My War Service Part 2

The Army and War Service.

The new Recruit
The winter of 1940/41 was very severe with snow on the ground for weeks; the hilly streets of Ilfracombe proved a great hazard, especially for hob-nailed army boots.
On the other hand, the heavy uniform and shirts together with the army greatcoat was a bonus in the fuel-starved wartime conditions. My un-heated room in one of the boarding houses had no electricity because many of the streets were still entirely fuelled by gas. My room was quite bare; once again I slept on a straw palliasse and I became acquainted with gas mantels. These are quite delicate and broke easily. I could obtain replacements at the
local Woolworth’s and my two shilling-a-day army pay allowed me to indulge in them occasionally.
Because of my technical “expertise” I was allocated to the maintenance section. This was quite a privilege because I escaped all drill and guard duties. The latter were a joke in any case, as we were not allowed arms because of the peculiar status of the AMPC.
My duties were repairing and maintaining equipment around the company premises together with a corporal in charge. It mainly involved some sort of carpentry: my elementary handicraft training at the Frankfurt Samson Raphael Hirsch school came in useful — at least I knew the right end of a wood plane.
In spring 1941 a new company was formed in Ifracombe, 251 Co. and moved to barracks in Cheltenham. Our task was to erect anti-tank barriers in the major streets for use in the expected invasion. We used pneumatic drills to break through the road surfaces and pick and shovels to dig holes for inserting railway sleepers. I doubt whether they would have held up a Panzer tank.
Within a month we moved to Avenmouth near Bristol where we dug trenches around the huge oil tanks in the oil terminal of the port The intention was to fill them with fuel at the start of an air raid and set it alight in order to deflect enemy aircraft from the city. Bristol had a number of severe air raids; several times we helped in digging people out of their bombed homes. Once our truck was lifted from the road by a, fortunately, small bomb a few yards behind us.
More Timber
In summer 1941 our unit moved to the beautiful Forest of Dean in Monmouthshire where we erected tents for our accommodation in an open field. We worked in a large sawmill, which was used for war work to cut up tree trunks into railway sleepers for defence purposes. It was hard work because of the weights involved; we fed the trunks into band saws and then cut them to size and stacked them. Visits on Sundays to the nearby attractive towns of Ross-onWye and Monmouth were a welcome break.
During that time I had my first army leave of one week which I spent in London to arrange storage of my belongings which were still in my landladies house in Elmhurst Road, Tottenham. The Jewish Refugees Committee had a store where they were left till my discharge from the army. I also took back to the camp my ‘Olympia’ typewriter; this enabled me to type my correspondence course tasks for my tutors; my handwriting has never been one of my strength
At that time I decided to switch my correspondence course to one aimed at passing the London University Matriculation Exam., intending for university study after the war.
Transfer to the RAOC and REME
During 1941 the shortage of technically skilled soldiers became sufficiently severe to ask for any member of the AMPC with technical skills to transfer to the ROAC (Royal Army Ordinance Corps) which incorporated all maintenance workshops for vehicles and equipment and other supply functions. I volunteered for a trade test as toolmaker for which I was sent to the central RAOC depot in Portsmouth in June 1941;it turned out to be a very simple test of making a spanner from a piece of metal and I returned to the unit with a pass certificate as Fitter, class III.
A few weeks later I had to report to the Northern Command workshops in York and thus left the hard manual work behind me. Accommodation was in the old army barracks. I was allocated to the field gun maintenance section. My first task was the laborious cutting -out of sight windows in the light 2-pounder guns for inserting telescope sights for aiming at tanks. (These guns were quite inadequate against modern German Armour and were soon replaced by heavier guns).
Within 9 months I took another trade test and was reclassified “Fitter II.class”. In June 1942 I passed yet another test as Instrument Mechanic which consisted of making a cube, accurate to .001” and a hollow square of the same dimension through which the cube could slide without any excess play. These tests doubled may army pay to, I think, 4sh.per day which gave me a little elbow room in my life style. I could afford now and again to eat in a cinema café, or, even better, the one in Boot’s, which had restaurants in some of their branches till after the war. In addition I received £5. a month from a collection, which my fellow toolmakers and other staff had kindly organized in the Zipp Fastener Factory for the few workers who were on active service
Life in the Instrument workshops was very pleasant. I repaired compasses, telescopic sights, theodolites and binoculars. I was given charge of the latter workshop to teach and supervise a number of women war workers. I came to appreciate that the ladies were quite capable of undertaking fairly complex technical tasks.
Apart from the magnificent cathedral and the surrounding historical streets, there was a flourishing repertory theatre which I attended almost weekly. (In time, some of the actors became household names). We had no guard duties and military drill took place one morning each week.
There was also a flourishing music circle,(arranged by the Army Educational Corps) where classical records were played on most Sunday afternoons. I made a number of good friends; many Instrument Mechanics had been drawn from civilian professions, the army wanted to exploit any latent “brain” power as being thought to take easily to retraining. So there was a mix of bank managers, commercial artists, independent trade shop owners and the like. There were also three ex AMPC members, including Leo Hayes, ex Mannheim and Eric Kingsley, ex Breslau (Wroclav). All had similar cultural backgrounds to mine which helped our becoming friends. There were also others, whose names I cannot remember, who formed part of our circle.
Contact with my parents and finding a relative
My earliest contact was via the Netherlands through a distant relation of my father.( for details see ‘Letters from my parents’) and after the occupation of that country I received
further letters via my uncle Max Rothschild who had emigrated from the UK to USA and my aunt Henny Lifmann from Montevideo until her suicide. My uncle Leo Moses, then in Bolivia, also sent occasional news.
My parents begged me for a photograph but I was unable to send one because I had only my army uniform available, having grown out of the suits I had taken with me from Germany. For obvious reasons I could not send them any in uniform .
In July 1942 I received the Red Cross letter from them, which told me of their deportation.
They had previously mentioned my aunt Cilly Weinberg’s deportation but did not comprehend the murderous depth to which Germany was sinking.
It was a terrible shock, particularly as I knew only too well what awful times they were facing, having seen the inside of Buchenwald, read the many reports of the terror in Poland and remembering Hitler’s speech on 30th Jan.1939 which I had listened to with my father in Bremen Railway Station..
When I went to the Leeds Synagogue for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) I simply could not come to terms with the many prayers containing the term ‘merciful God’ contrasting the horrible reality and walked out of the synagogue, never to return to one for prayers.
In one of the letters from my relations I was told that my cousin Lina Windmuller
(Her mother was a sister of my father) had got into the UK and was given her address. I had met her as a boy in our house quite a few times when she came to us on summer holidays. She was a budding teenager then; we soon corresponded and on my second army leave I went to Edinburgh and from there visited her in Melrose where she was a housekeeper to Mrs Davidson and her daughter. They were extremely welcoming and asked me to stay whenever I could. They were of a distinguished Indian Army family and lived in a large house. The daughter was a teacher of dancing and an expert in eastern European folkdances. During her journeys she had collected a large number of national costumes, which she used for lectures. (They were left to an Edinburgh museum). On most of my subsequent leaves I spent 2 or 3 happy days there. Lina’s husband Gunther was in the Pioneer Corps as mentioned previously.
Life in REME
During 1943 the engineering facilities of RAOC were split off into a new corps: The Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). It made little differences to our work except for a change in cap badges.
In the same year I was transferred to a newly formed REME Workshop company located in Retford/Notts. The Instrument repair section was, as always, quite small, drawn from men of good backgrounds and led easily to firm comradeship. The accommodation was basic ,
in a defunct factory which was suitable for the many heavy workshop lorries full of equipment.
Change of Name
At that time another, very personal, change had to occur. The Army Council had realized that in case of capture by the ruthless enemy, those of former German or Austrian nationality might not receive the treatment as prisoners of war laid down by the Geneva Convention. The ordered all those soldiers who carried an obviously German / Jewish name to change it and be issued with a new Pay book (AB 64). My name was distinctly Jewish (Moses) and my first name very German (Manfred). After a lot of deliberation I decided on my present name.
During my stay there was a call for training of glider pilots. I was the only volonteer! And underwent a suitability test at facilities in Doncaster. Out of ca.50 only 12 passed the intelligence test. I failed at the eye test. In view of the large casualties of airborne units at the invasion it turned out to be fortunate failure.
While waiting for the glider pilot test my application for training as Armament
Artificer was also granted. My O.C. was impressed by my choosing to go on the Glider Pilot test, nevertheless, on a ‘First Come, first Served’ basis. On my return he recommended me for the first available course. Thus, a week later I was on my way to the Military College of Science, located in a Technical College in Bury,Lancashire.

Copyright 2005 Michael Maynard

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