A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

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Horus
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Horus »

Sorry that at the moment I am a bit busy so cannot contribute a lot, but suffice to say that where I lived a railway line passed through our town. Not far away was the Royal Ordnance factory at Radway Green and the german bombers were always trying to hit it. I remember it all being painted in camoflage paint, even the roof and it was a big factory streching a long way along the rail line towards Crewe. According to my father a bomber caught sight of the glow from the fire of a passing South bound train one night as the stoker briefy opened the fire doors in the cab and from this he estimated the direction of the track. He then started a bombing run along the track hoping to hit the factory by shear luck, had he started his run seconds earlier he would have done so as the last bomb he dropped blew in a gable end wall of the factory with the blast, a very lucky escape. Another target was a nearby gas and coking company that also made some kind of aviation fuel as well as the usual coal bi-products it also had a large gasometer close by. It had been German owned before the war and sported a very tall chimney with the words "Mond Gas" in white tiles set vertically in the brickwork, so it was demolished as it was a very visible sign for German bombing raids and again it was on the line of rail so could be used to indicate direction. My late mum who as a young woman worked in the pottery industry was also seconded to work in the munitions factory at Radway Green because of her dexterity in doing delicate work. :)


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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Kiya »

I think you folks with all your memories during war & after should get together & make a film..... it would be great :a41:
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Mad Dilys »

I would love to see a film where a couple of 10 year olds from the middle of the war went forward in time for a short stay in ten year stages but staying the same age themselves. :up
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Grandad »

Mad Dilys wrote:I would love to see a film where a couple of 10 year olds from the middle of the war went forward in time for a short stay in ten year stages but staying the same age themselves. :up
Great idea MD. And they would experience changing times as some of us on here have. I count myself lucky to have lived through these 'changing times'.

Horus's reference to landmarks used by enemy aircraft reminded me of the Baedeker raid on Canterbury on 2 June 1942. As can be seen in this 1934 aerial photo, the cathedral stands out in the centre of the city as a very clear landmark.
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It was obviously used as a marker during the raid but miraculously, or perhaps intentionally. the only part of the Cathedral that was badly damaged was the Chapter House library. This collage shows scenes of devatation immediately around the Cathedral.
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Barrage balloons were sited around the city and this one is just outside the city wall. The Clerical gentleman is Dr Hewlett Johnson, the then Dean (also known as The Red Dean) chatting with RAF officers of the balloon unit.
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Marks and Spencers had a large store in St Gearges Stree, the main shopping street, and this is the scene in June 1942 and as the same building is today.
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I found this picture in my Canterbury blitz album. I don't know where it came from but assume it is Canterbury and the lad could be me. He is not but I would have been his age around 8, and even at that young age we would walk into the city, 3 little lads, to see what was happening. This would have been after debris on the roads had been cleared and temporary fencing put along the bombsites....
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I always liked this picture, it says so much........
:gg:
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Kiya »

What a destruction for all during those years & all in the name of what ? :o
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Interesting memories Grandad. Wish there was a way to preserve them for all time. You should think about a book with pictures.

As a child I had the ability to travel literally miles. Earliest memories were of me walking or riding the horse pretty much anywhere that took my fancy to go unlike today where kids have helicopter parents who never let them out of sight or more than a few feet away from the front door of their own house.
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Grandad »

I mentioned that I have many brief notes of experiences as a young lad. I should perhaps have posted this one first as it starts from when I was born in 1934:

A SCHOOLBOYS RECOLLECTIONS OF WWII
MY EARLY YEARS


Canterbury in Kent, the Garden of England, was in that part of south east England which saw most of the aerial activity during the second world war. German aircraft destined for the devastating bombing of the London blitz would fly over Kent or along the Thames estuary. Canterbury suffered its own blitz and, although small by comparison with London, it destroyed much of the centre and other areas of this small city of under 30,000 people. So, by smaller scale, the citizens of Canterbury could empathise with the suffering of Londoners.

I was born in Canterbury towards the end of 1934. My father was a lorry driver and my mother had been ‘in service’ until their marriage just 11 months earlier. We lived in a flat, half a house actually, in one of the smarter parts of town. The accommodation was now inadequate and we moved to a small two up two down terrace house across the city in St Johns Lane, a less opulent area. The City Council School was at the end of the short lane and it was there at four years of age that I began my education in the infants school.

This is the lane with number 5 and to the left the school entrance gates.
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My only clear recollection of those days is that, at some time during the day, we had a short rest period and every pupil had a small mat on which to recline. Each mat had a symbol embossed or printed on it and mine had a blue coloured bell. Strange how that one detail stuck with me when I can remember nothing more about my time at that school. By this time I had a brother, three years my junior, and the little terraced cottage would soon be too small for all of us.

We still lived in the cottage on 3 September 1939 when war was declared on Germany by Britain and many other countries. My father had been a regular soldier in the early thirties and, as a reservist, was one of the first to be ‘called up’ at the outbreak of the war. My memory of that time is not clear but there was some activity which resulted in us moving to a larger, albeit still only two bedroomed, terrace house on the west side of the city. I was five, my brother two and my father was posted at first to Scotland with the Royal Engineers.

And so my experiences and sometimes adventures started for those six years that followed when our family was to grow with the birth of my sister and my father was to be absent, apart from some very brief leave periods, for the whole of the war years. My mother, a wartime single parent, bore the responsibility of caring for herself and three children through those difficult years.
:gg:
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Interesting stories or one continuing story actually :)
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Kiya »

Great memories Grandad :)

I can only imagine the worry your mother & like most mother's with childrenleft at home had.
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Mad Dilys »

Before the war my mother was frightened of thunder, even experiencing bombs dropping around her she never got used to it.

My Dad was a village policeman, always out and about on his bike ( which incidentally had no gears) when he left home each day Mum never knew if she would see him again. Two small children kept her occupied most of the time, but she did start smoking to calm her nerves - my father never smoked and neither drank alcohol. Neighbours were a great support I know, we didn't have any relatives nearby as my mother came from North Kent and her unmarried brothers were in the forces. My father's family lived at Cowes in the Isle of Wight and were attached to the shipyards there.

It's always amused me that my Grandfather and maternal uncles were in the Royal Navy, and my Dad worked in the shipyards as did his father and brother making the boats for the Royal Navy.

Ship building was a huge industry at that time. Even the little Isle of Wight had a shipyard. In the depression my father left the Island to go to work in Chatham in north Kent, not for long as work diminished. So being a very tall, healthy and intelligent young man he was readily accepted by the Kent Police force, with whom he worked for the next 28 years, unfortunately dying 18 months before he was due to retire. He always refused promotion, he said he hated what it did to his comrades nature. A man of great principle.
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Grandad »

MD, those were the days when the local 'Bobby' was a valued member of the community. I remember their bicycles with just the one gear. I believe that local bobbys had a lot to do with instilling discipline into young people. They were respected and would give you a good ticking off if you crossed the line, but then it was forgotten. No grudges. :lol:
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Mad Dilys »

Exactly. I remember that the mothers of naughty children used to say "If you don't behave, I'll take you to the police" not many did, because those children who were taken to see my father for a hard talk, afterwards would say "I'm not frightened of him, he's my friend."

I was woken by voices one night, when I was still at primary school and came down to the kitchen to find my parents with a weeping teenage boy. It transpired that he had literally run away from Borstal ( a juvenile correction centre) to our home to ask my father for help. My mother fed him apple pie and custard while he explained his problem. He came from a terrible family of louts, most if not all ended up with a police record. I hope he was OK in the end.

Nearly 40 years later and long after I had moved many times, grown up and had children I lived in a very rural house. My new next door but one neighbour who lived a mile further along the road contacted me for help in milking his new goat. It was a challenge that required several visits. During one of our chats over a cup of coffee as we recovered from our exertions, the goat owner mentioned that he used to live in Snodland. Of course I was thrilled to meet some one else who had managed to get away, in fact he was the first person I had met who lived there after I left. I mentioned my father's name and the goat chap was almost overcome with emotion.

It transpired that he came from another family well known to the police, in fact his father was hung for killing a policeman. (He was a bare fist boxer who resisted arrest and killed the policeman with a single punch.) My father took a great interest in the boy and did all he could to help him. It worked! He became honestly successful, as did at least one of his brothers, to my knowledge. They worked hard, were happily married and retired living in beautiful houses. He never tired of telling me that everything he had achieved was down to Dad and I should be proud of him.

Life is weird isn't it, who would have thought?
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Horus »

A heart warming story MD :)
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Grandad »

A little kindness and generosity can go a long way and it certainly did in your story MD. :up
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Mad Dilys »

Actually at 6ft 6in without an old fashioned helmet on, a very dry sense of humour and straight faced, Dad could have been seen as intimidating - but as he walked his beat refusing to acknowledge his own family - hands clasped behind his back, children put sweets into his hands. He didn't change his stride or turn his head, just popped a sweet into his mouth and continued. :lol:
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Re: A Schoolboys Wartime Memory

Post by Horus »

Lovely memories of your dad :)
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