Alive today thanks to a bossy sarge!

BeFOre world war II, I was brought up in the county and market town of Hertford. It had a population of 11,500 and three popular cinemas. These were called the county, the castle and the regent. The first two employed commissionaires — uniformed door attendants. They were very smart men who proudly displayed their world war I medals and on their sleeves their previous Army ranks. The county employed a former sergeant major. In the early days of the war (before I was old enough to join the Armed Forces), the Germans had not yet invented the v1s and v2s and had to rely on bombs and landmines. The Germans’ preference of those two weapons were landmines for the following reasons: when a bomb was dropped, it rushed down with great speed. when it exploded on landing, the main effects on the blast went into the ground. A landmine would gently float down with the aid of a parachute. when this landed, the effects were terrific, and the blast would spread over a large area. One day I was watching a film in the county when the air raid warning sounded. The manager came on stage and told us: ‘don’t let the Germans spoil your evening’s entertainment, we will carry on with the film.’ Several minutes later, we were blissfully unaware that a land mine was floating down about 400 yards away. when it landed, the blast was enormous. So much so that it rocked the foundations of the cinema. everyone thought the ceiling was about to cave in and their reaction was to jump out of their seats and rush towards the exits. Then the former sergeant major bellowed: ‘ Everyone sit down!’ we all obeyed his command. The lights went up and the manager appeared again, telling the audience that he thought the building was safe and therefore would carry on with the programme. He also told us that because of the blackout, we should be careful on the way home as there would be a lot of broken glass on the pavements. Having had time to reflect on the evening’s events, I thought that had the sergeant major not ordered everyone to sit down, there would have been many injuries due to crushing, as people from the balcony and stall area rushed to the exits.

Bob Hunt, Bengeo, Hertford.