Alec ‘Paddy’ Corbett WWII in Burma, photo Rod Corbett
My mother met my father in the second war, when he was in Royal Corps of Signal stationed at Golden Hill and she and my father were married in 1942.
When my father came back, I had to get to know him, after 3 years away. His Irish accent was so broad, I had to act as interpreter to people in Yarmouth. Rod Corbett b 1943
Audrey King, Rod Corbett’s mother 1940s
Another memory that really sticks with me; we had been given a lift, my mother was taking me to Newport. Transport was very meagre in those days, and we’d got a lift with a friend of the family in a coal truck, in the front. And this coal truck used to deliver – I guess they picked the coal up from Yarmouth from the quay – delivering to the Hamstead POW camp – this sticks in my mind. We drove into the camp through the gates, and at that point, when the lorry got in the camp it broke down.
I remember the lid of a vehicle up, and a huge host of German soldiers gathering around. One young soldier,- even to me as a small child, he seemed young,- held a kitten up at the window of this truck, showing me this kitten. Now as I’ve got older I realise the vehicle wasn’t so interesting, but my mother was. She was quite a looker with red hair, and I think it was the excuse to see a lady. I have no idea how we got out of that situation, but that incident just sticks with me. Rod Corbett
I remember when we lived down by the Mill, we had a gun in our back garden that you used to sit on, and it used to go round and round. All the kids used to come and play on it. We had a gun on the Dump in case any planes came over the river. Brian Pomroy b1937
The firing of the lifeboat maroons was stopped during the war. At night, when Dad ( Walter Cotton, the Coxswain)’s phone rang, he would answer it and while he was putting his clothes on, he would shout to me to get the men for the boat. So I would get up, put my shoes on, my coat over my nightie, and as I went out the door I’d grab my stick. I would then run round the men’s houses in the pitch dark and tap on their bedroom windows with my stick and shout “Dad wants you on the boat!” and then go back to bed. I might occasionally see an ARP man but usually nobody.
The Yarmouth Lifeboat had to take a policeman (a special usually) with them on a call and enquire the nationality of the men needing rescuing. Whether the enquiry was made before or after rescue, I don’t know! After a while, the R.A.F. Air Sea Rescue boats were used, as most of the calls were for planes ditching and the A.S.R. boat was faster. Joy Lawry nee Cotton b 1922
Audrey King 1940s
My mother was originally courted by a Canadian soldier. He’d been away for some time, on the Dieppe raids, so she went down to find out about him and they said he wouldn’t be back, he’d been killed.
Rodney Corbett b 1943
I was called up in1940. I had instructions to go to Newport Station and wait there. I went there and was met by Army people and they said they were waiting for trains to come from other parts of the Island, could we come back in an hour. There was one or two of us there and we went off and had a drink. When we come back they had a lorry there and loaded us in, and where do you think they brought us to – Golden Hill!
I was in the Hampshire Regiment. I was in for just about six years, I travelled about all over the place. I didn’t go overseas until just after D Day.
A few days after D Day we went to Southampton and were transported across to Normandy. We went to where the British went ashore near Caen and it wasn’t long before we were moved up to where the battles were, to Hill 112. It was said whoever had charge of Hill 112 was in charge of Normandy. We had a battering there, constant shelling at night. When we went there I had a section of 6; when we came away there was four of us. We spent some time there defending that, several night skirmishes, attached to the 43rd division. We then went to a place called Montpinchon. Going up one side a Mortar Shell landed. Next thing I knew I was picking myself out of the ditch on the other side of the road. I staggered around for a bit and then a medical car picked me up and that was the end of the fighting for me, I still have shrapnel in my chest. I was treated for several weeks and then at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, it was decided not to operate to remove the shrapnel.
I went to Chester, a big place for a lot of wounded who were getting better. I managed to get away to a couple of football matches while I was there and then moved down to Colchester where we took out German Prisoners to work on farms. That was a very boring sort of a turn out, just walking out with them and then taking them back. Next place was just outside Worksop, where I was instructor for small arms firing until I was demobbed.
While there I was able to get around. I went to a game of football at Bramall Lane,’’ even managed to get to a cricket match. Phil Kelsey b 1920
We used to go to dances at HMS Manatee in the Drill Hall, hoping to meet a sailor. One night a soldier said to me,
‘Come out with me tomorrow and I’ll take you to the Pictures. If I don’t turn up, you’ll know why.’
There were lots and lots of little boats outside the Pier – you could have walked across them. The next day they were all gone – it was D Day 1944. So many people were lost, so many people died. Blanche Kennard nee Dore b 1922
My Dad, ‘Bun’ Cotton was called up before the war to do Military training, in the Militia, July 15th 1939. When war broke outhe was transferred to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and sent to France with the B.E.F. Although his section was abandoned in the retreat and had one member suffering from shell shock,, they made their way back to Dunkirk and were evacuated. Eventually, because of his technical plumbing skills, he was transferredto the Royal Artillery as a Gunsight Fitter and served with the Army in Africa, and up through Italy. He was demobbed in January 1946.
Bun enlisting : photo Carol Corbett
b 1946
Whilst we were living at Lower Hamstead, there were two things regarding aircraft that stick in my mind. One was watching a dogfight overhead and seeing two aircraft come out of that dogfight.
There was apparently a squadron of Hurricanes intercepted two squadrons of German J38s and ME109s and one Hurricane got shot down in flames and landed at the top of Cranmore. That would have been Battle of Britain time I suppose, 1941.The pilot bailed out and landed at Thorness successfully. He was burnt but he was OK. There was a 109 I think also came down, but I think out in the Solent some place.
And the other thing concerning aircraft was when I was “helping” as a six year old, mother and an auntie, harvesting potatoes in one particular field. There was a sudden roar and I remember mother shouting: ‘Lay down! Lay down!’ And it was a German, it was a Henkel 111 I think. I can remember it had a glazed nose, came in at tree top level, came in off the Solent, and I can remember seeing the pilot in the cockpit as he went past. I just stood and watched it and it roared over the trees only a matter of 200’ high at the most, then it went out towards the Channel and hopefully home, I suppose. He’d done his worst and he was off home as soon as he could make it. But that was very loud and I can remember seeing the pilot in the glazed cockpit; it just sticks in my mind. You could see the silhouette of the pilot. Mother thought the end was nigh.
The war was on when I started school, and if the siren went off to signal an air raid we had to pick up a small mat which was on a hook at the side of our infant school tables and then form a line, and quietly file out to the air raid shelter in the boys playground, where we sat and sang songs like “One man went to Mow”. Serena Hunt b 1939
There was a great big air raid shelter in the boys playground next to the houses, by the school garden, that ran from the toilet block, right the way down to the wall. It was a huge air raid shelter. You used to go to school with your gas mask, and on the edge of your desk there was a little tiny mat hanging there. The siren went, you grabbed your gas mask and mat and marched across to the shelter. Nick Chandler b 1937