Chapter X: War
Immediately after the declaration of war many panic measures were taken. The first priority in Llandeilo was the forming of an A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions) Squad, which had its depot in the old private Electricity station in Station road. Another squad was formed for local defence; the L.D.V. (Local Defence Volunteers) which later became known as the Home Guard. All able-bodied men were expected to join either of these squads. The less soldier-like formation appealed more to me, and so I joined the A.R.P.
Of course, the precautions taken in the small rural villages of West Wales were not to be compared with those taken in the big cities, where trenches were dug in public parks, barrage balloons were flown above, and the fire brigades were augmented. Still there was a general fear that bombs might be dropped at random anywhere. So when air raid alerts were sounded, mothers roused their children from sleep and took them down to the store-room under the stairs (cwtsh dan stâr), and their husbands dashed to man their posts
During the period of the ‘phoney war’, that is from September 1939 to April 40, there was really very little enemy activity over Britain, and so we were all lulled into a feeling of security and the precautions became more lax. One other important precaution taken throughout the whole country was to send the so-called evacuees from the major cities, especially London, to the safer rural areas. Quite a large group of these evacuees was sent to Llandeilo early in the war; some secondary school pupils, but a greater number of primary school children.
The smaller group of secondary school pupils was accommodated in our School, although our classroom space was very limited. There were two groups of these pupils, one, the larger, from Croydon Coloma High School for girls (a Catholic School) and the smaller group, senior girls from Croydon High School. The Coloma High School brought their own teachers with them, while the Croydon High School girls were mixed with our own Forms. These girls were a very select group coming from middle-class homes, and so were received into homes with open arms, while the primary school children were a very mixed lot. One or two of the Secondary School girls, who were orphaned through casualties in the War, and had settled so happily in their new homes, were adopted on a permanent basis by their adoptive parents.
We were very fortunate in having as an evacuee a young relative, David, the elder boy of Rachel, Carrie’s sister. His younger brother, John, along with another boy, was taken in by Annie Mary, Carrie’s eldest sister, who lived in Capel Dewi, near Carmarthen. We were not expected to take in another evacuee as we had two young daughters, Una and Nest, occupying one bedroom. I am not sure from where David and John had been evacuated, as their parents had moved a few times at that period. It was either from Havering-alte-Bower in Essex or from Coventry.
Another panic precaution taken at the beginning of the war was the distribution of thirty eight million gas-masks to the whole population. School children had to carry their gas-masks in cardboard boxes to school. It was thought to be a necessary precaution as the Germans had used gas in the First World War. Every now and again the children had to go through the drill of taking out their gas-masks from the boxes and putting them on in the minimum amount of time. Fortunately, this turned out to be an unnecessary precaution, as neither side in the conflict resorted to what was considered unfair and evil. And yet, what could be more unfair and evil than the indiscriminate bombing of towns and cities?
During the period of the ‘phoney war’, the periods spent in the A.R.P. centre were periods of carefree training and even of entertainment. The training consisted of St John’s First Aid under instructors such as the local doctor and under St John’s First Aid men who were already well-qualified. Our other job was to be the extinguishing of fires started by incendiary bombs. The equipment for this was pathetically inadequate and primitive - buckets to hold water and small stirrup-pumps for pumping the water. The entertainment was provided by darts tournaments, sing-songs and cracking of jokes by the local wags, such as Ernie Gabriel, whose stutter made his dry humour even more amusing.
Everything was being done by the locals to make the evacuees happy, as it was realised that the children had undergone traumatic experiences in being taken away from their families living in a city environment to the seemingly unexciting monotonous environment of a quiet rural village. Teas were prepared in the Drill Hall, concerts were held, and trips made to the countryside. It was reported that many evacuees at this time of war inactivity returned to their homes in the cities, but I cannot remember that any of the Llandeilo evacuees did this.
The evacuees in Llandeilo differed in one respect from the evacuees in many areas in West Wales, and that is that hardly any became Welsh speakers. My present barber in Aberystwyth is one of many who settled so well in the surrounding rural areas that he not only decided to remain there, but became as fluent in Welsh as in English. Unlike today, the language of the schools and of the shops in Llandeilo was mainly English.
My parents, although retired, also had to take in evacuees. A number of Cockney children had been sent to the wholly rural area of Peniel, near Carmarthen. They came from the East End, their language was difficult to understand, their clothing was poor, and their habits were far from being salubrious. And yet in time they settled into the environment and into the ways of a rural community.
Early in the war it was decided too that certain foods should be rationed, that only a certain amount of clothing could be bought and that petrol had to be rationed according to need. Although the amounts of food, such as fats and sugar, that could be bought by the use of coupons were small our health seemed to be in no way adversely affected. Maybe we were able to supplement our rations from the black market that flourished in rural areas. The advantage taken seemed to be condoned by all - it was not one of the deadly sins! The clothes that could be bought were not expensive as they, like the furniture, were what was called ‘utility’.
The petrol rationing, however, hit us hard, as we had to sell our Austin Seven, TH2875, at a very low price. This meant that if we wanted to visit my parents, we had to travel by bus. We had to change in Carmarthen, catch the Pencader bus, and then walk about half a mile to Fronolau from the junction with the main road.
The ‘phoney war’ came to an end in April 1940, when the Germans invaded Norway and soon after Belgium and Holland were over-run. Then came the collapse of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, a debacle which was exploited by Churchill as a triumph of British ingenuity and determination.
From now on Hitler had convenient bases from which to launch bombing raids on towns and cities in Britain. Indeed it was thought that he would soon invade Britain itself. But in order to do this he needed air superiority, and in this he failed as his Luftwaffe lost the battle with the British Hurricanes and Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. However air raids were made almost every night by the German planes and it was then that even in Llandeilo we had frequent air raid alarms, when I had to make a dash for the A.R.P. centre and Carrie took the children to shelter in the ‘cwtsh dan stâr’ (the under-stairs store-room).
German planes did pass over the Llandeilo area. It was thought they were making their way to Liverpool along a route on which they could avoid anti-aircraft fire. They were, of course, not going to waste their bombs on non-strategic localities like Llandeilo. However a few stray bombs were dropped innocuously in fields not far from the town. Perhaps they were dropping some of their heavy load when being chased by British fighters or they were dumping bombs that had not been used in their raids. We were always sure that the sound of planes overhead was that of German bombers - they had a kind of deep zoom-zoom sound of a heavily-loaded plane.
The A.R.P. in Llandeilo were never called out to action. The only time that it was rumoured that we were within an ace of being called out was on the third night of the heavy blitz on Swansea, when the town was almost wiped out by the dropping of incendiary bombs on the nights of 19 to 21 February, 1941. All the A.R.P. centres within a radius that just came short of Llandeilo were called out. Indeed that is the story of my wartime experiences. Although conscripted for A.R.P. duties and later to the Army itself, I never saw any enemy action. This story will be told when I describe my experiences in the Army.
So life in Llandeilo continued on its tranquil undisturbed way apart from the problems with the evacuees and with the occasional air-raid alarms. As we had no car now, we sometimes went on enjoyable trips by train on Saturday to Swansea and Mumbles and to my parents’ home in Fronolau. On many a Saturday afternoon too, John Jenkins, Dan Jeffreys and John Edwards (member of our staff) joined with me in a round of golf. In the meantime two of the younger members of the staff, George Spiller and Herbert Lewis, had been called up for military service But as they were both scientists, comfortable niches far from actually fighting were found for them; George Spiller as a Meteorological Officer with the R.A.F. and Herbert Lewis continued more or less as a civilian chemistry expert in, I believe, munitions factories.
Early in 1941 the age of exemption for teachers was raised to thirty five and so, as it was well nigh impossible to prove that a teacher of a dead language was in essential work on the Home Front, it became obvious that my call-up would not be long delayed. It came at the end of the School year in July. I was summoned by the Army to a medical examination in Llanelli and was passed A2. The ‘2′ meant that I had a slight foot blemish, this being what they called a bifurcated toe, and indeed thereby hangs a tale that recurred many times during my Army service.
A neighbour of mine, and a schoolboy friend in Carmarthen Grammar School, had realised that a call-up was imminent and had volunteered for the R.A.F., thinking that there was a better chance in that Arm of the Forces of getting a non-combatant job. So even though I had had my medical with the Army I decided to apply for service in the R.A.F. Almost by return of post, I was summoned to be examined by a panel of doctors in Swansea. This seemed to be a favourable omen, but it was not to be. I received my call-up papers from the Army at the beginning of August and was ordered to report on the 14th to the Training Depot of the 13th Anti-Tank Regiment in Church Stretton.