Wartime miscellany

Thanks Argon - I'll put a search on for that - sounds interesting!

Wearethemods, Yes that he was, with most of his band. It was thought the dance hall was too deep to be dangerous, but, when I see kids on the tele doing this cavorting about, I often wonder if they ever heard of him, and how they would be put to shame. But it was an Officers club, two bombs, and one went down the ventilation shaft, crowded with dancers, thirty odd killed, a large number injured.

I cannot remember dates or hours but I do remember things that happened. Late 1939 and the King was quite friendly with Chamberlain the Prime Minister, and not very friendly with Winston Churchill. When Chamberlain came back from Germany the King summoned him to the Palace. They talked, Chamberlain and the Cabinet advised the King he should take his family to Canada, as it did not look as if we could avoid war. A few days later and the Government sorted things out. The King summoned Churchill to the Palace, sat him down, gave him a drink, and said, "Now, Winston, the Government has advised me to take my family to Canada, as we may have war. Now tell me what you think, and what your views are on Hitler and and the Nazis". But Churchill was furious that Chamberlain had wasted so much time on appeasement, so Churchill told him everything he knew about the Nazis and war. Churchill went home. Several hours later he was summoned to the Palace again. The King sat him down again. "Right, Winston. I have had a talk with my family. We are not going to Canada, we are going to stay here with our people and face whatever they face, and we will back you to the hilt, you have my promise on that, and we will beat this monster". (Or words to that effect, it can be checked).

But the bombing of London started immediately - cinema newsreels became popular and we watched the King and Queen often strolling among the people, smiling, talking. When other cities were bombed they visited, talked with the people, these newsreel cinemas became so popular they built special ones. It wasn't surprising that one of them should visit Coventry after the blitz. In Coventry it was different, he wasn't allowed to stroll with his people, they were kept away - it was annoying and the King was annoyed. We only have to look at the photos, a bunch of councillors at his side. Did it need that bunch to explain the bombing of the cathedral, did it need them to traipse through Broadgate, where were the people. You can see the look of disgust as he marches through the centre of town. I believe he cut his journey shorter than intended, I also believe the nearest he got to the people was when he was presented to a few like a football team at Wembley. The King knew more about the bombing than anyone in Coventry, Buckingham Palace was hit eight times. Sheffield, he stopped, smiled, and shook hands with the working class people - to me this was what was intended in Coventry. But it didn't happen, to my knowledge.

My father had five brothers, five sisters, all married, all had kids, so on Sundays, grandma had over twenty people to tea. All had their own thoughts and worries. By the time I was ten I listened to scores of debates. Coventry sat in plush seats in cinemas, saw the blitz coming from ten years before, day by day it edged nearer. Really started sooner, end of WWI and France and Britain lost a lot of men, wanted to punish Germany, so they took a lot of land from them. Germany was angry. so some like Hitler worked their way up the ladder - soon they were in control. He gave them employment etc. Lindberg, an American, solo flight over the Atlantic, sensational, became hero and top boy in the world. G

The extraordinary times we lived through during the war created some very funny experiences and manly powers. Quite a few soldiers had catalogues of condoms, the lowest price being sixpence. It would last a year if carefully washed, rubbed with French chalk, put away in a box. This low-priced item was called the workman's friend, or the shelter's best friend. 'Three for 2/6d or you'll feel more through a 3/6d one, sir!' said the chemist, as one soldier told me.

Yank meets Brits. Around the end of summer 1942, the small village of Ansty thought they would throw a fete for the Spitfire fund, and at the same invite a few American soldiers that had just arrived. It was a brilliant summer's morning, the sun shone and Ansty Hall park looked brilliant - the trees, just losing their colour, looked splendid, the stalls spread amongst the trees. It looked set for a great day. The Yanks arrived, officer in jeep, soldiers in two lorries. The officer met the vicar and the party looked around - didn't seem to like anything. The men stood around in small groups, bored - no one had met the ordinary GI Joe, we had seen films only and these were nothing like the film stars we had seen. After about half an hour the Yanks found a clear patch, produced a baseball and bat, and started to play. This wasn't expected at all. The fete was becoming a flop, and we kids were jeering and booing every time they mishit - the vicar and committee came and ticked us off. Then the landlord came and said "Look, kids, I haven't sold one pint of beer. Now, a bottle of pop each, if you stop jeering and start clapping". So we did. Then someone said "Hey, Reg, why don't you try?" "Not bloody likely, he doesn't bowl, he throws". "Use my cap, it has a big peak", another lad said. Well, he asked if he could have a go, he was about twelve years old, and the best cricketer in the school. He picked up the bat by the wrong end, and the yanks whooped. He stood in the crease or whatever, and the pitcher threw a soft one - he stepped forward and met it, gave it a mighty whack, and it sailed right through the trees, and higher it flew, right down to the wall at the bottom, bounced over the wall, across the main road into the ditch, and astonishingly, the Yanks were now all clapping and shaking his hand, and the mood had changed drastically. We played a game of baseball cum rounders, and the Yanks loved every minute. We kids got them to play hoopla, throw darts at playing cards, even bobbin the apple in a wash tub - the day became a marvellous success, and we raised a lot of money. But we found they had all been issued a booklet called 'How to get on with Brits'- it should have been 'How to hate the Brits'. A few days later the village received a load of fruit, chewing gum, chocolate, sugar etc - they had not liked our cakes, not sweet enough, but yes it was a marvellous day. Sadly, we learned, nearly all were killed at D-Day.

One of my hobbies is to collect books and magazines actually published during the War, and watching information films shown to the public during the War. So many were just propaganda, and not truthful, though I can understand why. It's amazing what was kept from the public at that time. When, for example, was the public told about radar? I know the original V2 bombs falling on London were passed off as "gas explosions". What else can anyone remember (or know about) about the public being kept in the dark?

I've admitted before that I have had little interest in history, and anything later than the Georgians still doesn't float my boat but it's interesting how many snippets of information pop up that link the past eras together and ultimately with the present. I started out with very fixed ideas of what information and source would be useful but it's been the oddest things that have delivered gems. Those who saved and now collect stuff are keeping an amazing archive alive.

Belushi, not an answer to your question, but only yesterday I was flicking through a book I have had for a while called "BTH Reminiscences, sixty years of progress" 1946. There is quite an interesting chapter in this book about the radar equipment produced by BTH Rugby between 1940 and 1946, the first being for a contract for the government to develop and build the first centimetres equipment for AA fire control. It does not mention the V2 but in July 1944 with the V1 attack on London the company undertook the development and manufacture of a small Radar unit referred to by the government as "Cupid".

One example of people being told during the War only what the Government wanted them to hear was the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster of 1943. On March 3rd 1943, 173 people, including 62 children died in tragic circumstances and over 90 were injured in a crush on a staircase, making this the site of the highest number of civilian casualties in one place in the War. Far from being an immediate news story, the incident at Bethnal Green tube wasn't reported for over 24 hours. The actual reports that came out then were censored by the government and did not give a full picture of what had happened; survivors were asked not to talk about the incident at all. This led to speculation of some kind of cover up, although it was more likely done from a morale perspective. From a government perspective, a disaster of this nature would not help the morale of the general public and might put more people at risk if they became worried about using tube stations as shelter. Even London Transport, in their official history of WW2 "London Transport Carried On", published in 1947, makes no mention of the disaster.

belushi, Radar, in the period you are talking about, was in its early days of fitting onto warships and it was a hush hush subject and a battle between the Germans and the Western allies to develop the high performance Radars the quickest. So far from informing the general public about Radar in was better to adopt the policy of need to know.

Just noticed the adverts for RHMS and Bunty coaches - surprised to see people could take leisure trips midweek. Did they not know there was a war on? And in June 1940 it was the height of the invasion scare!

Hi Belushi! As a youngster, as a family we finally evacuated from Cov in 1941 to live in cottage on a farm a mile from Sheepy village in Leicestershire. One evening about 9.30, no moon, pitch black and windy, there was a loud banging on the door and on answering there stood two airmen from a crashed Wellington Bomber who were looking for a telephone. Dad took them to the village policeman. The plane was lost, ran out of fuel and did a blind wheels up glide in crash landing on small 4 acre levellish strip of soft field, the engines and belly gouging sloughs for 100yds. It finished up with a broken back, canvas and wood sort of wickerwork frame, but not a complete wreck. They were supposedly on a training flight. It lost its guns in the nose and we could go anytime and find 303 rounds tracer and ball in a running ditch, l suppose at the first point of impact. The crew were Polish and Brits. Wikipedia claims they can find no record of it. Another event they can find no record of during those evacuated years was a train crash which WAS reported in, l think, the Daily Express in between Atherstone and Polesworth. l had already heard there had been an accident and then a newspaper picture showed 2 or 3 coaches lying on their sides. Again no record.

Hi Inyoni, thanks for your interesting post. I'm not surprised that there is no record on Wikipedia for your two events, as they were quite ordinary and mundane in the whole scheme of things. I am surprised, however, that a national newspaper covered a provincial train crash. Was anyone killed? I'd have thought that the censors would have supressed bad news like this so as not to affect people's morale.