Doodle Bug on Sawmill

Late April 1944 and I had just left school at the age of 14. I had my heart set on becoming a draughtsman but with the war my chances of that were very slim and after searching around for some time I finally decided that any job which would entail some sort of craftsman training was the best I could wish for. I applied for an apprenticeship at a very local saw mills as an apprentice Carpenter/Joiner. The mill owner was very understanding and said that while he could not offer me an apprenticeship he would ensure that I would have a thorough knowledge of all aspects of woodworking. This would entail me starting at one end of the mill where the wood was sawn and gradually working my way to the other end where I would eventually be working on the benches as a joiner. I was happy to accept and started my working life in the sawmill. After a few weeks I was placed behind the main circular saw in the mill taking off for a nice man by the name of Alf Jarman . The month of June came and with it the start of the “Doodle Bugs” and as can be appreciated the noise in the mill made it impossible to hear even the loud rattling noise from the flying bombs.
Alf had a week’s holiday and I was moved to an odd job on a crosscut saw until Alf’s return. On the first Monday of Alf’s holiday at our morning break for a cup of tea and a sandwich we were all sitting around the small table when for some reason or other I had a feeling that I needed to go outside of the mill. Just as I got outside I could hear the distinct sharp rattle of an approaching “Doodle Bug” and very soon could see it coming straight overhead but much higher than was usual. Again for some reason I had a distinct uneasy feeling about this one and started slowly walking towards the air raid shelter about twenty yards away while keeping a watchful eye on the doodle bug. Suddenly without the usual cut-off of the engine it dipped its nose straight down heading what looked like ‘straight for me’. I run the few remaining yards for the air raid shelter and jumped in and laid flat. Waiting for the explosion seemed an eternity and suddenly something fell with a thump into the entrance of the shelter. I was convinced this was the flying bomb and waited the second or two for what I thought was my end. The bang when it come what enough to lift me off the ground an inch or two and I was glad that I had placed my hands over my ears !!
The doodle bug had actually fallen at the end of the mill between the mill and a block of houses. It had demolished the end of mill where I, and others of course, normally would have been working. One or two of the workers had been injured and one in particular had a very nasty gash in the back of his head and I was asked by another of the men to run and get the First Aid Cabinet off the wall in the room where the circular saws were sharpened. I had great difficulty in opening the door to the room as most of the spare saws had been shaken off the hooks which held them on the walls. With a great deal of pushing and shoving I managed to get the door open enough to squeeze through and yanked the First Aid cabinet off the wall. With further difficulty I, and another lad who had come to help, got the rather large cabinet through the gap in the door and I followed. Dressings were applied to the heads of two of the injured men and I wondered off to look at the end of the mill which was most badly damaged only to find some of the other men franticly pulling at the wreckage searching for one of the older men named Joe who no-one had seen since the explosion. I of course joined in and some minutes later we were pleased to see Joe come walking round the corner of the large garage. The works toilet was at the back of the garage and the explosion had knocked the whole structure sideways which meant that Joe who had been in the toilet at the time could not open the door to get out !! He eventually managed to kick out a panel in the door and crawl out. This gave us all quite a laugh days later when things had returned to some sort of normality and he explained what had happened.
After the search for Joe had come to the satisfactory conclusion I walked back to the other end of the yard to see how the two men with the head injuries were getting on. They had in fact already been taken to hospital and I was just in time to see my father, who worked nights, walk into the entrance of the yard. He stopped with a look of great relief when he saw me and asked if I was OK. I assured him that I was but he insisted that I went home with him for a strong cup of tea. I told the Mill foreman that I was going which he said was fine. On the way home which was a distance of less than a quarter of a mile I noticed that my right shoe was making funny squelching noises and looking down saw that my show was covered in blood. Pulling up my trouser leg I found I had rather a nasty cut up on my shin. I assume that this had been caused by one of the circular saw teeth when I was in so much of a rush to get the First Aid cabinet. The strange thing was I never felt a thing and did not even realise I had cut myself. I still have the scar and refer to it as “My War Wound”

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.