Saw planes towing gliders for the airbourne troops
WITH many memories still focused on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the Echo is delighted to have received a copy of Loughborough veteran Tom Carter’s war memories.
We have been serialising Tom’s recollections over a number of weeks. They are a fascinating insight into life at that time.
Tom, 96, servied with the air raid defence unit, whose important job was to try and keep the home front skies safe.
In this, the final week, he recalls the continuing fight against the flying bombs and his eventual posting to Egypt
ONE group was told they would be going to the Orkney Isles and the group I was in was told we were going to Aberdeen. But the truth came out that we were going to the Shetland Isles to 309 Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery.
It was at this time I experienced my longest train journey in Britain (Oct 1944). We set off from Barnstable on Saturday evening on a troop train we went through London, up to Carlisle and on to Glasgow.
At Glasgow our group changed trains and caught one to Aberdeen and we arrived at 1 am on Monday. We got off the train at Carlisle for sandwiches and to stretch our legs but otherwise we slept on the train.
Anyone who has travelled on a troop train during
WW2 knows how atrocious the toilets became.
From Aberdeen we went by ship, which consisted of two ships and three armed trawlers, which took about 20 hours to get to the Shetland Isles. The weather was foul and most were seasick.
On arriving in the Shetlands we joined 309 heavy AA battery stationed on the Island of Bressay. 309 had a Number 10 predictor (the latest) and 584 radar set and 3.7 antiaircraft guns. I became part of the control centre team; we released an equivalent number of A1 men to join the infantry.
The weather in the Shetland Isles was wet and later snowy. Time off was a 24 hour pass to Lerwick.
There were two half batteries, one in Lerwick and one on Bressay – this was later reduced to just a half battery on Bressay.
We celebrated Christmas there. There was heavy snowfall which meant that where we got our washing water all the pipes froze so water was short for washing so a trip to Lerwick gave us a chance for a shower. I was guard commander one night and it was so cold we were issued with a rum ration.
After Christmas I was due for leave again so we set off, boarded the ship, had boat drill and after the experience of going up retired immediately to the bunk I had been allocated.
It was a very rough journey to Aberdeen. The small ship rolled, pitched and tossed all the way to Aberdeen. I arrived home in Loughborough on the 5th January, my 21st birthday. My family had got me a gold watch.
On the way back to the Shetland Isles I experienced another very rough crossing. I slept on a mattress. The ship was an old Norwegian tramp and we had to board the ship according to our given number.
At 1 am the ship sounded its siren because we had lost the escort and we put into Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. We waited there and then two destroyers took over the escort. We arrived in Lerwick at about 11pm but were not allowed off till the next morning and after we had cleaned the decks from top to bottom.
One of the last raids.
In March 1945 the whole battery moved down to the east coast of England (Essex) where we set up on anti-flying bombs but on heavy AA this time.
We were in action against flying bombs launched by aircraft over the North Sea. By then I was not a member of a gun team but part of the control centre, where the predictors were. We saw action two or three times.
One night German bombers made one of the last raids on the London area.
As we were on anti flying bomb duties we were only allowed to fire out to sea, because of the special fuses we were using, but our radar set locked on a German plane heading out to sea. We were about to fire when the crew must have changed their minds because they started heading back to London. So I never got the chance to fire at a German plane – only flying bombs.
At this time I was the plotting officer’s assistant.
Early morning we would be awakened by the noise of aircraft engines getting ready for take-off. In the air they would be joined into groups then onto one mass formation of ‘Flying Fortresses’ and ‘Liberators’ followed later by a large number of fighters. Later I saw the planes towing gliders as the airborne troops on the way to the crossing the Rhine
One day I was NCO in charge of air sentries it was just getting light and we watched V-2s being launched from Holland.
I was standing there looking up and saw up in the sky a brilliant light. Jerry said it must have been Venus. The officer tried to put the radar on it but couldn’t – perhaps a flying saucer.
VE Day
In May the war in Europe ended and I was lucky enough to be on a 24 hour pass in Loughborough when the celebrations took place.
Then 309 battery was moved to a place on the Thames estuary at Gillingham where we got special long range guns. This was experimental equipment aimed at giving some defence against V-2s.
The brigadier was coming to see how the new equipment was working but those not directly involved were detailed off to cut the long grass. I scythed a cable which was from the radar set to the control room. I got a shock in more ways than one.
I timidly went down to the control centre and told an officer. He just laughed and told me to go to the radar sergeant who sorted it with black tape.
309 battery had its own small orchestra which played at dances. We went and, as it was our orchestra, we got to go to quite a number of dances.
I was not aware of the atomic bombs, but had heard people talking about them when on leave and next day one was dropped.
This brought the end of the war against Japan.
We celebrated VJ day with crowds of people in Gillingham for hours.
Chapter 6 Egypt
All forces had an age and service group starting from 1 upwards. My age and service group was 50 so I was not expecting an immediate discharge. People with a low age and service group in the UK or abroad were due for demob.
So, as 309 battery was being disbanded, I was put on a draft to go to Egypt. The draft allocation was RANNP. I had a 14-day leave and I had to break the news to the family I was to go abroad. I was determined not to let my sisters go to the station with me as they had done when I was called up in 1942!
I had to report to the Grand Hotel at Clacton where we processed and went by train to Newhaven where we caught a ship to Dieppe. From Tuesday night, at about 2am, we travelled till 11am Thursday to get to Toulon.
The journey was uncomfortable. There were six to a compartment and we slept two on the seats, two on the luggage racks and two on the floor. It was a bad night – every time you wanted to turn you had to nudge your mate to turn too. The next night I had the seat!
One of our party, Bill Molyneaux, had been a runner for the French Resistance. At a food stop, where we were served by French women, one made a remark about his premature baldness. She was very surprised when he was able to reply back in the local dialect.
From Toulon we sailed on a French liner called the Champollion landing at Alexandria about three days later.
The officers had the state rooms, the ranks slept in hammocks. We caught a train down to Cairo (Almarza), a massive camp. We went there until posted out to a unit.
Then I was posted to the Middle East School of artillery and put into range battery which did the firing for the technical people. In range battery it was said I would make a good signaller – when I asked why they referred back to the original tests in 1942.
Then we had a Commandant inspection one morning. We had our beds outside, waiting for attention, he probably noticed that my flaming brigade badge was worn through continued polishing. He asked what I was doing and I said signalling but I would sooner be on the guns. I looked out of the corner of my eye and there were the RSM and Battery Sergeant Major. I thought no more about it. After taffy the runner came and asked me to report to the RSM’s office. I duly did.
The RSM asked me if I would like to be his clerk or the mail orderly, I chose mail orderly – a popular job. I went into the tent and who had just moved in but Geoff Holden (the start of a long friendship). The current mail orderly was being demobbed.
I got my stripe back and was in the office one afternoon and I was invited to try to type. I looked at this bloke on my right, a beanpole with a big nose and glasses –a real drip. He turned out to become one of my best mates Gerald Sherlock. He and I are the only ones left now.
I used to collect the mail every day and make sure that it went out right. It was a very interesting time – mail could be infrequent and I was always prepared to collect mail, send parcels, record people coming in.
I always knew when RSM Brown (Topper) was in a good mood because he said “Good Morning Carter,” rather than bombardier. He often told me to put my hat on and be an escort, an interesting job. We worked in the morning and two hours at night. If I needed to go to the mail PO in Almarza I just had to ring for transport.
We met two young Egyptian lads. The Egyptians rang the canteen and laundry. Mustapha was under the illusion that the Egyptians had bought all of our equipment.
I had a great time in Egypt and made many lifelong friends including
Geoff Holden, Ged Sherlock, Wally Harrison and Norman Worsman. Other names are strong in my memory Dusty Miller, Smudgy Smith, Bill Molyneaux, Geoff Hill and a young Scot called Jock.
I even got a new name myself – Nick (after Nick Carter, the fictional detective) – and I am still called this by my army mates.
There was some entertainment in the camp, a cinema and a boxing ring, and we also entertained ourselves with singing, drinking and larking around. I also got some chance of sightseeing and visited the pyramids at Giza and Saccara. I went inside the great Pyramid to see the King’s Chamber and also got to see the step pyramid and the temple of the sacred bulls.
Bill’s language skills proved their worth as he was told about a nightclub in Cairo. We went. There were belly dancers and tumblers and young Jock got over excited.
In November 1946 Geoff and Ged went home on leave. The School of Artillery left the camp and moved to join the school of AA in Palestine just north of Haifa.
We spent Christmas 1946 here and I hoped to go to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve but too many wanted to go.
In January 1947 I had a month’s leave and returned home. It was during this time I met Jean Wartnaby. I expected to return to Palestine but, just before the end of my leave, I received a telegram saying I was reverting to home establishment and had to report to Woolwich Arsenal.
May 5th 1947 I left the army and went to get my civilian clothes and was demobbed.
On Saturday June 6th, 1948, Jean and I got married at Loughborough Emmanuel Church. Geoff Holden attended the ceremony.
After many years I applied for my medals; the War Medal 1939-45, the Defence Medal and the Palestine Medal.