Deebs has kindly said we could post a few of his history/stories he has blessed us with on the 71 RAF squad forums.
So for all to share
Deebs War.
Talking to various squad members and listening to conversations between them, makes me realise that I've actually lived through WWII and the early days of jet propulsion, 'History' itself in fact. So if you are not interested in the musings of an old man, switch channels now.
One of my earliest childhood memories was being bombed by the Luftwaffe! It was the winter of 1940 or 1941 and I lived at that time in Manchester and we were bombed a lot. Something woke me up and I remember seeing the curtains blowing and it being very cold, I was covered in white stuff. My mother told me later that our next door neighbour had crashed his truck into our house, the windows had shattered and I was covered in snow. A LOT later she told me the truth. A stick of bombs had fallen about 1'4 mile away. A house in the next street had been destroyed and our windows had been blown in and the 'snow' was in fact plaster shaken from the walls!
We had an outside Air Raid Shelter (every house did) but it was really just a little shed with a corrugated iron roof and was actually attached to the house, so i dont think it would have helped a great deal if we were hit. But to me it was quite normal to hear the Air Raid Siren wail, and we all had to leave the house walk 10 feet and essentially sit there till the All Clear sounded. The Air Raid siren was up and down and the Al Clear was one continuous high pitched note.
Often we would go and look at various German aircraft that had been shot down and put on display. I have no idea what I saw but I DO remember thinking how sinister and evil they looked and they frightened me!
My father btw was in the Far East. He was called up in 1939 and came home in 1946. So I lived with my mum, my granny and my mums sister.
I think I was 5 or 6 when my mum volunteered to lodge US 8th Air Force aircrew.
There was a massive base called Burtonwood nearby and it was used as a staging area for arriving crews. I still remember Uncle Mac. He was from New York and flew B17's. He presented me with a wooden model of one, and I IMMEDIATELY broke the propellors and cried! Uncle Mac's relatives sent us Food Parcels regularly (we were suffering EXTREME shortages of food, sweets (candy) was not available and even newspapers were printed on a kind of toilet roll quality paper, so comic books were unheard of.) But when the Food Parcel arrived we used to savour the wrappings to start with. Look at the stamps and the funny address it was sent from. It was a kind of ritual with al of us sitting round the kitchen table. And so it was that I ate my first Hershey Bar and read my Archie comics. They had a very distinctive smell my comics. I can remember the excitement of being able to eat A PIECE of chocolate and read my comic! We had in all 6 aircrew that stayed with us. Uncle Mac was the only pilot, but I had an Uncle Spike but I dont remember the others. Predictably I suppose, all of them were killed in daylight raids against Germany. The family stayed in touch with 'Ginny', Uncle Macs wife and I remember clearly meeting this lady when I was 12 or so. She came over on a special trip with other War Widows to see where their husbands were based. She called me Sugar Plum!
My mother (God Bless her) used to take me to Chadderton, not too far away. It had an Avro factory there building Lancasters, and we used to watch them leaving the factory on low loaders, wings on one and fuselage on the other. Then they were transported to Woodford where they were assembled and flown away. My mother told me to always wave and blow kisses to the driver (dont think there were paedophiles then!)
We used to go to the pictures (movies) a lot and I distinctly remember everyone in the cinema cheering when we saw film of the D Day landings. I have a very clear recollection of a Pathe News feature. It showed a ditch alongside a road. In the ditch were British soldiers dead bodies. Japanes soldiers walking by on the road would stop at random and bayonet the bodies. Everyone in the Cinema (incuding me) was booing and hissing. I dont know whether they were bayonetting injured soldiers are just being sadistic, but I only have to close my eyes and I can recall it vividly.
Somebody in the street had made an effigy of Mussolini and his wife and hung them upside down from a lamp post. The lamps were gas lit (of course) and when the Lamp Man came in the evening to light the lamps (he did this by carrying this big long stick with a flame coming out, pulled a cord attached to the
lampost and it went WOOF and lit, well thats how i remember it!) When he lit the lamps he set fire to the effigies and we all cheered!
The war ended and we celebrated by having street parties and decorated the streets with bunting and we went to Heaton Park (The Pope haeld Mass there when he visited Manchester I dont know when). There was this gigantic fly past and i remember streams of Lancasters and Mosquitos flying over followed by a sky full of Tempests and Typhoons.....and by then I knew what they were!
So that, in brief, was my war. I'll understand if it bored you, but if you'd like Early Post War, Korea and 1950's airshows let me know!
