Another story my Mum tells is from slightly earlier than the battle, probably during the sitzkreig period.. Apparently there were a couple of old sisters living a couple of doors away that were Hitler worshippers. They had swastika decorations in the front room, a picture of Hitler on the wall and a special chair, again decorated, for when “He” came to visit. They used to shine torches out of the window at night to “signal to his submarines “. They were obviously “Batchy“ as they say in Hastings and were just tolerated by their neighbours, being visited for tea as was the custom in those days. Eventually though they disappeared, so were probably removed by the authorities.
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It's great to read some personal reminiscences from Laurie and yourself. We sometimes lose sight of the fact that on the ground, far beneath all the aerial excitement, were ordinary people trying to get on with their lives in difficult times.
Showing a light inadvertently would get you fined. They even used to charge people with an additional offence of wasting electricity by having a light on! Typical fines were from £1-£5 pounds, the latter for repeat offenders, which was a substantial amount during the war. One of my grandparents' neighbours was fined 30s. It was my nan who told me that 30s [£1.50 if there is any young person reading this] was a lot for an ordinary family to find, but it shows how seriously the black-out was taken and enforced.
Showing a light deliberately or intentionally was a whole different ball game. That could see you end up in prison and, even, theoretically at least, on the end of a rope.Comment
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Sunday 8 September
The day dawned clear but soon the cloud rolled in.
Even the weather now seemed to be on the side of the British. Richard Barclay of No 249 Squadron, which had suffered badly the previous day, wrote in his diary,
“The weather was bad today, thank goodness, so we had a reasonable rest. I think we were all still a bit shaken after yesterday.”
The Luftwaffe too needed to draw breath after its effort on the previous day. The attack on London had raised Luftwaffe morale. Ulrich Steinhilper of JG 52 wrote to his mother today.
“Yesterday we worked our greatest magic so far over London. During half an hour, more than 500,000 Kg of bombs were dropped on London. We were flying fighter escort and, at the moment, I am leading the squadron because the ‘Chief’ has a stomach upset. Right now we have only four aircraft which are fully airworthy but that’s fine.”
Dowding took advantage of the lull to rotate some of his most battered squadrons out of the line. Nos 43, 111 and 79 were all moved to safer areas, Nos 607 and 92 moved into the line. P/O Harry Welford remembered 607’s arrival at Tangmere.
“We were to relieve 43 Squadron, which had barely half the intended complement of pilots left capable of operational duties. Of course it was a tragedy so far as my fiancée was concerned and, though I felt the same, we were trained fighters. This was the beginning of the end, and, as we all climbed into our Hurricanes, having bid our adieus that fine Sunday morning, I wondered how many of us would see Usworth or Newcastle again. Strange as it may seem, dirty, smoky old Newcastle was suddenly a seventh heaven compared to the green fields of southern England.
We arrived at a completely blitzed aerodrome and were greeted by the remains of 43 Squadron, some on crutches, others with arms in slings, and yet another with his head swathed in bandages having had his face torn by an exploding enemy cannon shell. Though they had so many casualties it was amazing to see them walking about. “
The Luftwaffe finally got into action at 11.30 as the first RDF plots were made. No 41 Squadron was on a routine patrol when it was vectored to Dover, intercepting a heavily escorted formation of Do 17s. These were the aircraft of KG 2. Oberfeldwebel Borner from II./KG 2 remembered,
“Our unit was escorted by three full Jagdgeschwader. It is an impressive force that makes us feel pretty safe. By all accounts the enemy’s defence has also weakened.”
Heavily out numbered, 41 Squadron’s Hurricanes were caught in a dogfight with the escort. No 46 Squadron was next to arrive followed by others and finally the raid was broken up and turned east. Bombs were dropped or jettisoned over Kent. Several smaller raids crossed the coast during the next few hours but with limited success. Three bombers were claimed by London’s AAA defences, matching three Do 17s lost by KG 2.
Today the British had lost just 4 aircraft (a fifth would be lost tonight) and the Luftwaffe 7.
Crucially for Fighter Command only 11 squadrons had been used. About one quarter of the number of sorties were flown today, compared to yesterday. It was the first time in ten days that all of 11 Group’s squadrons had not been at readiness for the entire day.
The optimistic German assessments of Fighter Command’s strength were reinforced by the appearance of relatively few British fighters today. Goering issued an order to continue the attacks on London, which had been divided into two target areas: Area ‘A’ was the eastern districts with the port facilities and area ‘B’ was the western part with the large power and supply facilities. Air raid sirens sounded in London at 19.30 and over the next nine hours, 170 German bombers were in action over the capital. The city’s power plants and railway lines were targets for a total of 1,700 high-explosive bombs with a total weight of 207 tons, supplemented by several thousand incendiary bombs. When 9 September dawned fires once again raged in London. All rail lines to and from the city to the south and the southeast had been cut and a further 1,150 people had been killed or injured.
As Fighter Command, almost powerless at night, recovered, London burned again.Comment
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Such an enjoyable read! Look forward to reading this every morning!
On a personal note, my late grandad was an ambulance man (i think of him as a early paramedic) he was given a reserved job.
My dad said there was a few snide comments made that he was not doing his bit and had a easy life. However when Cardiff was bombed on many occasions these idiots soon shut up.
My late dad said with immense pride that as the sirens started and the bombs fell he put on his uniform, tin hat and bag of bandages etc and walked towards the horror while hundreds fled.
He never talked about what he saw but he had great admiration for the Salvation Army who always turned up offering tea, buns and comfort. What he saw must have been awful, he stayed with the ambulance service until he retired and i am so proud of him. He had many awards and a medal from St Johns but all have vanished.
One of the many unsung herosComment
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While all this was happening my father a carpenter & joiner just as coal miners was directed to use his talent.
He with others were producing the RAF rescue launches. Taggs Island on the Thames near Hampton Court..
Later, I must have been four I went to work with my dad on a Saturday. I would be sent up the blunt end (some call it forrard end) with a brush to sweep out the shavings & sawdust. Cannot remember being paid. However I can remember all the workmen who looked after me as if I was a prince.
Another thing that I remember. Railings, the one with the spikes, were all even on the smallest of houses installed. Englishman's Castle syndrome. During the war all were cut down & removed as steel was short.
Another the cinemas. Open through out the war. Saw my first films when about 3 may be 4 (sorry off topic again but just a bit) Wizard of Oz scared me to death had nightmares.
But the second. Lassie come Home. The story of a dog who went with his master a pilot on a mission. The aircraft was shot down the dog lost. The film was about Lassie finding her way back home to England. I just loved it I laughed & cried.
LaurieComment
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I was involved in a history project in the late '90s, trying to gather and preserve the memories of local people from WW2.
Laurie's memory of bomb sights, houses simply missing from terraces, etc., reminded me of a word I heard several times, the origin of which I have never been able to discover.
In Birmingham such sites were called 'pecks'. Several gentlemen (and a few ladies) remembered playing on 'bomb pecks' during and after the war. It seems to have been a word used commonly in Birmingham and what is now the West Midlands.
If anyone has any ideas about where this word came from I would love to hear, however odd the theory may be
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Fascinating Steve. We used to play on the bomed sites cricket & football mad keen at that time cowboys & indians. Malnly as they were flat.
Our expression was"let's go down to the bommy". That was Kingston Surrey jargin.Comment
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Interesting Laurie, to me a bommy was the bonfire night centrepiece.
Another story passed down as family folklore involves my mother’s’ uncle. He had lost his left arm in the first war, and in the second war used to carry out fire watches overnight, as many others did. Anyway, he was once questioned about his duties as a fire watcher by a pompous individual who was like Captain Square from Dad’s army. The blimp blustered on for a few minutes and then said “well my good man, what steps would you take if you post was on fire”. The uncle, who by then was really cheesed off with the whole thing and who never suffered fools gladly, said “bloody great long ones”......the Square then harrumphed loudly, stuttering “what, what! you would desert your post?” to which the uncle said “well, you don’t think I’d stay there when place was on fire do you”.... and walked out. Still makes me chuckle :smiling5:Comment
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Hi Steve, have a look at comment 26 in this link https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/foru...ecks.36/page-2 regards JimComment
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Hi Steve, the way I see it is that the demolishion and subsequent short cut it created made a shortcut which became locally as a peck, this remained in the local vocablary and from my understanding was used into the 1960's where a building was cleared and became a shortcut. regards JimComment
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Yep. that seems an entirely plausible explanation.
Of course, none of the people we spoke to back then knew the origin, they were just 'bomb pecks' because that's what everyone called them. Also, they were kids in 1940/41 so hardly expected to be experts in the etymology of words in local usage
I moved to Birmingham in 1978 and have been here ever since, over forty years, but missed the use of the word.Comment
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Another snippett.
Toys. hardly any. Dad gave me a patch in the garden. About 8 feet square I suppose.
My mate had a dinky car toy which one no idea.
I had one as well a Studybaker [ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]
We fashioned roads on my garden earth patch we played with our dinkey toys for hours on end.
Just two boys two toys. Next day we would do the same. We were very happy.Comment
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