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As a youngster in Dartmouth during the war (I was ten when the war ended) it was a great place to be, From the very beginning the harbour was always busy with navel ships coming and going day and night, it was a coaling station for ships of all types and with the Naval Collage and shipyards a potential target for enemy planes.
Life was very exiting, the fact that atrocities were being committed and people being killed every day was something that was way over the head of us children. Dartmouth was a balloon station for ships proceeding up or down the English Channel, When not in use these were tethered in what is now a car park near the river and would be taken to or from the Quay by Airmen holding the cable weighted with sand bags, there a duty boat was waiting to take them out or bring some back from the convoys as they past the entrance to the harbour. A favourite pastime for us was watching these comings and going as it was not uncommon for a Balloon to break loose, the Airmen would desperately try to hold on to it and were sometimes carried quite a way into the air before letting go. On a clear day you could watch the balloon rise way up before bursting in the thinner atmosphere. The transfer point on the Quay was next to a conveyor that unloaded coal from barges for the gas works, one windy day a balloon wrapped itself around the crane and burst trapping the driver inside, needing fresh air he started slashing at the fabric with a knife which didn't go down at all well with the airmen.
During one of the air raids on the town a bomb landed next to the girls school and it was unsafe to use. With no other suitable buildings available the Girls had to use the Boys school, Boys in the morning and Girls in the afternoon one week then change over the following week, As someone who always thought school got in the way off better things to do life couldn't get much better, that was until one summer when my brother and I were taken up to Norfolk where my father was stationed. Instead of enjoying the pleasures of the Norfolk countryside we found that he had arranged for us to go to school in Thetford the nearest town, to make matters worse, when the Head Teacher learnt that we only went to school for half a day, he offered to give us extra tuition to catch up, we were not amused. Much of the area near the village where we were staying was used by the services for training, one day when we were playing there we found a two inch mortar bomb, having been told these were dangerous we thought it should be handed in, we knew we shouldn't pick it up so found a piece of rope which we tied on to the fins and dragged it some twenty feet or so behind us until we found somewhere to hand it over.
Back in Dartmouth life became even more exciting as preparations for D Day got under way. With nearly 500 ships leaving for Normandy the whole area became one large military base and we youngsters were able to go just where we wanted, as long as we kept our heads down. During the loading of the transport ships the waterfront area was sealed off, people living within the controlled area were given passes. This was no problem us, a friend lived in a house that had its front door within the restricted area and a back door out side, at weekend and after school this became a regular route to watching a piece of history in the making.
Older now but probably not much wiser, some almost forgotten event will come to mind when reminiscing with others who shared those times, then I remember our ages at that time, many of us under ten, and wonder what parents of today would make of it?

Dartmouth Castle during the Second World War

Shortly before the start of the Second World War my Grandparents George and Selina Gunnell bought the cafe at Dartmouth Castle, as youngsters my brother and I spent most weekends and school holidays there.
When war was declared in 1939 the castle area became an artillery camp once more. Soldiers were housed in the Battery and in huts that were erected along the Compass Road and behind the curtain wall and mound. Another was erected on a flat area created nearby. Even the two leanto shelters either side of the curtain wall were closed in to create more accommodation. The cookhouse and mess were at the entrance to the square. the castle became the NCOs quarters while the officers moved into the nearby Gunfield Hotel.
Initially the main armament was a heavy gun in what is now the English Heritage ticket office. A second gun was on the flat grass area to the left as you walk down the path to Sugary Cove. This has an extensive underground ammunition store with access through the gun turret and via an external door. I imagine this is still in existence under the grass, as it would require a lot of hard work to break up.
Below this gun on an isolated rock connected to the lawn area by a wooden foot bridge was a third gun. As far as I can recall all three were of the same type. in among the trees above Sugary Cove were numerous other huts and storage areas.
Later in the war, during the build-up to D-day invasion, rocket batteries were added. some up by the former coastguard cottages, with others close to the sailing hut down at Compass Point. There were yet more huts in the scrub thicket behind these.
On the outbreak of war my grandfather, a former Yeoman of Signals in the Navy, was sent back to sea on the armed merchant cruiser, the Laurentic. and my grandmother continued to run the Old Lighthouse part of the tea rooms as an unofficial NAFFI for the soldiers.
This was also where she lived and where, at weekend and school holidays, she, my brother and I two cousins, my mother and aunt. plus my grandfather when on leave all slept and lived in three rooms. Except on days when the Brigadier or other big noise was expected we had free run of the area, which included the beach and part of Gallants Bower then used for training by the soldiers.
Sometimes we would sneak into the mess and share their food, or into the showers, which were a favourite of ours and quite a novelty. Also they were somewhere our mother couldn't reach us at bedtime!

One night, after we had all gone to bed, there was a soft knocking on the front door. My mother opened it to find one of the soldier who had against orders, come to tell us that there was a possibility of an invasion by the Germans, all the soldiers were packing their equipment and preparing to move out. We were got out of bed and made ready to follow them into town.
During the winter of 1940 the Laurentic was sunk off Iceland by a submarine and my grandfather was subsequently posted to the Plymouth Breakwater, this meant he was able to get home more often.

Before the war he had bought a caravan, which was parked on the road to the church at the top of the path to Stumpy Steps. To ease the pressure on the limited space in the house my brother and I would often sleep there in the summer. Just on the seaward side of the steps was the spot where the shore end of the harbour boom was moored by a cable around a rock outcrop. The boom was made from large bulks of timber enclosed in a steel cage with Large spikes on it, it was joined to the next by heavy chains they were just too far apart for us to jump and so try to cross to Kingswear!
Life at the castle became even more interesting when "Gramps" was home. Navy ships would frequently come into the mouth of the river to signal to the college, and he would tell us what they were saying. On more than one occasion he would stop, and when prompted to continue would say "No, it's not for you." I often wonder what was in those messages.
During these periods he taught a number of soldiers to become proficient at signalling, and many of them transferred to the navy as signallers.
Christmas time was always an exciting occasion. We boys were allowed to stay up a little later and join in the first few games of 'Housey Housey' with the soldiers. Somehow we always seemed to win something.
On Christmas Day Father Christmas always found time to call, albeit with a different accent each year! Christmas pudding came complete with silver coins. We could never understand why we found threepenny bits, while Gramps produced two shillings or half a crown, usually from out of his ear or nose after nearly choking on it.
Many of the soldiers had families of their own at home and we children became surrogate families to some of them. One in particular had two sons about the same age as my brother and I, and it was him, I believe, who taught us to swim in Castle Cove.

When the war ended and the time came for the soldiers to depart, it was with mixed feelings. Many had become very good friends of my grandparents. On numerous occasions afterwards my mother and aunt would talk about those times and the soldiers they came know.
On one such occasion they made a List of the names they could remember. I still have that List with over 100 names on it. I wonder if any of them are still around, and ever visit the town?

Walter Fleet

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