Court Martial

COURT MARTIAL

During the second world war I lived in a fairly quiet Road in Sutton Coldfield. The road was on a hill and which gave a very good vantage point for seeing what was going on during the course of Air Raids. We had an Air raid shelter at the top of the garden and on many occasion after the Air Raid Sirens had sounded and on going to the shelter could observe bombs falling or the Anti Aircraft Guns firing. Many little stories could be written about these events but the one I am about to tell takes the biscuit!!

One day in I think about 1940 a friend of my parents was visiting who had recently joined up with the local ARP and happened to mention that they required young lads with bicycles to act as runners and help out. I jumped for joy at the thought of being a member of a highly elite force and felt very important. One of my duties was the F.W. (fire watching) roster for my road which entailed the collection of the F.W. board from the person who had been on firewatch the previous night and to take it to the next person on the list. They in turn would place the board in their front room window so that other people in the road knew that the householder was on duty that night. This did not always work out as some men would probably be on fire watch at their place of work so would not be available. Some residents were never available in fact they never did anything at all, some of those people were able to tell glowing tales of their contribution to the war effort after 1945, but that is another story. As the war moved on the Air raids became less and people started to become somewhat complacent me included and being fed up with the problems of the F.W.board started to let the system lapse a little much to the concern of the head ARP Warden who only lived a few doors down the road. One night when I had not bothered with the board the Air Raid sirens sounded and therewas a German Bomber circling round, he may have been trying to get his bearings but he did drop an incendiary bomb which fell at the top of the road down the side of somebody’s fence and set it on fire. I would like to have met that Pilot after the war to tell him the trouble he caused me. All holy hell broke loose as there was no fire watcher on hand and nobody seemed to know who it was except me as I had the list. A few buckets of sand and water the fire was put out, then the inquest started, I was shouted at by the chief warden and told to report to him at the ARP post the following afternoon, which I did. My parents were not very pleased with this nor with me. I duly reported and escorted into the main hall and there at a table was the chief warden with a further warden on each side of him. I was told in no uncertain manner that my attitude was not good enough and situations like that could not be tolerated as it could lead to losing the war, so therefore my services were no longer required. The chief Warden enjoyed the war, it gave him authority and he liked to use it. On several occasions one could hear his voice above all others. He was rather like a Dad’s Army all wrapped in one. I had to consider that I had been Court Martial’d. Comical when you look back on it. I went home and told my mother she in turn was quite cross not only with him but me also. Not a very heroic war.

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