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Child War Memories - the later war
years. (Page last updated:
27/05/2021) |
A Molotov Basket..
There was quite a bit of
activity from German aircraft as we were very much on
the route back to Germany from London - there were very
few nights went by that we did not clearly hear the
drone of German aircraft. Some of the planes either did
not drop all their bombs on their target or were being
chased and just dumped their load for speed! We had some
landmines around too and a Molotov Basket - this was a
landmine with several hundred incendiary bombs inside it
apparently. When the landmine exploded the incendiaries
were distributed over a large area around. This one was
dropped in the bottom end of Pishiobury Park, right at
the end of the lane from the bottom of Vantorts Road.
The crater was evident for years afterwards as it was
never filled in. Another landmine fell by the railway
line South of what was Luxfords Nursery and below New
House Farm on the Sheering Lower Road. This one went off
after a couple of days delay and because we had gone to
that cellar again and were told to leave all the house
windows wide open it blew one window back against the
wall and broke a small piece of glass out of the corner.
It was never repaired for years! Had we not opened all
the windows though I expect there would have been no
glass left at all. Yet another landmine dropped along
the riverside beyond
Keckseys bridge. This one exploded and emptied the river
between locks. My neighbour - seven years older than me
- and I went to see and I had a collection of shrapnel
for years after.
A Lull before the Storm - Doodlebugs (V1's)...
From late 1943 or early 1944 the frequency of raids
by German aircraft had diminished and there was a period
when it seemed that we were a little freer to move
around. My Mother decided that a trip to London on the
train was overdue so off we went. Sure enough all was
quiet but the bleakness of the journey through the East
End of London and into Liverpool Street Station was
something else! The sight of all the massive damage and
burnt out buildings still remains clearly in my mind.
That same night, after returning home, the first
Doodlebug arrived in London! From my bedroom window,
facing East, there was a good view towards London and
although initially the V1's were delivered singularly,
eventually, and I suppose in some desperation by the
Germans, they were being despatched in groups and I
remember my Father getting me to look out of the window
to see seven of them all in a line heading into the East
End of London. They were very visible at night from the
fiery jet exhaust. We experienced several strays in
Sawbridgeworth - they were steered by gyroscopes which
obviously went astray at times. My Father was at home
and although the red warning had gone he was upstairs
watching out of the window - my Mother and I were in the
Morrison shelter - he suddenly came flying down the
stairs and threw himself down by the side of the shelter
saying “there’s one coming straight at us”. By this time
we could hear it and then “Silence” which meant only one
thing... that the jet engine had stopped and it was
about to fall! Curiously the silence prevailed and we
never did hear the explosion. This was one of the later
variety that we had only just heard about - it was one
which glided after the engine stopped. A few days later
we heard that it had glided as far as Hertford, 15 to 18
miles away to the West. Phew! Some of the night workers
where my Father was employed told him afterwards that
they saw it and thought it was heading straight into our
house, it was so low.
Operation Market Garden...
I find it quite difficult to believe now - the
freedom that us children seemed to have in those days.
My Mother was quite a protective type but I really
cannot recall being inhibited in any way in my movements
during the war, certainly as I got older anyway! We
still wandered off and investigated the various bomb
craters etc. hence my knowledge of the Molotov Basket
already mentioned. My next door neighbour and I were
again at the end of the lane of
Springhall Lane off the end of Vantorts Road on a
Sunday morning. Suddenly the noise of many aircraft
could be heard. As we looked up so we saw that they were
Dakotas towing gliders. What a sight this was, there
were hundreds it seemed and they just kept coming - we
just stood in awe - we learn much
later that there were some 2,000 aircraft involved!
Obviously what we were witnessing was the assembled
planes and gliders from around the country of the force
to undertake Operation Market Garden - this was
17 September 1944.From my bedroom window looking due East, just in the
very distance the then Matching Aerodrome was just
visible. It was developed just for the war effort by the
Americans and in 1943-44 occupied by the American Air
Force. Anyway they were training their glider pilots and
standing on my bed I could watch - well what I could
watch was their attempts at making landings! I don’t
think I ever saw one go right head over heels but it
must have been close.
There was a sudden very loud explosion...
The launching sites for the Doodlebugs having been
overrun by our advancing forces in France and Holland,
created a short lull in attacks but this was shattered
by the arrival of the more sinister Guided Missiles
(V2's). There was rarely a warning of these and it
seemed uncanny to say the least that there was just
immediate destruction. Sawbridgeworth had just the one
experience of these dreaded ‘bombs’ while I was
attending my friend’s party just two doors down
the road. We had just finished our tea but were still at
or around the table - there was a sudden very loud
explosion which shook everything around and everyone
shot under the table - then ‘nothing’. We somehow knew
that this was something strange but it was not until the
next day that we heard that it was a V2. It had
thankfully exploded before reaching the ground and
fairly high still. The main part of my story though is
another couple of days afterwards. Another friend lived
in Springhall Road in the end house of those that, at
the time, backed onto allotments (now retirement type
bungalows) between that road and Vantorts Road. We had
gone to his house after school and for some reason
decided to go into his back garden that backed onto the
allotments - the sight that met our eyes was beyond
belief. There was a huge metal object three quarters
buried in the middle of his Father’s garden. It was
about 4' - 5' across and circular with all nuts and
bolts all round the periphery. It turned out that this
was the rocket engine - if it had hit his house or any
others in the row then the damage would have been
immense! Not knowing then what it was we just ran like
mad to tell my friends Mother and I shot off home. It
was several days before the bomb disposal people and
others removed it.
A birthday to remember...
The only other birthday, mine this time, that I can
remember during the war was my 7th (1942). It was a
brilliant summers day and it must have been at the
height of daylight raids because all I can remember of
it was that the siren went 11 times that day! I don’t
think it ruined my party as such but obviously was
something to remember quite easily. It was something
that my parents recalled on numerous birthdays
afterwards. As for birthday presents and presents at
Christmas I can never remember feeling deprived in any
way. My parents seemed to get some things together
somehow. I would think it would have been either
Christmas 1943 or 1944 that I had a Meccano set. It was
second hand and my Father had painted it up - I would
imagine that it had been originally new in the early
30's. I had it and played with it for years after and
added to it with new items when they became available
again. Fortunately, I had been given a basic Hornby
clockwork train set at Christmas when I was three,
apparently with the acclamation from me of “Oh boy a
train”. That too was added to after the war. We also
always had a Christmas tree and my Father managed to
keep the original Osram lighting set of 16 coloured
candle lamps with brown Bakelite lamp holders going all
through and even after the war. Paper chains had also
been carefully preserved and were embellished here and
there with the foil strips that as children we found
scattered around, having been dropped by enemy aircraft
to confuse the radar. At first I would not pick these up
as it had been drummed into me that anything unusual
could be dangerous - it was not unusual to hear of
unexploded incendiaries or tail fins of these being
found and I remember seeing the white phosphorus deposit
all around one in the field between Vantorts Road and
Springhall Road.
German prisoners of war...
Towards the end of the war, I guess from the latter
part of 1943 the farm next door had by this time
developed and transformed from a general farm of a
Ayrshire milking heard to include vegetable growing for
the London Market at Spitalfields and locally. At this
time German prisoners of war were starting to be brought
in to assist with the work. The nearest camp was at
Hatfield Heath and the prisoners were transported in each day.
They were generally a friendly lot and it was quite
evident, even to a small boy, that they were glad to be
out of the action. I got quite friendly with some of
them and I never felt out of place talking to those that
could converse in English - surprisingly a number of
them spoke reasonable English. One of them made my
Mother a lovely oval wall plaque from a slice of tree
branch as a thank you for some fruit from our apple,
pear and plum trees in the garden, when in season. The
plaque was decorated with carved flowers which were then
painted. My Mother was very fond of it and it hung on
our stair wall for years, eventually falling apart from
woodworm. Another of the prisoners was a good looking
and blond Austrian in his very late teens or early 20's
- his name was August. He was charming and a very hard
worker. After the war he volunteered and asked to stay
on for about two years and continue on the farm. Robert Balmer was very pleased as he was so good. He eventually
returned to his home area and then returned for a short
period again. He corresponded with the farm for several
years afterwards.
A very great sense of relief...
The war was over at last. There was for me a very
great sense of relief because for what seemed the whole
of my life experience I had known only the state of war.
It seemed quite uncanny that the constant anxiety from
day to day was gone. I was lucky really because my
parents were able to be around me throughout. Those
children who were without a parent or parents and who
would never see a parent again, well what must that have
been like!
Victory streetlights...
As in most towns and villages there were celebrations
for the end of the war in Europe and by that time some
sense of assuming the war with Japan would not last much
longer. I can recall the evening celebrations in
Sawbridgeworth only from one thing that sticks in my
mind. For the first time that I could remember the
street lights were switched on. As well as the lights
being on I was fascinated by the manner in which all the
moths were attracted to the lights - they had not seen
them before either! There was dancing in the street
(Knight Street) opposite my school and the music for
this was from loudspeakers mounted on the top of one of
White’s Garage hire cars - a big black saloon. Happy
days? Well yes in some ways but the war time was very
much a situation of making the best of a bad period in
my life and the peaceful times afterwards were very
short lived too. The Cold War brought more and greater
fears!
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