

GA: Yes, there were baths, you could get a bath, there was hot water, so you could have a bath any time you like.

Int; What about food?

GA: Quite good really, it was very fair compared to some of the stuff we had later.

Int: What sort of food were they dishing out for breakfast, for instance?

GA: You’d porridge, you’d sausage, you’d beans, the only thing I didn’t like, they used to dish up a lot of beasts’ heart, I wasn’t very fond of that.

Int: Was that stew at lunch do you mean?

GA: No, it was for breakfast sometimes.

Int: What about lunch, what would you get for lunch?

GA: You’d a cooked lunch, and quite sufficient.

Int: So, you got plenty of food and the quality was all right.

GA: Very fair considering the number they were catering for; very good really at Hednesford.

Int: How did you get on with your fellow recruits?

GA: Oh, we’d a good crowd in our billet, we were all pretty wild.

Int: In what way?

GA: I dunno, I used to meet up with......I used to fit in with a bunch that were wild. There wasn’t a lot of drinking, bags of fun and games in the billet, fixing beds and one or two scraps, and things like that, but nothing really viscous. It was all good fun; we’d a good crowd.

Int: No bullying then.

GA: No, strangely enough, no.

Int: What about your N.C.O.’s, did you have a corporal in with you?

GA: Yes, we had a corporal in the bunk.

Int: What was he like?

GA: Er, they changed occasionally, you got a mixed bunch, but usually, very fair. The flight sergeant who was in charge of our section, he was a right character really. His attitude was frightening at first which nobody took any notice of. I always remember the first time he got us together, after we’d had our inoculations, one afternoon. He got us in this billet, and he’d had us on parade, but he hadn’t introduced himself. “Yer don’t know me do yer? I’m Billy, Billy the Bastard.” So, of course, we all laughed, and he said, “Yer’ll not laugh when I’ve finished with yer.” And that’s how it progressed. But I’m afraid we took the Mickey out of him terribly really. It was.........we drove him........oh dear, it was awful really, on parade in the morning. He’d call everyone to attention, and someone at the top would shout, “Billy, Billy, Billy.” He’d go spare, he’d say, “Who said that?” A voice at the bottom said, “I did, I did.” But he never did anything, he never had us out after class or anything like that.

Int: Was he popular in the end?

GA: He was popular, but he did some really stupid things in a way.

Int: Such as?

Pt 2: A7541381

Pr-BR

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