Wartime Memories and Highlights

I remember in 1939 when our Prime Minister Neville Chambering made a speech at Croydon airport after returning from Munich and announcing our country was now at war with Germany. I thought at the time what a feeble looking old man that would be leading our country to battle.
Nothing seemed to happen until I saw the dog fights in the sky in the summer of 1940. Of course, there was the evacuation of Dunkirk, which I wasn’t concerned about at the time as I thought it was a victory for us. Little did anybody know at the time the trouble that our country was in.
I remember my brother Jimmy joining the Home Guard, and my other brothers Davy and Danny being called up early in the war, Jimmy following them later in 1942. It was in 1940 when the real war started for me. At this time the Germans had started to bomb London. I remember all the family going down to Bethnal Green tube, which was under construction at the time. I spent one night underground- that was the only time I slept in a shelter.
There was no schooling in London at the time, so I started work at the tender age of 14 as an apprentice Hairdresser in Bishops Way, 1940. I remember working late at night in the salon during the air raids with the customers sitting waiting to be served, surrounded by mirrors and glass that would rattle and shake when the guns opened up with bombs dropping in the distance. We never thought of seeking cover in the small Anderson shelter that was built in the back yard. My earnings were £3.50 a week, which was very good pay for that time. It didn’t last for long though- a land mine flattened the area. Luckily, this happened in the early hours of a Sunday morning. I then took a job in Mr Fox’s tin pot making shop in Bethnal Green Road, making saucepans and kettles. This was when the bombing was at its worst.
Bethnal Green Road set up a fire-watching rota to protect their shops at night. It was a bit pointless as all we had to fight any fire with were buckets of sand and armed with a Stirrup pump, which was just like an enlarged bicycle pump- not very creative to say the least. But, I did not mind the set up because I was in big demand from the shopkeepers to do their night’s turn for the princely sum of 5 shillings, or 25p, tea and sandwich included (Spam, obviously!).
Only once did I have to deal with any fires, and when it came to it not even any firemen could do anything, as there wasn’t enough water to fight the fire. I just watched everything burn down to the ground, from Brick Lane up to Bishopsgate goods yard. Both sides of Bethnal Green Road were flattened by fire.
I was fire watching for Mr Fox who paid me 5 shillings on the worst night of the bombing when the whole of London seemed to be burning. I remember watching Alltrights , a big store, burn to the ground. I had newly purchased an overcoat and shirt for myself at the store on tick, and I recall thinking that our overcoats and shirts were all being destroyed- what a waste! I don’t think I ever did finish paying up for them.
Even after that very bad night of bombing, the only thing that worried me was hoping that my mum, brother George and sisters Dolly and Jean were all safe in the Anderson shelter in our garden. Shortly after that they were evacuated to the country, which left just Jimmy and myself alone in London. One particular night, the air raids seemed to be concentrated around our area of Bethnal Green. The area was hit with hundred of incendiary bombs which fell in line along a row of houses in a street close by. Many fell in the roads and virtually every house’s top floor was burning, which could be seen from the road.
I came to realise that these incendiary bombs had no effect if they finished up burning on the road. They were just like holding a very big sparkler, and took a while to cause a fire if they burnt alone. Me being the foolish dare devil that I was, without any second thoughts, would kick in the front door of a house, run to the top floor, pick up the bomb and throw it out of the window before the fire had taken hold. Despite my brave efforts, most of the rows of houses had finished up burnt to cinders.
I tried to join the Navy at only 16, but failed to convince them that I was actually 18 years old, which was the age requirement to join. I think my main motive for joining was the thought of regular meals, which we certainly did not enjoy at home!
As a strapping teenager I experienced something similar to what might be seen today as sexual harassment! There were very few eligible men around in those days, and I myself knew little about women or sex. I found it frightening if anything, after being virtually attacked on several occasions by love starved, mostly married young women!
Other vivid memories that stand out in my mind are of when I was on leave from the army in London, early 1945. I was used to all the different sounds of bombs, land mines and shrapnel from exploding Ack Ack shells coming from the heavens. When the Doodle Bugs came to attack London, I thought these were the least to worry about as you could see and hear them coming, so could dodge them. A friend of mine and I would go up to the top of the highest building around which was the Delta Estate in Gosset Street, where at night, you could spot Jet Burners coming from the East headed for our direction. If any were seen then we would shout the warning to take cover. I went through every air raid in London without cowing in a smelly damp shelter and at no time did I ever think we would not win the war. However, I was once close by Vallance Road E2 drinking with friends in a pub, when a rocket fell from the sky and landed on a block of flats, killing 77. It gave absolutely no warning whatsoever. Once the dust began to settle, we started to clear rubble looking for people who were injured. When speaking to the rescue workers, it was then when I was told that that particular bomb was a V2 rocket. It gave no warning that it was coming and caused so much damage. I didn’t realise at the time that many more of these V2 bombs had been hitting London. The news of these bombs worried me and I remember thinking that there was no way of stopping these silent killers. Bearing in mind that I went through the worst of the Blitz sleeping in my own bed every night and not once thinking that we would lose the war to Hitler, the news of the V2 rockets began to cast doubts in my mind on the outcome of the war.
There were many other outstanding events at that time, such as the Bethnal Green Tube disaster where over 80 people died unnecessarily from sheer panic, as there was no air raid warning at the time. I still think it was caused by the noise of a train going over the arch nearby at the Salmon and Ball. The train noise was taken for the sound of a land mine dropping, as it was similar to the noise of the parachutes that dropped the mines. The most disturbing thing about this event was when I saw the dead being taken away in side loading council refuse carts, as if they were just rubbish.
The Columbia Road disaster was also an unnecessary tragedy, as the so-called ‘bomb shelter’ should never have been used as one. It had a skylight that opened to the sky, in which a small bomb was dropped through, killing over 70 people, mostly women and children. I was one of the first to go down into the shelter, minutes after the bomb hit it. It wasn’t a load explosion so there didn’t seem to be much concern about it, but when I stepped inside the makeshift shelter I was devastated by what I saw and heard. Bodies were blown against the shelter walls and very few survived. The sights I saw in this explosion had a very long lasting effect on me, and I can still see them in my mind today. It was about this time that I began to believe there was no such thing as God, and now am convinced that there is not one.
Sometime shortly after this I returned to serve the army. During my service I was flown out from Lidd Airport in Kent to the Far East in a converted bomber, which took two and a half days. I remember hoping that the pilot did not open the bomb bays by mistake! The journey out to the Far East was unforgettable. We were never told where we were headed or what was going on at the time, and we finished up in Bombay, and went on from there.
From Singapore, we were shifted off to Rangoon where I saw some of the most pitiful sights of my life. I was in a transit camp along with the poor British soldiers that were waiting to be shipped home. Some were Japanese prisoners of war, some were Chindits. Most of them were mentally disturbed. It was then that I thought that I might have a similar fate to these. I could not have been more wrong, as my 2-½ years service in the Far East turned out to be the most wonderful experience that anyone could have. I thrived on the climate, the food, and all the places I visited, which included Bombay, Calcutta, Rangoon, Shan States (Burma), Manderlay, Darjeeling, Penang, Chumbo, then back to Singapore.
Travelling through the foothills of the Himalayas on the famous miniature railway to the top of the world at Darjeeling was quite memorable to say the least. The road from Singapore to Penang in Malaya was a beautiful part of the East in which I stayed for some weeks.
I was lucky to be stationed in the Shan States of Burma for a period of time on a makeshift camp cut out in the jungle near Mantilla in Central Burma, which I now understand has one of the worst climates in the world. I could not believe it when travelling again through the foothills of the Shan State up to a place called Taungee, 2 days away, we went from one of the worst climates to one of the best climates in the world. We stayed here until we were kicked out of Burma.
Some memories I have of when I was in Burma are of when I trekked through the jungle to get to a leopard colony with the Major I was batman to and 2 Sergeants. It took three days to get there, and we stayed for three days. I was surprised to see that the colony was run by three Italian priests. Our job was to hunt down wild cats that had been attacking the colony’s inmates.
Other memorable places I travelled to were Calcutta, the Chinese borders (one of the remotest places in the world), and Kuala Lumpur. I saw all of these wonderful places and it did not cost me one penny.
When I returned back in Singapore to the same transit camp I stayed in 2 years before, I was now ready to be demobbed.
I travelled home from Singapore by a troop ship carrying over 800 men. The ship was so packed that we had to fight for places to lie down. The conditions were very cramped but the food was the best I ever had in the whole of my 3- ½ years’ service. This was a comfort as the voyage took 33 days to reach Southampton. When I reached port, I was sent off to Aldershot for the final part of my Army service. Being home again for the first time in a long while was a strange feeling which I cannot find words to explain even today, but I did eventually settle down to a life, ironically in hindsight not so good as when I was in the Far East.
It was after the war ended that I was told that I was held back from being sent to a war zone earlier on because it was against policy to have all serving members of one family in a war zone at once, like the film Saving Private Ryan. My brothers Jimmy, Davy and Danny were all gunners serving in the Mediterranean and the invasion of Europe. We were lucky, only having one brother, Jimmy, returning home badly wounded.
Our generation never had any teenage years. From 13-19 years old were war years. I often wonder how I would have compared with the teenagers of today who say their teenage years are the best of their lives. That I will never know, but there was never a dull moment, that’s for sure!
I must close to say that with all the hardships we endured and all the support to the county that we gave in those dark days; it seems to count for nothing when we are now assessed for benefits like housing benefit, going into an OAP home and having to pay for your keep with your assets like house and savings.

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