91Čȱ¬

My brother won the bronze medal in the relay but nobody knows that in Thornaby, coz it was never registered. But I’ve got his medal. But they didn’t practice, they were in the army, the navy the airforce, but he volunteered, he was a heck of a runner, he used to say “come on, give us a run, I’m practising.” And he won the bronze medal, but if anyone wants to see it it’s at home and it’s got the three feathers on the back, all solid brass.
We used to have projectors that could fire a Molotov bottle or something like a bottle but it was high explosives and it used to burst and fire phosgene. We used to go down to Ed Rightson’s and at the back of that there used to be slag heaps and we used to fire these guns. The trouble was, there were hand grenades in them, and there was many a time when the hand grenade wouldn’t go off, this thing wouldn’t loosen it, so consequently, we had to have a look around to see if we could find the hand grenade – remember, it’s primed! And for seven seconds, you’ve got it…Can you imagine all these fellas looking round, wondering where the devil this hand grenade’s gone. But sometimes we’d just leave it, thinking it’ll turn up somewhere..
Dad’s Army had nothing on our lot. Nothing whatsoever. When I joined the secret army, they said “you’ll have to know how to blow up a railway line.” So, I had four pound of semtex at home – we were the only people supplied with semtex, it was the highest explosive at that particular time, it was in the Dambusters’ bombs, we used to make those. Seven seconds, it’s not long, and we used to fire these with a hand grenade in, across the river. We used to throw the hand grenade, we were in a rectangular square pit, and were teaching the recruits how to throw and prime a hand grenade, and Sgt Barker was taking them. He asked me to give these lads a hand. I said, “Well for one thing we can’t do with a load of lads in the pit, we’ll have to take them one at a time” I said “Fair enough,” take the mills bomb, take the bottom off, that’s the primer, the one that makes a big bang.
WE showed them how to screw the base in and tighten it with the bayonet. We asked them if they understood, and we said “well here’s the bomb.” But he only dropped it and let the lever go. The thing was only smoking, so I looked at my watch, and I looked at the bomb, and I said “RUN! OUT” and I threw him out the pit, and he said “What’ve I done,” by that time he was a bag of nerves, and I thought, any second now the bloody thing’s going to go off. I clipped him round the ear, which I shouldn’t have done, he fell down and he let go of the bomb, and sent it over the edge. It blew half the sandbags into the air. I was telling you about the semtex – you had to clamp it to the railway line and tape it down. You’ve got to remember that I’ve never seen semtex explode. Lt Clark and his son were there, and he says “Right corporal, are you ready?” I said “I’ll ignite it,” and I very carefully, put an ignition into the semtex, and it had on “Seven seconds,” We all scattered, in full battle order, gas masks and stuff, and it went off, it took the section of that railway line clean out, it blew me off my feet!

We used to have an air-raid shelter in the back street, and we used to have a small stove in there so that we could make a cup of tea. They had no heating in, nothing. I said “are you sure you’re alright?” to my mother, but my father would never go in: “No way are you getting me in one of them!” I asked why and he said “Look, son. I’ve never been in an air raid shelter and it’s a bit too late for me to start going in one now.” He was in the Boer War, in the charge of the light brigade and had volunteered for the First World War, and wanted to get involved in this one. I said “they don’t want you!” He said, “They’ll want horses.” I said “They won’t want horses at all! They won’t need horses, this is going to be a mechanical war, they’ll have tanks and aeroplanes!” I said, “anyway, did they turn you down?” He said “Aye! They don’t want oldies like me. But I’m helping out building bridges.” He was well into his seventies. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom, I used to do voluntary work, and I used to drive to York. And I used to do it every Wednesday and Saturday.

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