Firefighting on the Home Front, in Chelmsford

Introduction

These two letters were written to his elder brother Ernest by my father, Reg Quick, in September 1940 and luckily were preserved as a record of Dad’s experiences as a fire watcher and member of the Hoffmann Manufacturing Company’s fire brigade in Chelmsford, Essex.

Dad worked in the firm’s garage maintaining the fleet of lorries that distributed the ball and roller bearings etc that were essential components for the war effort. At the time of writing he was 38 and married to Doll and they had one daughter, Eileen [me].

Chelmsford as an engineering centre was a target for the Luftwaffe as the Marconi company was based there just across the road from Hoffmann’s and in addition there were the smaller firms of Crompton Parkinson, English Electric and Christy Bros.

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Letter 1

Sandford Road
Chelmsford

1/9/1940

My dear Ernest

Since my last letter to you, or rather immediately after; our share of the good work has increased out of all recognition & we can now sport our 3 or 4 raids per 24 hours.

This as you know is entirely fresh to us but the women & kiddies are taking it all in their stride.

This phase started in a startling manner by a lone raider demolishing two houses not 200 yards from the house [Monday August 19th at 1.45pm in Gainsborough Crescent; 3 people killed] and leaving a D.A. in the kitchen floor of another about half that distance away. After the expiration of the 100 hours this proved on digging out to be a 250 pounder.

We had visits from this chap on three successive days & he repeated the same tactics in different parts of the Borough but none so near as on the first occasion. His German punctuality proved his downfall on the Thursday morning when a reception committee put him down just on the coast.

Since then we have gone on more orthodox lines & have seen terrific scraps around us. This cheers the womenfolk amazingly as quite a number of theirs are either seen to crash or the crews bale out. It makes them feel that someone is on the job.

Doll & Eileen both keep very well I am pleased to say. Doll had the Xmas puddings boiling when our particular locality got walloped. The blast blew out the gas & the big leakage from up the road made it dangerous to relight for a matter of a couple of hours so goodness knows what they will be like. Still ours was the nearest block not evacuated while waiting for the D.A. to go off so we mustn’t grumble. All windows and ceilings too are intact but strange to say the concrete garden path was cracked across.

German communiqués stating that heavy explosions were observed on a Chelmsford factory may be totally disregarded. P.S. So far.

What glorious weather we are having this year, just because holidays are off the sun seems doubly warm.

Doesn’t every one take a keen interest in weather conditions nowadays. Wind, low cloud, state of the moon etc have changed from being mere opening remarks to matters of real importance.

Hope you enjoyed your “century” binge undisturbed by “local incidents”. You did not mention now Reg Wilkes was in your last letter but trust everything is alright.

Give our fond love to Jess and the children & of course yourself.

Must close now as we have to go to bed at an earlier hour once again.

Do you ever hear of or from Bishop Miles nowadays? Any news of Beryl yet? [Their 1st cousin was married to a Dutchman and living in central Holland]

Fondest love to you all

Reg

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Letter 2

Sandford Road
Chelmsford

20.9.1940

My dear Ernest

Very many thanks for the letter received safely altho. somewhat delayed in transit.

After a long period of inactivity & a lengthy warming up spell we men of East Anglia are now in the thick of it & tho, up to the present we have not been deliberately attacked by daylight there is a heck of a lot of indiscriminate bombing here by night. The crowd who have been turned off London delight in leaving us “large lumps”

The accounts you read of the terrific barrage over Town is not one whit over stated. Our back faces due south & dead ahead & some 25 miles away are the oil wharves which mark the end of Thames commercial life [Shellhaven]. From there right away to London on our right is one continuous flicker of gunfire with the corresponding bursts above. The noise is a continuous rumble with now & again a crescendo as the wind changes or the searchlights get a “fix”.

Doll takes it all very well in spite of being on her own on alternate nights. [Jerry arrives soon after 8pm & the White is delayed until somewhere around 5.30am] She has adopted the old comfortable theory of fatalism & it stands her in good stead mentally. I am glad.

Have you had any of M’s bread baskets your way? We specialise in ‘em down here but the last two nights we have been presented with magnetic mines above all things. Neither went off although whether this is due to a fault or that they are not fitted with detonators I don’t know.

Also the beggar is using our bombs which he bagged in France. We have the fuse cap off a 250 pounder in the Watch Room so there is no getting away from the fact.

The weather has broken at last & we now have it much cooler. I still have a few rows of spuds to dig up before they start growing out.

We were very sorry to hear of your trouble over the communal shelter. Unfortunately we know of several peoples similarly placed.

25/9/40 I will now try & finish this letter off. Old Nasty is not letting us rest much now & we have just passed our 105th warning. So far the damage in C[helmsford] is slight but we know that he is after something in this locality.

Mobile barrage units, now here, now there, are tending to confuse the womenfolks minds as the noise is all rated as bombs.

Well old man I must close now & try to get 40 winks before they “Blow” for the evening session.

Fondest love to you all, good luck & peaceful nights

Ever your loving brother

Reg

Note Unfortunately the replies from Bristol have not survived but I recall one extract that told of Ernest reading a newspaper in his garden in Fishponds by the light of the fires raging in the centre of Bristol on the night that it was blitzed.

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