Reminiscences of a Wartime Teenage Boy

On 3 September 1939 the Prime Minister announced that Britain was in a state of war with Germany. From that date it was mandatory to follow government instructions: a 'must'. Compare this with advice about Covid-19 that 'should' be followed and with those people looking for loop-holes that 'can' be found.

Attitudes to movement restriction are interesting: comparing between the lockdown rules (2020) which are more strict and very different from the wartime. During the war I could always meet with a group of friends (except that we were wary of being far from home lest an air raid started) and being outside in the blackout was a risk in itself. Covid 19 has meant a ban on meeting friends. This made a marked difference for me when contrasted with the war years.

From 1942 onward I, aged 15, with fellow school pals, were encouraged to work on farms during the school holidays especially during harvest time. I did this over one year for the early potato picking. My fellow pupils continued this work on a farm close to Arrowe Park. I left that arrangement and for the next two years I went to help on a farm run by a friend of my grandfather near Neston. Depending on the season I cleared ditches by hand, cut hedges by hand, ploughed, carted and stacked corn, helped on the combine harvesters and as far as I recall the pay for this as a young unskilled worker was two shillings (£0.10) per hour. One year the labour situation on farms was such that we were given an extension of one week at the half term autumn break.

In 1944 I cycled alone to visit relatives in Alfreton, Derbyshire, and near Leicester. For that journey route finding was tricky as there were no road signs, and you were viewed with suspicion if you asked about routes and might be arrested. I had a folded-up map, 4 miles to 1 inch, in my saddle bag and viewed it while pretending to have a drink or food!

A very memorable event for me during the spring of 1944 was playing baseball weekly with American soldiers on Tranmere Rovers football ground. Several of us from our school were involved. One evening the Americans did not turn up. We realised why when the D-Day landings were made during the following week.

Gradually the younger members of the staff were called to the forces or war-work but teaching continued with some teachers dealing with more than one subject. Limited teacher time was available for the small sixth form since it was necessary for the few teachers to concentrate on the much larger number of pupils preparing for School Certificate.

For chemistry we met the teacher briefly once per fortnight to discuss new topics and submitted an essay to match. Supervision was necessary for practical lessons. We had some physics teaching, theory and practical. Maths was dealt with quite differently. During the second term of our first year in the sixth form our maths teacher was called up. Before he left, he said ''study certain chapters in our text books (algebra, co-ordinate geometry, trigonometry and calculus) and do the odd numbered questions. If you get stuck the solutions are all filed in the cupboard."

All this studying, largely on one's own, was hard but a wonderful experience for the future. My school was severely damaged by bombs in March 1941 and closed for five weeks. During some of that time we had some classes in the neighbouring girl's school. Throughout the blitz period no matter how late we got to bed we always got to school on time, and adults got to work. The blitz continued for much longer in other cities across Britain, particularly London, so education probably fell behind for a longer period than in Merseyside.

We had PE at least once per week in an excellent school gym. Inter-school sports, rugby and cricket, were not allowed during wartime. This was a big disappointment. Moreover no outdoor games were possible because the pitches were covered with partly buried shrapnel (mainly from anti-aircraft fire). Eventually the shrapnel was cleared, mainly by pupil power, and we collected about 10 tons from two pitches.

In Merseyside and Wirral the major blitzes were on Birkenhead in March and on Liverpool in May when the city centre burnt for 10 days. In fact, during all the air raids, only one pupil from my school, who lived near the docks, lost his life. When an ammunition boat was blown up in Liverpool docks and burnt very brightly for hours no one mentioned it. We all suspected what had happened but we never tittle tattled during the war years; the government reminded us with their "Careless talk costs lives" adverts.

I was conscripted to Formby, Southport, for army service in the autumn of 1945 for 'the duration of national emergency', so the length of service was ill-defined. We were given many vaccinations but the only one I recall by name was tetanus. A private's pay was two shillings (= 2 florins) per week (£0.10). After 10 weeks of basic training I was moved to Cameron Barracks, Inverness, where I was given further advanced infantry training for about five months and then I returned to Formby. The commanding officer told me that since I could read (he knew that I had a higher school certificate) I was to be a basic training instructor with the rank of Corporal and of course higher pay. He gave me a stack of training manuals on a Friday and told me to start instructing a platoon of 36 news conscripts on the following Monday for the standard 10 weeks. My pay rose gradually to £3 per week and I paid PAYE of 6d (£0.025) per week. At one unit I had an occasional one/two-day break from training conscripts. I was given the necessary train passes and a pair of handcuffs to go to a specific civilian gaol to escort a soldier back to barracks. He would have been absent from our unit for at least the length of his gaol sentence. On his return he would have been charged with being AWOL and no doubt spend further detention in an army gaol. Strict rules were explained to me about handcuffs that were not to be seen on a prisoner in public places at my discretion. If it had been necessary to use them there would have been an enquiry. Fortunately, I never needed to use them.

I was also at Oswestry and Kington and other army bases, then eventually to Carlisle from where I was demobbed via York to receive my civvy clothes and £9. Previously I had been given a de-mob date, but this was extended by four months due to events in Berlin.

During this emergency, my unit expected to be sent to Germany and we paraded with full kit for what turned out to be an inspection by a brigadier. As he walked past me, I heard him say (I am paraphrasing) "this unit is not ready to go." Thinking back, I am not surprised, since then I was in either a basic training unit as an instructor or possibly in a holding unit and certainly not with my regiment, The Kings Regiment (Liverpool). And I believe we did not have the necessary kit or equipment for a fast deployment.

I had learnt to drive a car on a provisional licence that I renewed annually until in 1948 I was given a full licence including heavy goods vehicles. I was given a driving licence despite never having been required to take a driving test. This was because during my national service I had driven an army vehicle, albeit briefly. But no-one asked me for that kind of detail!

I was finally de-mobbed in late spring 1948. I took my reserved place in the chemistry department in Liverpool University from 1948 to 1952. With the £9 I bought a bicycle.

Kenneth Alan Lloyd - extracts from 'Anxiety Fear and Hope', written during the Covid 19 pandemic.