Memories of Stoke-on-Trent people - Ken
Green
Ken Green
A
Life in the Ceramic Tile Industry
section 3
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military interlude
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Military Collage of Science
By the time I joined the HG there was no shortage of arms. The first Sunday after joining, several of us were taught to fire the P17 rifle. This gun had been the standard rifle of the American armed forces during the First World War. It took 0.300inch calibre ammunition and had a prominent red band painted around to prevent being mistakenly fed with British 0.303inch calibre. I joined just in time to help crowbar open some of the last of the rough wooden crates in which the grease-encased guns had lain for many years. There was no shortage of 0.300 ammunition. Within a few weeks the younger members of our platoon had been formed into machine gun teams and, during training, we put a lot of lead Into the conveniently positioned Racecourse Colliery spoil tip.
The Racecourse Pit
(William Jacks) (from 'Tales of Old Hanley')
The Browning medium machine gun had also been standard American issue. It was water-cooled and, really, too heavy for infantry use. We had fixed positions for them. Our position was near the Hanley Electricity Works in The Parkway. The company possessed two Thompson sub machine guns (the Tommy guns associated with gangsters) and in early 1941 Sten guns were issued. The Sten did the same job as the Tommy gun but was much cheaper, faster and easier to produce. We also had a few Blacker Bombards, which supposedly projected petrol bombs coated in adhesive. I remain convinced that the BB was of more danger to those behind, than to anything in front. There were plenty of Mills bombs (36 grenade), Hawkins anti tank mines (75 grenade), Bakelite stun bombs (69 grenade) and many others. The TV comedy, “Dad’s Army”, did not (could not) exaggerate the hilarious situations that came about in such a disparate part time force. But, it was numerous, very well armed, trained by dedicated veterans and each battalion knew its’ home patch and had competed and co-operated with neighboring battalions in numerous exercises. My opinion is that, should invading forces have managed to land, the HG would have been a formidable foe throughout the land
Call up for military service took place around one’s 18th birthday. Each person had an “age and service group number” determined by the date he entered the services, his age at the time and for how long he had served. ASG 26 contained a lot of men because it included all those who had been called for two years military service early in 1939 and were not to be released until 6 years later.
During the early years of the war it became very obvious that the country was suffering from a drastic shortage of technically trained people, whether craftsmen or graduates. (Has anything changed?). This led to the system of recruiting university entrants being radically altered in 1941. Shortly after leaving school, to join Richards Tiles, I was summoned to Manchester University and told I would be reading Math’s. But I didn’t fancy reading Math’s and I could not be directed because I was well short of my 18th birthday. I remember then being sent for by the Principal of (the then) Stoke Technical College, Dr. Harry Webb but he failed to change my mind. Fortunately for me, as I foolishly closed that door, another opened. I was summoned a few weeks later to Birmingham where I was interviewed by a panel of officers from the three armed forces. Like hundreds of other young men I was told of the Engineering Cadetship scheme to train us to become technical officers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. This was much more to my liking and I was delighted to be accepted.
I arrived in St. Helens on 3rd March 1942 and reported to Dr. Hazeldine, Principal of the Gamble Institute. St. Helens was, and still is of course, the hometown of Pilkingtons Glass. The Gamble Institute had close connections with Pilkingtons. Ceramic and glass technologies are often studied together. The other main industry of the town was coal mining. In fact, we were far from gleaming spires; we were in a very industrial town. But the lecturers were good and were supplemented by others from outside. One named Jackson (from ICI or Liverpool University) took us for chemical engineering but he was, in fact, the first person to open for me, the door to that difficult-to-teach subject, Mathematics.
We were from various backgrounds: grammar schools, public schools, first year university students and two from the armed forces. We were in three groups of twenty, two groups for a 21month course and one for an 18month course, which included me. Lectures occupied a full five and a half days per week and breaks were for only two or three days around the bank holidays. There were also some RAF and WAAF personnel in the college. One of our cadets, Jim Box, had the good sense to later marry one of the WAAFs. She was named Mary Hacking and her father had a milk delivery business in Birches Head.
Most of my fellow cadets were enrolled into a Home Guard anti aircraft battery in Liverpool. They were equipped with “Z” guns. I never saw one, but they were multiple rocket launchers. What they lacked in accuracy was, hopefully, made up for in numbers as simultaneously exploding rockets filled a cube of sky. I was not in that battery because I had already transferred to a local unit, the 75th County of Lancaster Battalion Home Guard. My Company Commander was Major Varley who headed an engineering organization. He recommended me for H.G.commission and I was promoted to Lieutenant in the December. By now, I was able to teach other HG members, and some of the RAF personnel, the small-arms skills taught to me in the Potteries
My new unit had 2pounder anti-tank guns. They had proved to be ineffective against heavily armoured tanks during the retreat to Dunkirk and were replaced by the 6pounder and later the 17pounder. They were beautifully engineered, accurate and fine for our purposes. We spent happy hours on the seashore at Altcart, firing out to sea at drogues towed behind speedboats. I enjoyed my three years in the Home Guard. It is interesting to reflect that, during that time, I must have fired many more rounds of ammunition, and from a much greater variety of weapons, than during the whole of my subsequent service with the British and Indian Armies.
