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Peter Kilby
Kings Bromley
Staffs

Born 18/12/27
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Town: Nottingham
Schooling: Nottinghman, liverpool, Shropshire

Family: Father: Nottingham Constabulary - police War reserve 1939-46
Mother: War Work - Armament Inspection Dept. (AID): ARP Warden
Sister: Directed by Ministry of Labour to essential work in Coventry.
Brother: Royal Navy 1943 - 46 (D.Day)
Sister: Womens Land Army 1945 - 7
Self: RAF 1946-48
Uncle: Army: Nottinghamn & Derbys Regiment killed 1915

Context: Politically very aware; strongly Roman Catholic of Irish descent family; house a meeting place for discussion among family, friends and associates. The radio (wireless first bought 1934)important source of information. Cinema news reels Pathe Gazette also. The Abdication and Spanish Civil War (communists killing priests and raping nuns - alleged.)

1938/39: Heard Chamberlain's return from Munich on radio.
Saw trenches dug in parks etc. sand bagging of likely targets and essential buildings etc. even police boxes. Received Anderson shelter.
ARP (Air Raid precautions) organised on national basis: street and neighbourhood wardens; my mother becomes a latter - lots of paperwork and involvement. Spin off; welfare and poverty problems unearthed.
Anti - aircraft demonstration: army searchlight picked out an 'enemy' aircraft in its beam; a large gun fired blanks; a siren sounded the 'ALARM' beforehand and the 'ALL CLEAR' afterwards. This took place on a dark night on a local wasteground. We collected our gas masks, to be carried at all times during the hostilities. Rattles issued to police and wardens to warn of GAS ATTACK.

War: Listened to the sound of Big Ben and Chamberlain's Decloration of War. A hot Sunday morning. The lady next door told me: "It will be worse than the last."
Air raid alarm sounded late evening.
I left home to start school at a monastic seminary in Woolton, Liverpool, I was eleven. Making blackouts for the windows and placing gummed paper on latter, to stop shattering etc, delayed the start of lessons for two weeks.
Eventually Liverpool blitzed; the noise, particularly of nearby anti aircraft guns, whatever the danger, was exciting. However, it was decided to place bunks in the monastery cellars. Shrapnel littered the play grounds.
In spite of the 'apartness' of monastic life, the school was kept up to date of all the war news. The Headmaster,a priest, had maps etc, to demonstrate the war zones. Several of the monks became chaplains to the Services and they met with us when on leave.
The anti-aircraft barrage balloons, searchlights and guns in the parks; the presence of uniforms, tents and vehicles everywhere, and the large number of camouflaged ships on the Mersey etc fascinated us.

October 1940: school evacuated to Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire, the House of Studies for senior students approaching ordination.
A remote place but we saw a lot of troops, training, convoys moving south in preparation for the Invasion, dispatch riders (among whom the accident casualty rate was so high as to require a investigation); aircraft from surroundin airfields and damaged aircraft being taken for repair.

We were recruited en bloc for potato picking on local farms whwere Italian Pows were very friendly and amusing.

Visiting my sister in Coventry I saw the immediate aftermath of the blitz: the cathedral destroyed bricks and debris neatly stacked on the pavements' edges.

My mother was promoted in the AID (Armament Inspection Dept.) which was in constant tension with the rest of the factory personnel. The latter was prone to seek, to earn bonuses at all costs including making faulty bombs and shells. On several occasions she attended sabotage tribunals to give evidence malpractice. That was by no means uncommon a long with , pilfering, in most Munitions Factories.

Although food and fuel shortages were experienced at school, the sharper effect I felt on holiday and when I returned to live at home permanently. The cold penetrated houses built in the previous century without regard to insolation, which over the winter months resembled refrigerators. Fuel was rarely available to light a fire before evening. My misery was made worse by being alone all day, the family being out at work or school. I had to go walks to keep warm. The winters were sometimes terrible, especially for the elderly for there was no NHs to meet their medical needs.
The shortage of clothing, which was on coupons, caused worn garments to be dry cleaned, taken apart and reconstructed 'inside-out'. Blankets were made into duffel coats.
At school and home the response to ' DIG FOR VICTORY' was enthusiastic: poultry and rabbits were kept to supplement the diet. The government bullied the farmer to produce levels unknown hitherto. Infact this in hindsight revitalised agriculture from pre-war virtual bankrupcy. A sheep farmer, near the school in Shropshire had his business taken off him because he failed to meet the target given him. No one felt sorry for him.

The War was not something happening elsewhere eg. 'OVER THERE' as in WW1 had been referred to. The early setbacks: Dunkirk, North Africa, loss of battleships and Axis Forces advances, were keenly felt. I recall asking my elder brother, at one desperate point: "Will we win the War or are we going to lose?" He rounded on me telling me that we just could not lose. We had won the last, we would win this, with God's help.

I had listened to Hitler's rantings before the war on the radio. Listening to him when we appeared to be losing, I gained an association of fear with the sound of the German language thet pertained throughout most of my adult years.

Fortunately I was able, with everyone else, to listen to Lord Haw Haw with for the greatest part ridiculed. Unfortunately, he did amaze with his occasional accuracy with regard to events.

The War brought the Nation together, breaking doen social barriers. It was a time of total and mutual involvement.

I was at an impressionable age; memories crowd in:-

Air Raids
September 1940, the Battle of Britain, hot weather, people calling out the losses of enemy aircraft and the RAF winning as heard over their radios.
Extended Summer Time: light until midnight. Later in the War watching what seemed countless RAF air craft assembling above Nottingham, as far as one could see, in readiness for 1000 bomber raids on Germany .
Identifying the many types of aircraft with other boys.
Talking to Servicemen of many nationalities; There Servicewomen, including the Americans, seemed to keep th themselves.
The beautiful American uniforms, officers' particularly making our soldiers look drab.
The crew cuts of US paratroopers; the brutality of the US military police to their soldiers.
Casualties - killed and wounded - among families we knew; the terrible facial and hand injuries necessitating plastic surgery, (Doctor McIndoe)
The distinctive sound of German bombers , and the expression 'Gerry's Over'.
Smoke screens - metal bins filled with oil rags etc- that created heavy clouds of putrid smoke to mask the city during enemy bombing. The detriment to health has never been investigated. This was a military operation in so far as it fell to the Pioneer Corps (personnel physically or age wise unsuitable for active service.)
Regimental, Naval and air Force insignia on womens handbags.
Workers' Playtime, Tommy Handley etc on the radio; War films eg. 'One of our Aircraft is Missing', 'Brief Encounter', 'Casablanca'; and oncerts at the Nottinghamn Albert Hall eg. Myra Hess, Gwen Catley.
A probably expected, and possibly a difference from current behaviour, the churches and chapels were filled with worshippers. Many Roman Catholics had a badge pinned to their lapels and carried a personal identity card stating: 'I am a Catholic, in case of accident please call a priest.' Many people carried charms. All of these no doubt gave a degree of hope.
A vivid memory is of my father seeing me off at the start of my schooling, and subsequent return after holidays, to Liverpool. The railway stations and trains were packed with troops and civilians, the former carrying their rifles and packs at all times, and wives, sweethearts, friends and relatives saying: 'Goodbye'. The emotion was such that these trains were referred to as: 'Tear Wagons'.
Imitation is the highest form of praise. The admiration of Churchill was almost universal. So much so that his voice was imitated by speakers, and frequently but unconsciously by the public. There was ample oppurtunity for this in all the exhortations for support for the War Effort, particularly in such as 'Salute the Soldier Week' and Government War Bonds and Saving to Provide a Spitfire. Every City had a form of recording the successes.

The shock and horror of the free Government film showing the liberation of the Concentration Camps in Germany. So incredible as to cause the rumour that it was untrue and merely propaganda. The film was seen by almost the entire population of this country and there were countless instances of people unable to watch to the end. Later after the War refugees from these camps and elsewhere in Europe came to this country.

In 1945 I was almost crushed in the massive crowd before Buckingham Palace gates seeing the Royal family on the balcony, and celebrating VJ Day. I had just joined the Royal air Force.

In deprevation of food, clothing and warmth and in dullness the years immediately following the War were in many ways worse than those during it.

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