About the contributor

In the second half of the thirties life was good. We were earning enough money to enjoy ourselves. Playing tennis on Saturday afternoons, swimming in the new open air swimming pool on Sunday mornings, Dancing classes on Friday evenings and the occasional Saturday evening dance. I was also taking piano lessons. In the winter I was going to night school for the usual engineering subjects, which all school leavers studied in an engineering city like Sheffield. I wasn't particularly interested in world events in those days but I recall Clement Attlee returning from Germany waving a paper and saying 'Peace in our time'. It was not long after that that Hitler's forces were beginning to make advances into the west but we did not think much about it.

All seemed fine until one Sunday morning in 1939, as we were enjoying a swim, at about 11 o'clock the attendant ordered us all out of the water because he said war had been declared on Germany.

Things became very different after that. All the houses had to have the windows blacked out. Anderson air raid shelters had to be put in the gardens. First we had to dig a hole about 3 ft deep. Then erect the corrugated steel structure. It was about 8 ft long by 6 ft wide and high enough to stand up in.We had to put seats along both sides. The soil that came out of the hole was thrown over the top for extra protection.

Rationing was introduced. Rationing covered food. petrol and clothing.The dig for victory campaign was introduced to help out the food shortage.

Everybody had to carry an identity card. All men below a certain age were due to receive calling up papers and had to go and register for military service as they were required starting from the oldest. Those engaged on war work such as government contracts, however, were exempt from being called up, but they still had to register.

German aircraft were free to make daylight raids at first so great pressure was on the R.A.F to take some action. One or two raids were attempted using Wellingtons, Whittlies and Hamptons. Twelve took part but non returned each time so that was abandoned. Eventually Spitfires and Hurricanes became available and that led to the battle of Britain and resulted in night raids and the blitz.

One Thursday night Sheffield had it's first air raid. They bombed the centre of the city. The next morning we had some difficulty getting to work. I worked in a small workshop on the second floor and I found that the building next door had been flattened.The wall that had divided our building from the one next door was standing undamaged from roof to ground. That day and the next we had no water to make tea. We still used gas for lighting but that was off as well so we had to stop work when the light faded. Public Transport was out of action so we had to walk to work. On Sunday night they came again but this time it was all the factories along the railway lines that run NE. All the big steel works and shunting yards were situated along those lines.

Eventually I received my calling up papers. That Sunday the family came to afternoon tea (high tea). In the evening my cousin Peter, who was just three weeks younger than me, asked if I had got my calling up papers. We agreed that we both had so he said "let's volunteer for flying duties before we register to make sure that we get what we want". I said " but what if you get yourself killed?" and he said "what a glorious way to die" so I quickly thought about it. It went something like this. You can be killed in whatever service you are in but at least in the RAF you come back to a comfortable bed at night. So I agreed to volunteer. Before we had to register we went along to the RAF recuiting office and volunteered. The next thing that happened was to keep the appointment to register. He asked us which service we wanted and we told him what we had done. So he put us done for it also. My school friend Jack was there to register and he also chose flying duties. We were sent to RAF Cardington for medical examinations and a series of tests. One was to write an essay with a choice of three subjects. The subjects were not to my liking at all. I recall that one was on 'the life of Churchill'. The paper had a space of 6ins by 3ins to write in and we were given five minutes to do it. I spent half of the time choosing the subject and managed to fill no more than half the space. Then we had an interview. The result was that Peter was accepted and told that it would be about 10 months before he would be called up. I on the other hand was sent home to finish my war work. Life was getting very hard as they introduced a ruling that firms must provide fire watchers over night. Our firm had a staff of three i.e. the boss, his brother and me and the larger firm that occupied the rest of the building decided that they would cover the rest of the week and we did it on Sunday night. That meant four hours to try to sleep each and two hours staying awake. In addition to that my friend from next door and I decided to join the home guard. We were kitted out with full battle dress but I was issued with a cape instead of a greatcoat. I rather liked it as I could wrap it round my self. Each week we spent one evening in a room were a corporal taught us unarmed combat, on Sunday mornings we were issued with rifles and practised patrolling in the park where we were stationed and one night we spent on duty in the building that we used in the park.

With all this loss of sleep I was beginning to feel really shattered but luckily it wasn't long before the government contracts were completed. The boss told me that he was going to have to report that I was no longer in a reserved occupation and within a week or two I received calling up papers. This time he did not offer a choice but simply put me down for flying duties. So in due course I went to the Sheffield Drill Hall for a medical. I was taken to a form to sit on and told to strip off completely. It was rather embarrassing. Soon I was taken to the MO and examined and given the ok. Next I went through the testing. This time I was accepted and told that I would be sent my reporting instructions in about 10 months time. Meanwhile I should pack in the home guards and attend a gymnasium with others on deferred service where we were given PT and practice in falling, how to break ones fall for parachute landings. The idea was to dive onto a mat and at the point of impact slap the mat with the flat of ones forearms. It certainly broke ones fall but at the same time in my case it felt as though it nearly broke my neck.

Eventually my reporting instructions arrived. I had to report to London along with others. We were met at the station and taken to St Johns Wood to the air crew reception centre known as ACRC. The next day we were marched to the Quartermasters store to be kitted out. The corporal issuing the uniforms etc shouted "when you leave here if you haven't got anything you have had it" After that we were marched back to the sleeping quarters each carrying a large pack a small pack and two kitbags. The second kitbag was filled with full flying gear. In the afternoon, after we had changed into uniform we were marched to the barber's shop. He didn't ask how we would like it he just took the electric shears and went (short back and sides) right over the top. We all felt like scraped carrots. The next morning we were fallen in and the corporal walked round to inspect us. Several of us were told to get our hair cut and being very green I sat in the barbers shop for a while until the barber told me to go away. The next day the corporal was missing and we were told that he had gone round the bend. The new corporal suggested a collection for him and every body fell for it. In those days a hair cream advert for Brillcream showed a young man in RAF officers flying kit obviously with an immaculate hair style. It was plastered in every newspaper. The inevitable result of this was that we raw air crew recruits were often sneeringly called Brillcream boys.

On one occasion I was picked with others to help in the cookhouse. It was absolutely disgusting. The place was filthy, I walked into a small room with joints of meat hanging on racks and other meat lying about. It was the freezer but bluebottles were flying in and out at will. We had some squad drill and some briefing about the next stages of our training But after a month we were thankfully sent to Stratford on Avon to start the Initial Training Wing.