Wallington in World War 11

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A commemorative souvenir from The Onslow Gardens Residents Association – supported by a sutton council local neighbourhood grant

T H U R S D A Y, M A Y 7 , 2 0 1 5E D I T E D B Y S T E V E C O O K D E S I G N E D B Y N I C H O L A S M O L L D E S I G N

COMMEMORATING THE70TH ANNIVERSARY OFVE DAY – 7TH MAY 1945The history of London during the Second World War has yet to be written. This is not to say that it has been neglected; rather that our understanding of it is incomplete. Our appreciation of London’s war tends to be dominated – quite naturally – by images of the City during the Blitz, by the horrific devastation in the East End, and by the stories of children who were evacuated to safety. And yet the war affected every corner of London, including our own. Wallington witnessed the Battle of Britain, from the death of Flying Officer Boulton, whose Hurricane crashed in Woodmansterne Lane, to the shooting down of Grefreiter Zimmerman’s Messerschmitt over Woodcote Park Avenue. It was also targeted by German bombers during the Blitz, with one device landing next to Christchurch on Woodcote Road (where Sainsbury’s now stands), as well as by the V2 flying bombs, one of which hit Stafford Road at 8.44am on 29 June 1944. The impact that such horrors made on our community must have been immense, and when peace returned Wallington’s inhabitants certainly responded by demanding reform, along the lines set out in the Labour Party manifesto. Indeed, their new MP, the socialist architect Tom Braddock, used his opening speech in the Commons to exclaim that ‘this country cannot continue unless enormous changes are made, and we have to make them for the sake of the people of this country, and for the sake of common decency and humanity we have to make them as rapidly as we can’. He clearly wanted to begin by reforming Parliament, in terms of both its processes and its buildings, as well as MPs’ expenses, but also devoted his energy to issues like housing, health services and town planning, and advocated supporting the arts rather than devoting additional resources to defence spending. Wallington’s MP,

in other words, helped to change the British political landscape forever, and this means that while it is increasingly difficult to find visible traces of the war in our community, or indeed people who lived through it, we should not doubt its lasting impact. This surely makes it all the more important for us to reflect on Wallington’s war.

Professor Jason PeaceyUniversity College London/

Blenheim Gardens

Bristol Blenheim crashes in Foresters Drive 1940

Wallington Fire Station 1942

Wallington school children in World War II During the war life changed for everybody, including children. For most children, the war years were a time of anxiety. For many, it was a period of family separation. For some, it was a time of profound personal loss. Because if its proximity to Croydon Aerodrome, Wallington suffered frequent bombing during WW2. It is curious, therefore, that children were not evacuated during this time. Schools were kept open and evacuations to the countryside only began in 1944 when the V2 pilotless planes (known as Doodlebugs) became a menace. Bandon Hill Primary was a new school that had only opened its doors in April 1939. The log book records that when war was declared in September 1939, it caused an immediate shortage of teachers as some went to war and some took up war work. Teachers were allocated from inner London areas where many schools had been either closed, or bombed out of service.

Children were issued with gas masks and trained in their use. Trenches were dug, where staff and children would shelter during bombing raids. There were so many raids that in August 1940 the County Council proposed to close the school. Parents were balloted and the result was 220 to 18 in favour of staying open. Despite wanting the school open, the majority of parents kept their children at home. This is not surprising, given that evacuation to the trenches were occurring ‘at least twice a week and sometimes twice a day.’ On several occasions, aircraft machine gun fire was heard in the school corridors, so fear levels must have been high. Other schools were affected in the same way, and this account is from someone who attended Holy Trinity Junior School as a child. “At the coming of war, half the playground was dug up for long shelters, with a toilet at one end. We had lessons in the shelters. The teachers often used to stop on the way to the shelters to watch the “Dog fights” overhead. The school was bomb damaged and we had lessons in peoples’ houses. We had to learn to lie flat whenever the teacher shouted “Down,” and she would thump any bottoms in the air.” Day to day life was clearly not easy, but Christmas parties and annual exams continued as usual. Children helped with the war effort by raising money ‘for

Spitfires’ and ‘Prisoners of War’. There was an annual party to celebrate Empire Day. Food was short, but a team of WVS volunteers cooked a daily school lunch for everyone, although this sometimes had to be served in the trenches. Everyone at school joined in with a fruit picking and bottling event, resulting in 140lbs goods to share amongst the school community. Two Bandon Hill pupils died in 1940, but this happened at home, when their Anderson shelter took a direct hit, and a third child died in 1942. At this point, average attendance at school was only 37 children a day. Then in 1944 the Doodlebug attacks began and it was decided to evacuate children from the area. School attendance was very low, and teachers were sometimes absent to deal with bomb damage and to help sort out homeless children. It fell to the school staff to help with the evacuations, and they took turns to escort children to their new homes, which were mainly in the Liverpool and Chesterfield areas. “An evacuation journey often began with a walk to school. Then it was off in buses to the station, where special trains were waiting. It was quite exciting, but most children felt sad as they waved goodbye to their mothers and the steam train puffed away.”“Every evacuee had a gas mask, food for the journey (such as sandwiches, apples, chocolate) and a small bag for washing things and clothes. Pinned to the children’s coats were labels. On the label were each child’s name, home address, school and where he or she was going. Often the journey took several hours.” Stanley Park school was hit by a bomb: “On June 22nd 1944 the war came to Stanley Park. A flying bomb was brought down on Stanley Park Road at 1.10pm. The children had just finished dinner and all but 3 were in the shelters. No casualties. The west side of the school was badly damaged by the blast. Some children lost their homes and were evacuated. The flying bomb raids continued and school work was carried on in the trenches, on some occasions the children working there all day.” Bandon Hill certainly celebrated the end of the war. Parents bought games for the children to play at lunchtime and all children attended the cinema, a theatre, and an exhibition called ‘Britain can make it!’ The Mayor of Melbourne, Australia sent 60lbs of sweets and although it is not recorded, there would without doubt have been a grand party. During the school holidays, 78 men were billeted in the school to carry out house repairs in the local area. Bomb damage to the school itself was inspected and eventually remedied. Britons were indeed showing ‘we can make it!’

Pauline CookBlenheim Gardens

Wallington, Croydon Airport and WW2 May 1945 – 70 years onWe all know Wallington as a peaceful outer London suburb, with its mix of housing, shops and its fine parks. During the Second World War, however, it paid a high price for lying a mere mile away from Croydon Aerodrome. At that time it was London’s only main passenger airport resulting in considerable bomb damage by the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. At the outbreak of war the airport was closed to commercial travel and taken over by the RAF, who used it as a fighter base and as part of the defensive ring around south London. The plan was to protect the capital from bombing raids. Other fighter bases included Kenley, Biggin Hill, Debden, Northolt and Hornchurch. Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons set out to defend our skies. I found out recently that The Flying Club, a private members bar and restaurant in Manor Road near Sainsbury’s, was used as the RAF Croydon officers’ mess. It has many interesting photos and letters there, dating from the time of the Battle of Britain. Croydon was a prime target and the local area sustained terrible damage and loss of life, as many bombs were dropped off-target or simply dumped by the German aircrew when trying to escape the British fighters. Many homes and factories were destroyed during these raids. After months of heroic defence by RAF’s Fighter Command, eventual victory came in the Battle of Britain during September 1940 but the end of the

war was a long way off, as the world was now engulfed in turmoil. Visit - http://bombsight.org to get exact details of the bombs and ordnance dropped on our local area. Between 1940 and 1944, Great Britain and her allies were beset with both disaster and success. The fall of Hong Kong and Singapore to the Japanese in Feb 1942, was one of the worst periods in British military history and sent Churchill into a total rage. On the other hand victory in North Africa at El Alamein had the country celebrating. “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” as the Prime Minister put it. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th Dec 1941, one of the darkest days in US history, meant the Americans now entered the war. Churchill said of the Japanese “I fear they have awoken a slumbering giant” and after defeating the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway in the Pacific during June 1942, the planning for the invasion of mainland Europe could begin. The supreme commander for the liberation of Europe was US General Dwight Eisenhower. He appointed British Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery as his commander of land forces and the build up of troops and supplies began on the UK mainland along with meticulous, top-secret planning. The RAF had already started to pound the enemy day and night, joined by the US air-force, in trying to weaken the Germans before the invasion. Meanwhile the Merchant Navy was steadily supplying

Britain and the troops with supplies from North America but suffering hideous losses of both shipping and men due to the enemy submarine attacks, operating out of Northern France. These U-boat attacks were co-ordinated using the ultra secret Enigma coding machine, developed by the Germans. However, the British secret service working with computer pioneer Alan Turing, had cracked the coding device at their Bletchley Park facility and unknown to the enemy, had by now complete knowledge of their plans and activities. D-Day, June 6th 1944, saw the start of the Battle of Normandy, one of the most important days in world history. Success on the beaches and the build up of the French beach-head gave the allies a strong foothold in Northern Europe and the allies were able to advance though France and Holland, trying to get into Berlin and finish the job before the Russian army took hold of the German capital. During the allies’ push into Germany across the Rhine and the Russian advance from the east, the gruesome discoveries were made of the many concentration camps, wide-spread across central Europe. At home, the bombings changed into V1 and V2 attacks – pilotless, guided missiles which rained down on London. My mother, who lived in North London during this period, recalled these flying bombs being the most frightening thing she had ever encountered. The Doodlebugs, as they were called, were recognised by their ominous engine

drone which would cut out just before the missile plummeted towards its target. Our local area was hit by these, causing heavy casualties. The Russians got to Berlin first in April 1945, and there ensued a bloody clash between the armies of Hitler and Stalin. Hitler committed suicide on 30th April and it was Admiral Donitz who had to surrender unconditionally to General Eisenhower at his HQ in Reims in France on 7th May. This marked the end of the Allies’ war with Germany. VE day (Victory in Europe) was officially marked for Tuesday 8th May 1945 and the celebrations started immediately. Can you imagine the relief that was felt by the British people after six years of gruelling war, rationing, destroyed homes, evacuation, “make do and mend” austerity and the thousands and thousands of lives lost……..at home and abroad, on land, sea and in the air. Huge crowds assembled in and around Trafalgar Square. The radio was the main source of information at that time and at 3pm, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, broadcast to the nation “This is your victory”. I wonder how many Wallington residents where there at that moment…..it must have been a truly remarkable event. Meanwhile, our armed forces were still embroiled in the continuing war in south-east Asia and the Far East. The Indian border was under attack from the Japanese, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines needed to be liberated and the thousands of Burma/Siam death railway POW’s had to be set free. But sadly, it was not until the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the Japanese finally capitulated and surrendered on 15th August 1945. VJ day finally marked the end of WW2……six long years of bitter conflict. And Croydon airport played an important and continuing part in our historical events up until its closure in 1959. The RAF station at Croydon played a major part in the defence of London and the Battle of Britain and as Winston Churchill proclaimed “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many, to so few.”

Steve Cook Blenheim Gardens

Bomb site as a playground

Gas mask drill

Christmas in an Anderson Shelter

Off to the countryEvacuees, ready to go

Bomb damage in Croydon Road

On guard, Blenheim crashes in Foresters Drive 1940

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‘��There�are�three�young�ladies�on�the�step�asking�for�you’

Fred Hutt talks to Steve Cook about life during wartime, VE Day and what happened afterwards.

It’s the first of April, 2015. I’m sitting here with Fred in Onslow Gardens. We’re going to have a chat about Fred’s recollections of World War II.

Steve: Fred - how old were you when the war started?Fred: I was 11. We lived on the St Helier estate then, but we were away on summer holiday and we came back the night before the war started.

Steve: Whatwasyourfirstrecollectionof that?Fred: Fear, and then a bit of confusion really, because nothing much happened - barring one incident, which really was rather strange. On the morning of the war being declared (it was wonderful weather at that time, bright sunshine) a single-seater fighter plane came across, and suddenly went into a power dive. We thought, bloody hell, we’re being bombed. The plane went straight onto the golf course at the back of the George Inn in Morden. It turned out the plane’s controls had stuck and the pilot did what he could to avoid coming down into the houses,

Steve:Do you remember hearing theprimeminister’sannouncement?Fred: Oh, yes, it was Mr. Chamberlain. We all sat around the radio (no television in those days), and we listened to it. We were all stunned: nobody quite knew what to do; nobody knew what was going to happen.

Steve:Wasyourfatheroldenoughtobeenlisted?Fred: At the beginning of the war, my father was in his early 40s, too old to sign up. He didn’t get called on at all. He had been in the First World War, and spent four years in the army, most of it in France, and eventually in the army of occupation in Germany.

Steve:Didyougetevacuated?Fred: No. I never quite understood the evacuation bit, because I was not evacuated. Towards the end of the war, when flying bombs started to come over, they evacuated the children, but I was at work by then. My younger brother was evacuated up to a village outside Nottingham.

Steve: This would have been at thetime of the Doodlebugs and theV2s.Did you ever hear one of those comeover?Fred: Oh, yes. Doodlebugs, you knew very well. They were really terrifying. Pilotless planes, they were. They had an engine that made a noise rather like a motorcycle. It looked like a great cigar. On the back, raised up above it was a cylinder unit which was a ram jet. The idea was that it would carry on traveling until the jet fuel ran out. Then the thing would dive and wherever it hit, there would be a pretty big explosion.

Steve:What about the rationing thatcamein?Fred: Rationing came in quite earlier in the war. You had a ration book with little squares. When you went to the shop, and you wanted to buy any of the things that they supplied, you would hand over your ration book. It meant that an awful lot of things were in very short supply. Things like sugar, butter, milk and clothing were among the rationed things.

Steve: Did you have an AndersonShelter?Fred: Yes, we did. It was at the top of the garden. You had to dig a hole in the ground, which the thing went into about the halfway mark. Then the earth was thrown over the top of the curving body of the corrugated iron.

Steve: Did you sleep in there everynight?Fred: There was a period when we did. When it was first put up, one of the great problems was that it filled up with water when it rained. At first, many people weren’t using them because there weren’t that many houses damaged around where I was living. Then, when we had to sleep in them all night, they gave us an extra section for the shelter with a concrete lining.

Steve:DidyouhearthebroadcastsbyWinstonChurchillduringthewar?Fred: Oh yes. His “fighting on the beaches” speech. He was the man for the time. At the end of the war, in the 1945 election, a relative of ours was in the market at Hammersmith buying vegetables and stuff. Churchill arrived, pulled up an orange box, climbed up, stood there, and lit his cigar, and said, “Well, here we are”. They pelted him with bottles. He was certainly the landmark figure that we needed during the war, but among the working class people, he was seen as a rich man smoking big cigars, while they were hard up. The 1945 election was an absolute landslide for the Labour Party.

Steve:Whatwerethemostimportantmemories that you have of the waryears?Fred: I had a bike, and I cycled all over southeast England, because in those days, the roads were virtually empty. I must have traveled hundreds of miles, backwards and forwards across the country. One of the first trips I made was up to visit my little brother, who was evacuated to a village called Coddler, just outside Nottingham. A friend and I did the trip out there in two days, and took three or four days coming back. We went around in a big sweep, and we visited a wider area of the country.

Steve:WhatyoudidonVEDay?Fred: Oh, that was a magic day in my life, but not because of the war. I was working at Mullard’s factory. The announcement came on 8th May in the middle of the afternoon. It came over on the factory tannoy system. They closed the entire factory. In fact, the world closed down that day, and on 9th everybody had a day going barmy. I was going off cycling for the day. At 9 o clock that morning, I was packing my saddle bag when there was a knock at the front door. My mother went to the front door, and came back in, and stood in the middle of the living room, and looked at me. She said, “There are three young ladies on the step asking for you”. I was amazed. “I don’t think I know three young ladies” I said. I went to the front door, and there stood the girl who later became my wife, and two other girls from the factory. I had certainly got very strong feelings about her, but I would never have had the courage to ask her to come out with me. She stood on the doorstep there with big smile on her face, and said, “You know you’ve told us about this place where you go cycling in the pinewoods, and there’s a lake where you go swimming? You wouldn’t like to take us there would you?” I stopped for a moment, drew a deep breath, and said, “Yes”. Oh, it was a wonderful sunny day. We cycled from my house to the lake, which is just outside Wisley.

Steve:Isn’tthatwonderful?NowonderthatVEDaywasimportanttoyou.Fred: I was 16 and a half when I met her. By the time I was 18, we were well and truly established as a couple. We knew that we were each other’s, and we were together for 62 years.

Steve:Ithinkyourmemoryisfantastic.Thankyouverymuch.

A full unabridged recording of the FredHutt interview can be found on the OGRESwebsite www.ogres.org.uk

Woodcote Road looking south c.1935

Bomb damage, Grosvenor Road, July 1944

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‘ There are three young ladies on the step asking for you’

Photo credits – After the Battle, Croydon Times, FW Berry and special thanks to Kath Shawcross at the Sutton Local Studies and Archive Centre for supplying the photo scans.