Maurice Kinslow - 2nd World War Memoirs of a Child - Part 1

I was born in Rochester, Kent 3rd March 1932. One of four boys (no girls), Ron (the oldest), then Stan (next in age), then Peter and finally me. Peter being 2 ½ years older than me.

I attended the local Holcombe Road Infants School until the outbreak of the War. I came back from a summer break in 1939 and was told by the teachers to go home again until sent for. War started a few days later and I never set foot in that school again.

The Quiet ‘Phoney War’ Period

a) The infants’ teacher would visit us at home each Wednesday, leave homework and mark the week’s before.
b) There were things going on during this time, such as supplying everyone with gas masks (I remember mine was ‘small fitting) and Anderson Air Raid Shelters. My father, being a hard worker already had ours and was burying it correctly at the bottom of the garden and helping others with theirs when war started 3rd September 1939.
c) Morrison air raid shelters were issued later and were for indoor use. We didn’t have one of these in our house; they took up a lot of room in the normal household and were used as tables. You couldn’t have both types of shelter in the household.
d) My brothers Ron and Stan were doing engineering apprenticeships, so there was no question of their being evacuated. My mother wouldn’t hear of Peter and me being evacuated. ‘If we die, we all die together’ so she would say. I wouldn’t have gone anyway as I was a severe asthmatic.
e) Also living in the house with us were my grandfather, Uncle and our pet dog — Bonzo. Bonzo was adopted by us from a friend of Stan’s who moved up North. He was 4 years old with a lovely friendly nature.
f) It was really just before the war (a period which was known as ‘The Crisis’ I believe, which preceded the outbreak of the War.) The blackout had been introduced and Air Raid Wardens would walk around checking that everyone’s house was properly ‘blacked out’. I was in bed with an attack of asthma and bronchitis and for some reason my mother had the mistaken impression that leaving a light on in a bedroom with a frosted glass window met with regulations. So when she did this because of my illness, she heard a voice (presumably a Warden) from the blackout shouting angrily ‘Put that light out’ it upset her terribly.

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The Battle of Britain June 1940 — Sept 1940
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The Battle of Britain came in with a vengeance. Me, being just 8 ½ years old, didn’t like it one bit and didn’t fully inderstand that the Country was literally fighting for survival.

The Air Raids of the period were mainly in the daytime. My Father was a round-the-clock shift worker in Chatham Dockyard nearby and could be a little stubborn at times.

i)There was one rather humorous afternoon when he was having his sleep and the Air Raid siren sounded. I went into the Air Raid Shelter with Grandad, Peter and Bonzo. My Mother was out shopping with a neighbour. The raid got very noisy and my Father would not be disturbed until he looked out of the window and saw a dogfight in the sky between a Spitfire and Hurricane and a Messerschmitt. He didn’t wait any longer and came running down the garden in his longjohn underpants in a panic to join us in the shelter. I learned afterwards that my Mother and neighbour had taken cover in a local store which provided shelter for people caught out.

ii) There was also a time when I accompanied my Father with Bonzo to his allotment. The Air Raid siren sounded and in not ime at all the sky seemed full of German Bombers. I thought we were all going to be blown into the next world. My Father sent me ahead with Bonzo to the Public Air Raid dshelter on nearby Maidstone Road while he put away his tools. The people in the shelter wouldn’t let Bonzo in as he wasn’t muzzled so I had to tie him up by his lead outside. By now the Anti-Aircraft Guns were going full pelt at the German Bombers and theshrapnel (shell splinter) was raining down all around. My father came up after about two minutes, untied Bonzo and brought the poor frightened creature into the shelter with us.

My mother was a great worrier (more than most people) and used to try and seek comfort by asking my Father, relations, friends, neighbours etc, “Do you think we are going to have an Invasion?” They would try in vain to console her. Then she would say with great concern, “If the German Soldiers do come down the back alley at the bottom of the garden, she would offer them a cup of tea, hoping they wouldn’t hurt us, and move on”. I wonder what the authorities would have thought of that!!

After a while, the people would get a bit casual about normal Air Raid sirens and would only take cover if the Dockyard Hooter sounded (which spelt trouble coming). Early one evening my Mother was in the local fish and chip shop queue when my brother Peter heard the Hooter and shouted in the shop “Mum, the Dockyard Hooter’s going off”. With that, the people in the shop scattered and the shopkeeper shouted “I’ll give you b…….. Dockyard Hooter, you’ve driven all my customers away!!”

One Sunday afternoon when all was quiet following the usal active Air Raid period, the “All-Clear” had not been sounded — then right out of the blue a German Dornier swooped over but was quickly brought down by local Anti-Aircraft guns. The pilot apparently tried to avoid crashing into bungalows but couldn’t quite make it taking the roofs off the bungalows and crashing in open ground beyond. All this was about ¾ mile from where I lived and a lot of the neighbourhood raced up to the scene. My Mother called out in vain to my brother Peter to stay back. He saw the carnage and the badly burnt pilot who the people laid out on the bank awaiting the ambulance. He died but it was rumoured that he spoke a good-will message for someone living in the locality where he had stayed on holiday just before the War. One of the inhabitants of the bungalows also died in hospital.

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The Blitz on London Sept 1940 — to June 1941
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The Blitz followed on from the Battle of Britain. Although Chatham Dockyard, Shorts Aircraft Company and several smaller industries were in the area, we were fortunate enough to be spared a real Blitz where we lived. There were however several very high explosive landmines which dropped in the locality which destroyed some large populated areas. They were dropped by parachute at night, so they couldn’t be detected before the explosion.

We would watch the local Anti-Aircraft guns firing for hours in the dark at bombers approaching to attack London. Where we lived we could look across and see the sky lit up with the bombing of Tilbury Docks, and the shells going up over that area. Then a few minutes after the local Anti-Aircraft Guns stopped firing, it would go all quiet but the rattle of shell splinter hitting the roofs of houses could be heard. A loud one was usually a Nose Cap. I found this all quite frightening.

The hobby amongst us children at the time was collecting shell splinter. To find a Nose Cap was a real treasure. I was never fortunate enough to find a Nose Cap but the rest of the debris was in plentiful supply. It would go rusty very quickly and would be thrown away. I do wish that I had kept my prize pieces in preserving oil and kept them for the future.

The Blitz on London became very intense up to and including the night of 10th May 1941 (my brothers Stan’s birthday). We all wondered what the night of the 11th would be like but surprisingly it went comparatively quiet from them on. We learned later that was when Hitler’s attention was drawn to Russia. I have also read that if he had carried on just for a further three nights or so after the 10th May, Britain would have collapsed.

The blitzing of other key areas of the Country would of course be resumed later on.

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