WAR, HELEN, CALL UP and MARRIAGE
WAR
DURING the summer of 1940 I spent a few days with my sister Beattie and her husband CHarles at their home in Chipstead in Kent.
I recall very clearly witnessing the dog fights between the RAF and their Spitfires and Hurricanes and the German fighters as the air battles of what we now know as The Battle of Britain played out.
I stood and watched as the planes whirled round and round each other and the bursts of their machine gun fire could be clearly heard.
In September 1940 our house at 12 Holmshaw Road and several others were destroyed in a night air raid.
This included my grandmother’s house at number 10, the Hargreaves family at number 8, Mr and Mrs Ashleigh’s house at number 6, Mrs Woodham’s at number 4 and numbr 2, which I recall was an empty shop on the corner of the street; all these were destroyed.
In the other direction, our next door neighbours at number 14 were the Legge family, who were also made homeless that night. Jackie Legge, who was a little older than me, by strange coincidence would turn out to be the pilot of the landing craft that took me ashore in France following D Day.
Fortunately, at the time of the air raid we were sheltering in the Anderson Shelter in our back garden; thankfully there were no casualties in our family.
The next day we relocated to a different house in Byne Road, Upper Sydenham.
THE air raids and bombing around this time had a profound effect on my father, who had been badly affected by his experiences on the Somme during the First World War.
Now, with the recent loss of our home, he had a terrible reaction to the bombing. Each day before the anticipated air raids he had a compulsion to get to the safety of the deep caves at Chislehurst.
I can remember walking with him almost every day from our home in Byne Roda to Penge High Street where he would catch the 227 bus that would take hin to Chislehurst and safety. It is also worth noting that during the First World War both of his parents and three sisters had been killed in a bombing raid. Also, his brother Walter had been killed while fighting in France in 1916. Little wonder then that he had such a reaction to what must have seemed to hom a never-ending cycle of horror.
In North Africa there were battles between the 8th Army and the German Afrika Corps. My older brother Ted was at this time serving in North Africa and was reported missing.
This was an anxious time, although later we had news that he was confirmed as a Prisoner of War. He was transported from North Africa through Italy and into Germany. He would remain in captivity in Stalag 344 until the end of the war in Europe in 1945.
HELEN
IT was during this period I met Helen West, the daughter of one of my customers. Helen had dark hair and lovely brown eyes; we grradually got to speak and know each other.
Helen was a court dressmaker before the war, but of course most trades like those simply folded when the war started. Helen was then directed to work with the Co-operative Bakery, delivering bread.
This was certainly a contrast to her former work but she really enjoyed it. Initially the bread was delivered by hand cart but later on Helen had a horse and cart, so Helen and I had similar jobs for a time.
We saw each other most days: cinema going, cycling and visiting friends, etc, all of this during the times of day and night air raids.
CALL UP and MARRIAGE
In January 1942 on my 19th birthday I received my call-up papers for the Army to train as an Anti-Tank gunner at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire. During this time one or two periods of leave were granted and I would return home to see Helen.
Of course we discussed the future and the chances of survival, and we decided if possible to get married in the August of 1942. Helen and I were married on the 19th of August 1942. I was 19 and Helen just 21.