The George Adams Interview — Part Fourteen

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bill Ross of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of George Adams, and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr. Adams fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Other parts to this story can be found at:
INDEX: A7544630

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This is a transcript taken from audio footage made by the Department of Sound Recordings at the
Imperial War Museum,
Lambeth Road,
LONDON SE1 6H7.

It has been copied almost exactly as recorded, therefore the terminology and grammar are as spoken and have not been manipulated in any way. Where place names that could not be found in an atlas, and/or unfamiliar terminology are mentioned, phonetic spellings are used and are subject to alteration.

On some occasions, sentences were not completed; the following symbol is used to denote that: ……………………
Only repetition has been suppressed.

Bill Ross — BBC People’s War Story Editor.
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Int: Were you glad to be back?

GA: Oh yes, very glad.

Int: Did you want to be demobbed as well, or were you quite happy working………….

GA: No, the sooner I could get demobbed …………

Int: Was there any unrest about the delay?

GA: No, not really. We knew we were given a number and we would go out with demob number so and so.

Int: Did you think the system was fair?

GA: Yes, I think it was, and if, I’d have pushed at work, my pre war job, they probably could have got me released, but sometimes, it’d take months and months anyhow, to come through, so I thought, “Oh well, I’ll hang on and take it as it comes.”

Int: When you came out, when were you actually demobilised?

GA: July 1946 — June 1946, sorry.

Int: And did you get your old job back?

GA: Yes, I went down, yes, the job was there, yes.

Int: Had your experiences affected you at all, do you think?

GA: It probably had, things had been quiet for so long, y’know, settled down in my mind and everything, and the only thing was, if things used to get difficult at times, it was difficult to settle down. This was the real effect; I’d got itchy feet. I think the wife’d tell ya I’d want to be moving about and get back to doing plenty of walking, and if I couldn’t get away, y’know, I remember I just couldn’t settle properly.

An advert came up for men for the South African Airforce. Why I did it, I don’t know because I knew the situation out there, and I knew that if Smuts got pushed out, it could get worse, but I think I was so unsettled and disturbed, that I’d like to have got back onto aircraft again. I wrote, but they said they were only taking senior N.C.O.’s, but I was a corporal, and he was sure that they’d be opening it up to junior N.C.O.’s and probably other ranks, and they’d be in touch with me at a future date. And they were, they were good to their word, they did contact me and said it was opened up, and if I wished to apply, I could do it, but in the meantime, we’d had a family and I’d gradually settled down. I’d still got itchy feet and wanted to go here and there, but nevertheless, the best thing I can do is settle down.

I settled down for a while and then there was the Berlin Airlift, and I still wanted to get back on aircraft. An advert came up for, I think it was the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, and I wrote to them. They wanted fitters, airframe fitters, engine fitters, and I wrote to them. They arranged an interview. I think it was Bovingdon, it was somewhere down by Hemel Hempstead anyhow, at a drome down there. I went down and the senior engineering officer interviewed me. In the mean time, I’d had a talk to one of their engineers who’d been out on the job, and I said, “What’s the situation like?” and he explained it. I said, “What’s the money like?” He said, “Yer can make as much as yer like, but we’re working all hours. We’re out on — probably planes are coming back from Berlin and dropping down with trouble at different airfields, and we’re out there day and night.” He said, “There’s plenty of money to be made.” I said, “What’s the living accommodation?” He said, “Well, huts, same as you were in the forces.” I said, “Is there no chance of getting any lodgings and bringing the wife and family?” He said, “They’re all full down here,” he sez, “there’s nothing.”

Then I began to think, and I went in for the interview, and I’d got my discharge book and everything. He asked me what I’d worked on. He sez, “When can you join us Mr. Adams?” I said, “Well, can you give me time to think about it, because it’s accommodation, from what I can gather, that’s the problem.” He said, “Well, it is,” he said, “it’s quite good, what it is, but there’s no housing or anything.”

I thought about it back on the train and by the time I got back, I thought I was going to be worse off than on a low wage at work, because the wages were very low. So I decided, no.

Int: And that was it?

GA: And that was it.

Int: Thank you very much.
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Pt 1: A7540968

Pr-BR

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