A Coram Boys War - A personal story

My War in a Boarding School

By

Thomas Villiers
Submitted by:
Thomas Villiers of 31, Eaton Avenue, High Wycombe, Bucks HP12 3BP.
Contact Tel: 01494638831
Email: [email protected]
URL::www.thomasvilliers.com

It was another sort of life after leaving the Infants part of the boarding school to be with the older boys in Berkhamsted, Herts. It was different, there was more freedom of play and we were left to play by ourselves. There were restrictions as it was said that there was a chance of a war soon. We never knew that as yet and were looked after in a dormitory by a nurse who had full control of us from the time we went upstairs from school lessons until breakfast in the morning. Other ladies looked after us in the locker rooms and made sure we had clean clothes and washed regularly. There was a playroom, which we shared with other groups of boys. There were no girls with us now and we weren’t allowed to play with them anyway. There was a music room between the two playrooms where we could go and play quietly and did singing lessons.
School lessons were from 8 o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We had one teacher most of the time and after a little while other teachers came in to teach special subjects.
There was a large playing field where we played out our childhood fantasies sports. This was good, especially in the summer when we wore khaki shorts and shirts and everything was fresh first thing in the morning.
I’d now formed a good friendship with Mike, who was one of the boys in the next bed to me in that first year. It was a small group of us who always played together of John, Mike, Tom and Henry. Mike and I had a lot in common. I never had any special friends before and found that there was a bond between us that would become deeper as the years at school went on.
When the war did come it had little effect on us at first. In the classroom we drew maps of where the soldiers were fighting. These were hung on the walls and brought up to date as each day came. We saw pictures of the war and played soldiers, particularly when the grass in the large playing fields was cut and we could build imaginary trenches. The aeroplanes like we’d seen at the summer camp went overhead.
One day we were in the playground being lined up to go into class.
“Look up there!" John said.
We looked up and saw aeroplanes cart wheeling in the sky.
“Look. They’re firing at each other." Said Mike.
"Some of them have crosses on their wings. I think they are Germans and they are fighting with the English planes." Henry said.
I looked up and saw flashes of fire coming from the wings of the planes. I puzzled and afraid. There was a loud bang and one of the aeroplanes with crosses on its wings peeled off from the rest with smoke coming from its tail.
"Look! They've shot it down." I cried.
The plane went out of sight.
"I hope it doesn't fall on us." I said
"No. It won't come anywhere near us." Said Tom
I saw the sky full of vapour trails from the aeroplanes engines. The sky clouded over and the planes were gone. This sight was repeated frequently over the next few weeks and we cheered whenever a German plane shot down.
On the next day we were walking into the town and in a park there was a plane on the ground.
"Come on, lets go and have a quick look," cried Mike.
They ran over to the plane. `Doesn’t it looks small,' I thought, `it didn't seem possible that these were the same planes that had been shooting at each other over the school.
"I think that was the one we saw shot down yesterday," said John.
"I wonder if the pilot was killed."
How horrible, I thought, and didn't say so in case I was called a cissie. We looked over the plane but couldn't get too close as it was roped off. Where the pilot had been sat there seemed too little space for him. I saw the guns sticking out of the wings. There were bullet holes in the body of the plane and the wings had smashed in the impact of the crash landing. We heard later that the pilot had died in Hospital.
As the days went by things began to happen as a result of the war. All our windows were blacked out at night with roller blinds. The lamps were taken out to dim the lighting down and fluorescent lamps were removed. We weren’t allowed out at night under any circumstances unless accompanied by a teacher, which would be a rare occasion as there was only one teacher on duty each night.
One night we were led down to the rooms where we normally had lessons under the school that they called air raid shelters. It was like sleeping in a cave or a dungeon. We had two tier beds with straw mattresses, which smelt funny. It was exciting to us.
This night we were in the air raid shelters and settled down for the night when there was a loud bang. I woke up afraid. This was closely followed by several other loud bangs and smashing of glass
"Gosh! That was close. One of the bombs must have hit the school.” Said Tom.
I didn't reply, and was shaking with fear.
Tom didn't seem particularly frightened but then he never was.
"We'll have to go and have a look in the morning," said Mike.
“I reckon that the bombs have left some deep holes".
It wasn't easy from where they were to judge where the bombs had fallen. Having recovered from my fear a little I agreed nervously.
"I hope nobody was hurt.”
"Well, we are alright," said Mike.
It wasn't easy from where we were to judge where the bombs had fallen. A voice shouted "Settle down now", it was one of the teachers. All the lights had gone out with the first bang and there were torches flashing about. The school fire bells were ringing and it seemed so far away. I pulled a blanket over my head and was still shaking with fear, I knew he wouldn't sleep that night and didn't. The others whispered for a while too frightened or excited to sleep. Daylight came and we were sent back to our own rooms. I saw there was no damage on our side, perhaps I’d been dreaming, but knew I wasn't as it was the only topic of conversation. We looked out of the windows.
"The bombs didn't land on the playing fields, they must have landed on the girls side." Tom said.
After breakfast we ran round to the front of the school.
"Look! There!"
Tom pointed to the front gate. There were four or five craters in the fields opposite. I looked over at the girls’ side of the school and saw a lot of broken windows and some trees were down. That was why they had heard the fire bells last night.
"If they had been a bit nearer they would have hit the school," Tom said.
I shivered with fear. It was bad enough hearing the bombs fall without thinking they might have killed all of us. We hoped that it wouldn't happen again and it didn't as we were too far away from the places that were being bombed and found out later the plane had dropped its bombs on the way back to Germany after one of the engines had gone wrong. Then a lot of aeroplanes began flying around, bigger than those they we’d seen fighting over the school. Every night there was a steady drone of noise that kept us awake until the early hours of the morning. Mike said that there were less coming back than went over and so it was. Some nights there was a different sort of noise in the sky and we came to know they were German planes. When they came over I was always frightened. During this time the planes continued to fly over every night.
"The Americans have moved into an airfield called Bovingdon, just up the road, so most of the planes are flying from there to Germany." Mike said.
One day, soon after the bombs had fallen by the school we were taken on a walk to Bovingdon. It was very cold and there was snow on the ground. We had winter clothes on; long trousers, overcoats, gloves and Wellington boots. My boots didn't fit properly and so I got sore heels. It was a long way along a winding road. As Bovingdon came in sight we saw the big anti aircraft guns and the searchlights that lit up the sky and the barrage balloons. It was a great sight to us. Tom was very excited and eager to look at everything.
"Look at all those aeroplanes. I wouldn't mind having a ride in one of them," said Tom.
I looked, they certainly were big with four propellers in front and a gun sticking out of the back and thought they looked ugly. They didn't stay long as they had to get back before it was dark. As we left there was a lot of activity around the planes with men in blue uniforms climbing all over them, no doubt they would be flying over again tonight. We saw huge bomb trolleys being taken to the aeroplanes and being unloaded. Men were also making the guns and searchlights ready in brown uniforms and helmets, getting ready for war. I was glad to get back to school, it all seemed so unreal and anyway my heels were hurting more and were raw from rubbing on his boots and it was cold.
We followed the progress of the war on the maps on the classroom walls; it cheered us when we were beating the Germans. Soon the bombs stopped coming and more aeroplanes flew overhead and we weren’t taken down to the air raid shelters any more. When we could we’d look out of the windows to see the aeroplanes and cheered them on as they flew over. We were shown a few newsreels about the war that they were allowed to see.
The food we had was on the plain side and not much of it. I saw that the teachers had all the best food even so we had just enough to eat.
As the time passed I became afraid again as on the wall maps the Germans were winning the war and the British were pulling back to the coast of France. There was talk of an invasion in the newspapers and I felt afraid as the line of the British troops slowly moved back to the French coast. We read of the defeat at Dunkirk and of the little boats collecting all the soldiers. It was a hard time for everyone and the food was worse than before. I felt a mood of sadness and feared for what might happen but nothing did happen yet to spoil our settled way of life. It was all-quiet for a time and there was no more talk of invasion in the newspapers, only stories of the bravery of the soldiers who had been evacuated from Dunkirk.
One day soon after the period of quietness from the war, we were woken up early in the morning to a thunderous noise. There were hundreds of soldiers camped in our playing fields.
"What a cheek. Now we will have nowhere to play." Said Tom.
"It won't be for long. They are on their way to France. Its early summer and the ideal time to attack and beat the Germans before the winter sets in."
On the large field the troop carriers, land rovers and motorcyclists went about their duties. Every now and then a despatch rider would be seen collecting a package and ride away. The soldiers, who were in the tents, cleaned their rifles and made preparations for war. It was all hustle and bustle.
"They should be here for a couple of days," said Mike,
"So we will be able to have a closer look at them."
The boys were not allowed to come too close to the soldiers when they were working, so we eagerly watched all the preparations from a distance. It was an exciting time for us. Some of the soldiers made friends and they always waved when they were coming and going about their duties. The soldiers were there several days and we were able to see the new equipment that was to be used for fighting the war. One of the days, a soldier ran his motorcycle into the wall near where the boys played. I was saddened when they told us that he had been killed before he had the chance to go to war. As Mike had said the soldiers did not stay long, one morning as they went down to see the soldiers again all that was left was the track marks of vehicles and other signs that they had been.
Another period of comparative quiet followed after the soldiers had left. There were no more bombs and they were content now to follow the progress of the war. This we did on our wall maps and with more interest as the British were now progressing through France to Germany. We were happy again and the feeling of sadness before was replaced by one of hope.
Some of the teachers who had left to fight in the war returned in uniform to see us and gave vivid accounts of what was happening. We sat enthralled as one of the teachers they liked a lot had joined the RAF and told stories of his experiences.
We were older now and began to understand more of the situation and read all we could about the war. Tom still wanted to join the RAF and more so after the teachers had visited them.
Mike had been right, the soldiers had gone to France and shortly after they left the bombers were flying over again and they were all British or American. This time I noticed it was different, there was more of them and they could now see them more freely at night. I tried to count them one night but had to give up, as there were too many. It was at the same time most nights during the week when we were lying in bed they would hear the first droning noise start and so it went on it seemed all night. The aeroplanes returned and more came back than did in the early days and I was pleased. Henry said now the war would soon be over. The boys had only left the school grounds during the last 6 years to go for walks which were controlled and when there was no sign of danger. I thought of the day I arrived at the school, it all seemed so long ago. Our timidity of life had long gone and we were now as confident as could be. I longed to be free and away from a time that we didn’t know who and what we were and always under control. If there was any form of freedom, he knew there was, it was like my life on the farm. Mike broke into my chain of thought.
"All the boys who are leaving school now are going into the army or if the army will not have them they are going to work on a farm. I will still be able to go into the army or maybe the RAF."
"Ugh!" I thought.
The bombers overhead gradually became less and we continued reading about the war.
"Look at this in the newspaper. It says that the Germans have built an aeroplane that doesn't need a pilot and they guide it over to where it is going to land." Mike said.
Soon we read of these aeroplanes called "Doodlebugs" coming over and once more were afraid of what was to come. We saw several of these planes in the distance and had no danger from them. Mike had read all about them and explained that the Germans had invented a rocket motor with a bomb in it. These were launched on skids in the general direction of England. The rocket fuel was put in so accurately that it would run out of fuel in London or wherever the bomb was intended to drop and the bomb would explode on contact with the ground.
One day they were walking outside when they heard a strange noise.
"Look up there!" I cried.
They looked and it was one of the strange planes that we’d read about.
“Cross your fingers the engine doesn't stop." said Mike.
Lucky for them it didn't. The sky was clear and the plane fly over to a stretch of common land where they often walked, the engine stopped and there was a big bang. I felt a sense of relief. The strange plane was the last of the dangers that would make us frightened.
Soon after this incident the war was over. We joined in the celebrations. To us the war was a time during which we grew from infant times to the threshold of manhood.

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