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As every son does, I asked my dad what he had done during the war. I remember him telling me with great pride how he joined the RAF as a eighteen year old but because of his age, the war had all but finished. In fact, he told me that when he travelled to North Africa to join the action, the Germans had just surrendered. As I listened in awe I couldn’t help but wonder whether the Germans had given up because they had heard that my dad was on his way to attack them.

Fred was born Frederick Arthur Parker on 9th December 1924, the youngest of five brothers and two sisters. In September 1939, like many other London school children he had been evacuated to Northampton. Fred was 14 years old at the time but after just 3 months he left school and started work at Lotus shoe factory. For the next three years he grew up with and worked alongside people he did not know, many of which would become comrades and friends for years to come.

Fred’s first personal involvement in the war was the night Coventry was bombed. As a seventeen year old he was a member of the A.R.P and had volunteered to assist the heroic men and women fighting the vast amount of fires. Although Fred only supplied the fire fighters and helpers with welcoming cups of tea, he felt, at last, he was really involved in the fight against Nazi Germany.

As his eighteenth birthday approached he realised it would soon be time to fight for King and Country so he decided to enrol in the Air Training Corps as he wanted to join the RAF. A few days before his birthday, Fred signed for the RAF, went home and waited for his call up papers.

Hitler’s time was running out fast.

by
Michael.F.Parker

Also see: FRED'S WAR-PART 2,Chapter 1
and
FRED'S WAR-PART 2,Chapter 2
and
BETTY'S WAR

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