SOME PERSONAL HISTORY

[Stanley]

SOME PERSONAL HISTORY

St Valentine's Day is my birthday, pause for cheering and a brief celebration! It struck me that I might be forgiven for recording some personal history which is just as important as any other sort.
I started thinking about this and my first thought is that it’s a miracle I have got this far. I was born in 1936 in Stockport and the main event of my first year was the abdication of the new king, Edward VIII. He assumed the throne on the 20th of January and abdicated on the 11th of December the same year to be followed by his brother George VI. That didn’t concern me of course, I just got on with growing and became aware of something quite important happening when I was three years old because my father and the man next door started digging a big hole in our small back garden, I was told it was “for a shelter”. I didn’t really understand but soon got the drift because my younger sister and I were sent to a farm in Derbyshire and we knew it was because something bad was going to happen at home. This was of course the expected bombing which didn’t happen so we were brought back home just in time for the start of the Luftwaffe’s attempts to destroy the major feature of Stockport, the enormous viaduct that carried the West Coast North to South railway line. Then we found out what the shelter was for and spent many nights in it.
In 1940 I started school and was given an identity disc to wear on a string round my neck, we had our photographs taken at the same time and were told this was to ensure we couldn’t get lost. It was of course so we could be identified if we were killed in an air raid. That was how school photographs started. That was the start of a long life which for the first 40 years was hard and there were a lot of chances for an early death. During that time I was exposed to many substances and chemicals that are outlawed today. Something, most likely luck allied with good genes, got me through, I survived the lot.
That’s quite enough of my life story, my point is that we all have a personal history and I have a purpose in mind this week. I have a question for my older readers, how much do your children know about your life story? Being a historian I believe we have a duty to leave our children some clues so that later in life when they start wondering about their roots they have something to go on. I wrote a four volume history of my life and gave all my children copies but I realise that this isn’t common. At the very least, talk to your children and make sure that the old family photographs have information written on the back! They might not show much interest now but one of these days…



School photograph at four years, note the string round my neck!

[Stanley]

That's a serious young man. The photographer was good, he wasn't simply doing mug shots for identity cards. Only 83 years ago......
My point about writing on the backs of photographs and talking to your kids is as valid as ever it was. Just think how popular genealogy is today....

[Wendyf]

What hung from the string Stanley, was it a card or a tag?

[Big Kev]

What hung from the string Stanley, was it a card or a tag?

'tis lurking in the text above
In 1940 I started school and was given an identity disc to wear on a string round my neck, we had our photographs taken at the same time and were told this was to ensure we couldn’t get lost.

[Wendyf]

Thank you Kev!

[plaques]

Ran away from infants school during the war because every lunch they fed us enormous helpings of cabbage something I detested. Getting lost would have been impossible everybody kept a watchful eye on all the kids. To be fair to Stanley only one bomb was dropped in Burnley in Thompson's park more a case of getting rid of weight than malintent.

[Stanley]

Our hobby in those days was collecting shrapnel on the way to school the competition was who got the biggest piece. It all went in the scrap bin at school. One morning I won the competition when I staggered in with a full clip of 20mm cannon ammunition and the teachers had to send for the bomb disposal squad. When I told them at home they wouldn't believe me because the day before I had told my dad that a Spitfire had crashed in the park.... he went looking for it but of course it was a fairy tale!

[PanBiker]

I staggered in with a full clip of 20mm cannon ammunition and the teachers had to send for the bomb disposal squad.

Regarding ordnance, we used to have a pineapple hand grenade at home that we we used to laik with, It had the pin and spring handle and looked like the proper job. It had been emptied and made safe of of course but it still had the screw on detonator cover on the bottom. We used to pull it in bits regularly. My brother lost it when he rocked up at Ermystead's with it when they were doing WWII in history. That went to the bomb lads as well.

I gave another scare to the local bobbies on Manchester road when I handed in a 2" live armour piercing round that I found on the landfill when they were filling in Wellhouse mill dam! The bomb lads did a proper search for any more down there after I told them where I had got it from.

[Stanley]

I had a practice Mills Bomb Ian and a 25lb practice bomb but they vanished when I left home to work on the farm. (My Ostrich Egg vanished as well!)

[Tripps]

I came across this yesterday WW2 Shrapnel

I've seen Stanley's references to his WW2 Stockport shrapnel collection, but didn't give it much thought. This adds more to the subject. I don't know how accurate the numbers are, but Simon is a serious chap. Makes you think. . . . .

[Stanley]

If that bloke's right all the RAF lads who were brought down by Ack Ack over Germany must have been imagining things. No Naval guns in Stockport.
Sorry but I don't give credence to shock horror stories like that where the narrator seems to be the only one who has seen the light.

[PanBiker]

If that bloke's right all the RAF lads who were brought down by Ack Ack over Germany must have been imagining things.

Indeed, over the duration of our raids on Germany the attrition rate was around 50% of men and machines. I watched a relatively early film about the bomber boys made less than ten years after the end of WWII, 1954 I think. They still had squadrons of Lancaster's for use in the film, they also used lots of original footage. The nightmare situation when fully armed and in formation before reaching the target was being "coned", this was a blue radar guided searchlight and once locked on all the others homed in. The only defence was to try and spiral out of the formation to try and defeat the lock. Quite a lot of aircraft were lost due to colliding with others in the formation when attempting to escape. The German night fighters didn't bother with waiting for the searchlights, they just headed for the Ack Ack bursts which would get them to their targets. They tried very hard but ultimately failed due to overwhelming numbers.

Seems strange to me that the side that prevailed in that particular madness apparently couldn't hit a thing!

[Tripps]

I started this because my curiosity was piqued when SCG mentioned collecting shrapnel in his childhood. I never really considered it to be British shrapnel. As to the accuracy and effectiveness of British anti aircraft weapons - take a look here at what seems to be a credible source. WW2 Anti - aircraft fire for more information.

[Stanley]

We are told lots of things in wartime that are aimed at improving our morale. We were told the dreadnought was invincible and men like Billy Mitchell in the States who said a battleship could be sunk with one bomb were ridiculed until the unthinkable happened. (Transfer that to our present naval shibboleth the super carrier.)
I remember reading an account of naval gunnery and range finding and being surprised to see that only one shell in many hundreds hit the target.
After WW2 the US War Department initiated the Strategic Bombing Survey. (11/3/1944 - 10/8/1947) and surprised everyone by highlighting the truly epic inaccuracy of aerial bombing, indeed the much Vaunted Norden and Sperry bomb sights were later shown to be verging on confidence tricks.
My point being that almost every time we are assured that something is working efficiently and well on the battlefield we should take it with a pinch of salt. I don't see why Ack Ack accuracy should be any different but at least we were trying!
(I always thought that barrage balloons were a bit optimistic.....)

[PanBiker]

(I always thought that barrage balloons were a bit optimistic.....)

A throwback for the old biplane dogfights no doubt, they were only a couple of hundred feet off the ground. Cables weren't long enough for bombers at 8 -10,00 feet.

[Tripps]

our present naval shibboleth the super carrier.)

Top marks for that, I thought it was wrong at first but after more thought - just clever.

[Stanley]

Thank you kind Sir.....

[Stanley]

Take note of the message behind the article. Give your kids a clue about who you are! I wrote 4 volumes of memoirs and gave mine a copy each. I know some of my grandchildren have read it because they have asked questions.....

[PanBiker]

After WW2 the US War Department initiated the Strategic Bombing Survey. (11/3/1944 - 10/8/1947) and surprised everyone by highlighting the truly epic inaccuracy of aerial bombing, indeed the much Vaunted Norden and Sperry bomb sights were later shown to be verging on confidence tricks.

I recently watched a You Tube video from a former USAAF B17 bomber wing commander who was relating the nitty gritty of raids into Germany. The sub zero temperatures that they had to operate in and something that I didn''t know. That was that the lead aircraft of a given wing was the one with the Norden bomb sight. It was thought prudent not to fit one to every aircraft as that would increase the risk of the enemy recovering one from downed aircraft and it was waste of resources. The drill was that everyone bombed on the order of the bombardier in the lead aircraft who was supposed to pinpoint the target, the following aircraft would be roughly over the same target area by the time they released their bombs. Fine in theory but he said that if the target was obscured they did it by bearing, time and airspeed from the last positively identified landmark. This had a massive knock on to accuracy as the same regime was used, everyone released at the same time as the lead navigator / bombadier. This meant that thousands of tons of bombs could be 10 or even 20 miles off target.

British strategy eventually learned that the most accurate way was by using fast pathfinder aircraft such as the Mosquito's who could mark the targets by flying fast low level sorties. The pathfinders would often fly at 100ft. They dropped incendiary markers which the following bomber wings used as their targets.

[Stanley]

Ian, have you ever read 'Bomber' By Len Deighton? It tells the story of the last flight of an English bomber in 1945 and how it all went horribly wrong. Ask me about it tomorrow.....