World War II

[jamesicus]

NOTE: There is now an enormous reference bank available relating to this era in the form of books, VHS/DVD tapes, Internet Web Pages, etc., and so in many instances it would be redundant of me to offer general information. My intention is to summarize the impact of the momentous events of WWII on my family, friends and the East Lancashire region as I remember it.

Soon after the start of WWII my father got a job with Joseph Lucas (like many large manufacturers they had split up and relocated their operations away from major industrial cities) in the Burnley Wood Top Works as a metallurgical Inspector. It was classified as an essential war effort job -- we didn't know until much later in the war that Joseph Lucas was developing and producing the Whipple Jet engine. My father worked there throughout the war and served in the Home Guard. Because of his work demands (long hours) and Home Guard service my father was not home much in the early war years. My mother had lost her weaving job just before the start of the war in 1939 and stayed at home until she eventually got a war effort job at Lupton & Place, Burnley -- I believe in 1942.



James

[lettie]

This is brilliant Jamesicus, you really should be writing your memoirs as a book. I know I'd buy it...

[AccyStanFan]

NICE ONE JAMES, havent looked ta these for a bit, brilliant reading still intrested if ya got any more.

[Doug]

Jamesicus,

Fantastic stuff…This is part of the social record and an important part of our local heritage.

You should keep this up and encourage other’s to remember their actions in the war and those who severed the country in civilian life who also may have valid memories of the war and what it meant to those left behind.

Worst still the effects on the lives of those whose fathers, sons and brothers that fell and never came home.

There should be a permanent forum on the subject. The Great War should not be excluded. I know there is a lot of local reference to the Accrington Pals (and so there should be) but we should remember that some our grandfathers joined Regiments other than the Pals Battalions and must not be forgotten for what they did.

Doug.

[jamesicus]

To my good Accrington and vicinity friends:

I found that this project was getting so large that it was becoming very difficult to keep it going as a Discussion Forum activity. I also wanted to add a large number of supporting images. So in order to avoid consuming an inordinate amount of bandwidth, and also to provide a better editing capability, I composed a series of Web pages to that end. They can be accessed at .....

http://www.jp29.org/2dr.htm

..... or via the portal URL in my signature block.

As I receive more input from surviving family members and friends -- and as I read more research references -- I am updating some of my earlier material.

I still have much more material to add relating to the WW2 Homefront in East Lancashire -- including some that relates specifically to Accrington -- particularly popular culture (such as my Saturday night railway trips from Burnley to the dances (what was the name of the premier dance hall?) in pursuit of an Accrington girl -- compelling story, that

[mez]

i think it could have been the ritz or the accy con club jamesicus not that im old enough to have gone there, but i believe they were 2 of the popular dance places of the time, may i say thank you once again for all the information & the enthralling way that it has been written,you have kept quite a lot of accy webbers reading your work, hoping you are keeping well & thank you once more from all your friends on acc webb

[jamesicus]

Originally Posted by mez

i think it could have been the ritz or the accy con club .....

Thank you for the kind words and information, Mez. The Ritz it was.

[mez]

your very welcome our friend

[jamesicus]

I posted the following on the BurnleyWeb and I will incorporate it on my website. I am posting it here not only for its general interest, but to see if anyone on this Forum knows if a similar scheme existed in the Accrington area.
Thanks, James
----------------------------------------------->

Burnley was involved in a decoy/subterfuge scheme in WW2 as were other locations in Great Britain.

The government literally created "Manchester on the Moors" -- the idea was to build a fake or simulated industrial complex in a remote area, but in close proximity to Manchester and on the Luftwaffe bombing run approach, thereby enticing the bombardiers to drop their load there.

A large expanse of desolate moor land to the south of Burnley, in the vicinity of Crown Point, was set aside -- cordoned off and guarded 24 hours a day -- and a good sized mock industrial complex of plywood structures erected. Each of these mockups contained a single electric light bulb and enough discreet chinks were provided to wink an attractive target from the air at night.

I believe this elaborate decoy was erected and activated sometime in 1940. The construction, maintenance and guarding was accomplished by a detachment of RAF all of whom were from Ulster, Northern Ireland, who were voluntarily (and patriotically) billeted with local residents (the government provided extra food rations) living on the southern fringes of Burnley. My Auntie Clara and uncle Jim Howarth housed two of them in their house at 59 Glen View Road, -- A/C Billy Russell and A/C Sidney Watters. They were fine men and became good friends of the family -- including me.

Both Billy and Sidney maintained contact with us after the war -- Sidney, who became a Bank officer in London, used to visit Auntie Clara every year until she died in 1979. I would dearly like to make contact with him if he is still alive -- he would be in his eighties now.

The whole project was hush-hush and I don't recall any press coverage of it. I don't think many people in Burnley were even aware of its existence -- outside of those actually involved in it.

Did the scheme work? Well, I don't think it was at all successful -- I only recall a couple of stray bombs being dropped on "Manchester on the Moors" during the entire war.

Another interesting type of decoy plus a good reference on this subject can be found at:
http://www.ajg41.clara.co.uk/mirrors/cherrycobbdecoy.html

[jamesicus]

It has been quite a while since I last posted here and I have missed this excellent Forum and all the fine participants.

I have added an enormous amount of material to my Web pages and I ask all those interested in WW2 as it affected Lancashire to visit .....

http://www.jp29.org/2dr.htm

..... in order to catch up on things. Some of the new material results from the posting of other participants here. I have now got quite a collection of British WW2 posters and documents thanks to contributions from family members and friends.

I will pick up where I left off with Lancashire specific WW2 stories -- please contribute any of your own here.

Best regards,

James

[jamesicus]

There was quite a hulaballoo in Lancashire at Christmas 1944 -- there was a V1 Flying Bomb (Doodle Bug) attack on Manchester!

A formation of specially configured HE-111 Heinkel bombers flying over the North Sea launched a number of V1 Flying Bombs (Doodle Bugs) aimed at Manchester on Christmas eve.

(see later posting covering this in great detail)

[jamesicus]

YANKS the film:

Along with "Hope and Glory" this is my favorite WW2 British Home Front film. The romantic and dramatic episodes in the film are often typically romanticized and sometimes a little far fetched -- but that is the case with most movie fare. But overall I think it is an excellent film and the acting across the board is of very high quality.

This film resonates for me -- the daughter of one of our neighbors on Rossetti avenue in Burnley had a very similar romance with an American GI (and ended up marrying him) -- We (my mother and father and I) went to the wedding. I was born and grew up in Lancashire during WW2 (the setting for this film) -- Richard Gere's character is from Tucson, Arizona (where I now live).

There are numerous authentic touches or redeeming features in this film:

*Gere's character is a Mess Sgt (cook) not the usual combat infantryman!

*In the Cinema scenes there is an authentic Concert Organ and audience sing-along (we typically sang the same songs as in the movie) --- I've got sixpence, jolly, jolly, sixpence -- I've got sixpence to last me all my life -- I've got tuppance to spend and tuppance to lend and tuppance to send home to my wife! .......... The stars at night, are big and bright -- deep in the heart of Texas .......... Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run (Run Adolph, run Adolph, run, run, run) .......... There' ll always be an England, and England shaLL be free ..........
Smoking cigarettes in cinemas was permitted and prevalent in those days. The poster for the film "Song of the Islands" starring Jackie Oakie in the lobby -- I remember seeing that film.

*Fish & Chip shop scene: ordering "fish and chips two times" "fish and chips four times" -- wrapping them up and eating them out of old newspapers.

*Walking in the blackout scenes: realistically very dark -- use of subdued flashlights.

*Older men wearing woolen flat caps.

*Stalwart Lancasire housewives nicely depicted.

*Concert in the church -- very popular in the war years -- profusion of bicycles laying on their sides on the entry pathway (we used to do that).

*Pub scenes: well done and most authentic for those days -- nice depiction of Publican -- prominence of dart game -- bitterness and frustration of British father toward American servicemen due to the death of his son in action.

*Railway station scenes -- authentic looking and sounding -- correct maroon LMS 3rd class 57 ft. railway carriages.

*Scenes showing the moors -- nice sweeping views -- typical moorland reservoir -- stone walls -- sheep (my wife, Beverly -- who was born and grew up in Ohio -- was amazed by the vast numbers of sheep on the Lancashire moors during her first visit).

*The double-decker bus: subdued blackout lighting -- two bell ring signals to start, one to stop.

*Grocers shop: authentic use of ration books -- queuing up for oranges.

*Lancashire dialect: fairly authentic -- especially by supporting actors who are mostly suitably "broad" -- phonetic examples: "all reet, lad", "doin champion", "riding two 'orses with one arse", "pretty soon tha'll be coughing thi guts up wit rest on us", "****** off t' weer thi bloody come from", "what the bloody 'ells goin on", "ey up". Of course, the "non-Lanky" actors couldn't be expected to mouth the true rich "broad Lanky" dialect and idioms -- neither could the Lancashire born actors, for then the vast majority of the audience wouldn't be able to understand some of the dialog. My Ohio born wife, Beverly, still has a hard time understanding my family and friends when we visit Burnley -- especially when they slip into "old broad Lanky" after a few drinks in the Pub!

*Diamond pattern bomb blast tape on windows.

*School kids wearing uniforms -- caps and blazers for boys -- sashed skirts and brimmed hats for girls.

*Young child in street eating a "jam butty".

*Great Big Band music (and jitterbugging) in dance hall scenes: "I'll be seeing you", "aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, I like you very much" (Carmen Miranda),"String of pearls"", "Argentina", "Elmers tune", "Tuxedo junction", "Don't sit under the apple tree" -- and at wedding celebration: "Hands, knees and bumpsy daisy", "Hokey pokey" (you put your left foot out .....) -- women dancing with each other.

*Racial confrontation/incident at dance hall: black soldiers dancing with white girls -- I only witnessed one such incident (although there were others) but it involved West Indies servicemen instead of black GIs.

*The Yank build-up for D-Day -- the proliferation of vehicles and supplies -- GIs throwing candy and gum to local kids.

Authenticity shortcomings and problems:

*No air raid sirens -- although air raids were pretty well over by late 1943 in Lancashire, siren alerts were still fairly common.

*Bobbies not carrying gas masks and tin hats -- most Policemen carried them througout the war. Example:



*GIs embarking trains for D-Day deployment do not have correct helmet identification markings. Example:



*I thought ending the film with "I'll be seeing you" was a nice touch but I wish they would have used a Vera Lynn recording instead of Anne Shelton.

All in all, IMO, an excellent and authentic movie.

I think if you see this movie and "Hope & Glory" you will have an accurate understanding of what life on the British home front was like in WW2.

[JohnW]

I have just found this thread due to your most recent post bringing it to the top of the board James. Please keep posting, it has to be the best thread on the whole of the site. I was interested to hear that your American wife was born and bred in Ohio. So was mine. The nearest town of any size to where she was born was Canton. I am somewhat younger than you, and being born in 1943 do not remember any of the war. I do remember my father coming home though early in 1946. He ended the war in Holland and made some Dutch friends who we went to visit in the summer of 1946. I still keep in touch with the lady (now in her late seventies) and her adult children to this day.

[jamesicus]

Originally Posted by JohnW

..... Please keep posting, it has to be the best thread on the whole of the site. I was interested to hear that your American wife was born and bred in Ohio. So was mine. The nearest town of any size to where she was born was Canton .....

Thank you for those very kind words, John. I will indeed keep posting. My wife, Beverly, was born and grew up in Columbus, Ohio.

[jamesicus]

I have always enjoyed the film, Hope and Glory, for it very much captures the spirit of the WW2 British Homefront the way I remember it. In some ways the experiences of the young boy featured in the film are eerily similar to my own (although he is depicted as living in the London). He appears to be about the same age I was when the war started and his middle class background, the house he lived in and his attitudes & outlook on life were very similar to mine.

Another coincidental similarity is his learning how to bowl cricket "googlies" (his father teaches him in the film) -- I taught myself by bowling at a clothesline post in our back garden. My great sports passion was (and still is) cricket. I was a poor batsman and fielder, but I developed into a pretty good leg break bowler -- although I got into the habit of turning my wrist too far over when bowling my googly which resulted in an occasional top spinner -- still a good delivery but lacking the subterfuge of a googly! Sorry for the digression, but I don't get many opportunities to write about cricket these days! There is much made about googly bowling in the film -- of course I really enjoyed those scenes!

There are some nice authentic touches of nostalgia in the film -- some highlights for me: The great introductory music - "In the mood"; the depiction of the impact of Sunday, 3 September, 1939 (war outbreak day) on a typical British family (I was returning home from Sunday school when I found out that war had been declared -- from the signalman at the level crossing at Towneley station); putting the car up on blocks for the duration (my father did that with our Standard); installing an Anderson shelter in the back garden; evacuation of children scenes; taking shelter under the stairs during air raid alerts (I used to do that at my auntie Clara's house); harvesting shrapnel after an air raid; gas mask drill in the school air raid shelter; the boy drawing eye brow pencil seams down the back of the (tinted) legs of his sister to simulate silk/nylon stockings (I used to do that for one of my cousins); some great jitterbugging; the wartime Christmas party which was very similar to the ones we used to have at our house; the beautiful music throughout the film (a little Mozart and including a take-off of the legendary Myra Hess lunchtime piano recitals) and a nice touch in concluding the film with "Land of Hope and Glory".

To me, some of the Air Raid and family crisis scenes are a little over dramatized -- but this, after all, is a movie and other people in real life may have had experiences very similar to the ones depicted in the film. We didn't have martinet school teachers as depicted although some of mine were "Victorian severe"; Our school was not bombed; My own grandfather Pickering was a far better sport than the grandfather in the film (although he was quite a character); the main boy character does not seem to age as the war progresses in the film; the kids in the Saturday morning movie matinee (Mickey Mouse club?) scene were wilder than we were ever allowed to be -- but not a whole lot.

Overall, though, a pretty faithful depiction of life on the British Homefront in WW2 -- and, IMHO, a very good film!