In July 1940 the Battle of Britain began and was to go on for some months. Every day there were constant air raids, chiefly over London and the bravery of the RAF Pilots was unsurpassed. During September, around the fifteenth, between eighty and one hundred German aircraft were shot down in one day. The battle went on till the Germans changed tactics and started night bombing of many cities. Whilst we were doing our six weeks initial training at Shrewsbury, one particular night we knew there was a heavy raid going on somewhere. We heard the next day that it was Coventry that had been smashed up and also the Cathedral had been so badly damaged that a new one was built after the war was over. My training at Copthorne Barracks was quite intense, consisting of much square bashing, physical training, sometimes twice daily, route marches and rifle firing on the range. All in all, we became quite physically fit and the marching pace, as we were attached to the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry, was one hundred and forty paces to the minute, which was the set pace for the light infantry Regiments. During the time we were there, about the fifth Sunday, a bus trip was arranged for the day for the lads from our areas. I took advantage to go on the trip and I was dropped off at Dawson Lane around approximately eleven thirty. I went home to my mother and had lunch, then went up to Prospect House to meet Alice. We had a very happy reunion, although very short as the bus had arranged to pick us up after it had called at Leyland. Alice came to see me off at Dawson Lane and then we headed back to Shrewsbury. No motorways in those days, so we had to go through various towns, arriving back at barracks rather late. It was after arriving back from one of the route marches, the names of fifty lads were called out, of which I was one. We were informed we were selected for a draft. That was a Monday night. The next day was spent preparing, which included blanco-ing and polishing all our kit and then parading for inspection. We were told that we had it all to do again, just a load of army “bull”. Anyhow, we were finally told which day we were going although none of us knew where. So, on the twenty-seventh of November 1940, we finally marched down to Shrewsbury railway station accompanied by the battalion band.
Continue to 22. Royal Army Ordnance Corps