MY CONFRONTATION WITH DOCTOR TANK by Barry (Biff) Haves

There sadly aren't so many Old Dux members left now who had personal experience of the Service during
the war, and many of us were children at the time. But even as children we could have known of the
hostilities, during air-raids for instance, and a lot of us were evacuated when war broke out, which in itself could be a traumatic experience.
What, you will be wondering, has the eminent German aircraft designer Doctor Kurt Tank, a man of similar
status to our own great Reginald Mitchell, to do with me - and especially, what was this confrontation?
The story begins on Sunday June 2nd 1940 when I, at the age of six, together with nearly fifty-thousand
other children, was evacuated to the safety of the 'sticks' in one of 97 special trains - quite some operation. My home town, Great Yarmouth, was thought to be a likely target for attack and invasion, along with many other towns on the east and south coasts, as well as the prime target, London.
I have limited memory of the actual journey, which began, I remember, with an assembly in the school
playground, and I also remember being taken by car to my final destination, in tears, but I cannot recall
anything of the train journey in between. We have all seen those newsreels of children being evacuated, with their names on labels, carrying their gas-masks and clutching treasured teddy-bears; well I remember the gasmask in its cardboard box but I didn't have a teddy-bear then, my favourite toy was a white dog which I called Rajah, the name of our family dog who was also white. But I couldn't have taken Rajah with me as I found him at home, together with my Rupert books, when we returned there in late 1942. But I did have a set of 'DinkyToys' aircraft: Gloster Gladiators in their beautiful pre-war silver livery, which mum bought specially for me.
Ironically at about that time the real Gloster Gladiators, in their wartime camouflage, were being shot out of the sky by the Luftwaffe ME 109s in Norway, another of the many examples of the Services not being given the right equipment by the politicians, which sadly continues to this day. (The PM recently assured the people of the Falklands that we would stand by them…after he'd got rid of the only means by which we could do that!)
My dad rejoined the army in December 1939, he'd been a regular soldier as a young man and did his nine
years plus three on the reserve in the 1920s and early 1930s, and I remember him coming home in his No. 1 dress with bright buttons and the Britannia cap and collar badges of the Royal Norfolk Regiment before I was evacuated (I was proud to wear the Britannia cap-badge as an Army Cadet years later before I joined the RAF, but the politicians have destroyed so many of those fine old Regiments since then). But such symbols are frowned upon now we are 'Europeans', I understand, so Gordon Brown has got rid of Britannia on the coinage, and there has been no sign of Cameron wanting to replace her. Perhaps he would prefer to have Angela Merkel on the coinage instead!
According to my mother when that first air-raid alarm sounded, at 02.45hrs on September 4th, the day after the war started - a false alarm or practice as it turned out - my mother woke dad up with the cry of "They're here!" and he jumped out of bed still half asleep shouting: "Where are they?", ready to take on the full might of the Wehrmacht in his pyjamas. My mother, being of a nervous disposition, was permanently apprehensive, to put it mildly. I had a happy time while evacuated, I lived with a family in a village near Newark, and as I was an only child it was great to have the two children to play with. However, it turned out I was there for less than a year. My dad, being an old soldier, was given training and admin duties and was initially posted to a military hospital in Leeds as Admin Sergeant.
Meanwhile the Germans had started bombing Yarmouth and other towns and my mother, being of a nervous disposition, was permanently apprehensive, to put it mildly. As also was poor Rajah, the dog (not my toy Rajah obviously) who was terrified of the noise of the bombing and anti-aircraft guns and had to be 'put to sleep', though I wasn't told at the time. So Dad rented 'digs' in Leeds, which had a relatively quiet war, and mother joined him, bringing me with her.
Subsequently dad had several postings, and we joined him in digs at Norwich, Gloucester and Slough - while he was at the Regimental Depot, Britannia Barracks, Norwich, they were raising another battalion to go out to Singapore, but he was posted to Records Office, Gloucester, instead. Many of those who went to Singapore didn't survive the years of captivity on the notorious Burma railway, so I was lucky in not losing my dad as man others did. But I did lose my dear uncle Victor, who was killed at sea serving in the Royal Naval Patrol Service, twenty-five years to the month after his father, my maternal grandfather, also named Victor, was killed in Flanders - and also wearing that Britannia cap badge. I never knew my paternal grandfather either, he died of wounds in 1919.
An event connected to the death of my uncle Victor had a profound effect on me for some time. Mother and I were living in the digs at Leeds, dad had been posted to Liverpool, and on one day a religious zealot came to our door and preached his gospel; I was too young to understand what he was saying and mother was too polite to tell him to get lost, but after he eventually went we both had a good laugh about him. It was then, in my memory the same day but I can't be sure if it was that exact day, that we received the telegram telling of Victor's death. In my juvenile mind I became convinced that God was punishing us for our disrespect to his emissary, and it was a long time before I realized that God doesn't work in that way, his ways are much too mysterious for us mere mortals to understand.

                                                                                                  To be continued  

Ted Cawley’s newsletter has been returned to me, all the way from Oz. and was looking decidedly jet lagged, however I did hear that he had decided to ‘come home’ has anyone else heard anything?
Anne Gange tells me that more than 20 have already booked for the dinner, (no mention of her covert ongoing preparations).. it’s looking good so don’t be disappointed, get your order in.
 Sooner rather than later I say !

Mike Scrivener ex 4District Remembers;

At Duxford in the 1950’s there were two police sections, Station Police operating the guardroom and general security of the station, and 4 District Police Headquarters who were responsible for special criminal investigations through S.l.B. Section. There was a WRAF Police section operating town patrols and a Provost section carrying out town patrols over eastern England from Epping to Letchworth, Baldock, Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Norwich,Ipswich, Felixstowe, where we helped with the east coast floods of 1953, to Saffron Walden and Cambridge.
At that time service personnel travelled by train or overseas by ship. We checked railway stations, dance halls, cinemas and public houses at closing time. I personally served a detachment at Harwich docks with the Military Police. During that time also the accoutrements of war were being dismantled and I, along with other members of 4District, escorted convoys from stations in our area, both English and American, carrying bombs and aircraft fuselages etc. 4 District had a detachment to Uxbridge to carry out duties in London for the Queen’s Coronation. I personally carried out town patrols of Soho, a vastly different place to now, and some traffic direction.
We also carried out duties on Coronation day and I was on duty in Hyde Park which was then a Military
encampment. We as a district participated in a number of escape and evasion exercises. Air crew members would be deposited in a strange area and attempt to make their way back home. We had to stop them and it had to be as realistic as possible as though they had bailed out over foreign territory.
I, with some other members of 4 district, was also on duty the day Princess Margaret presented the colours to the apprentices at RAF Halton.

Notices from around the world
Doctor’s office in Rome …….Specialist in women and other diseases.
Nairobi restaurant…………Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the Manager.
Tokyo Bar ………… .Special Cocktails for ladies with nuts.
Cocktail Bar, Norway …………Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
Dry cleaners Bangkok ……………. Drop your trousers here for the best results.
Lobby in Moscow hotel …… You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet Composers, Artists, and Writers are buried Daily except Thursday.