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Title	JOHN STANBRIDGE - THE HOME FRONT
Description	EVACUATION We had a Welsh school teacher billeted on us and we became lifelong friends. We had two school teachers. One (the Welsh lady) did everything she possibly could to help - did the washing up, made the beds ready. The other thought she was in a paying hotel and did absolutely nothing. You can know which one we liked! The one we didn't like left after about 18 months. The other one actually got married from the farm in the local registry office. They hadn't really got any family left of their own. My parents were like grandma and granddad to them. We called them our Welsh branch. A funny thing happened to her in the war. She did advanced Welsh at Bangor University. One day the South Wales Borderers were on the little village green on manoeuvres (in Cupid Green). As she cycled to school one of these men passed some very spicy remarks about this young lady. She had enough courage to keep on cycling straight up to them and speak to them in their own language. They didn't expect in a little country village in Hertfordshire to find a perfect Welsh speaking girl. Her husband, Norman, was a frequent visitor to the farm. He had been a miner and a communist, but realised that we all had to fight the evil of the Nazis. My father and he got on very well, agreeing that if they had exchanged upbringings they would have exchanged politics RATIONING Rationing affected us. If you hadn't got potatoes and swedes in winter you would have been in trouble. Until myxomatosis, which was after the war, we killed quite a few rabbits. Rabbit was the main meat during the war. Nearly all our hay production in the war went to London to feed rabbits. Fruit was impossible which I found particularly painful. In 1943 I suffered from yellow jaundice which means you're not supposed to eat starch and sugar. You're supposed to live on fruit. I lived for about six months on apples. That's all I could get. We had our own chickens and obviously when you visited people you had some eggs with you. In nearly all the houses the back garden was dug up for potatoes and swedes and they had rows of carrots, spring onions etc. in the front. A lot of them kept rabbits. The diet was monotonous and dull but offal was not rationed so you could get that. The village shop - and you had to keep your mouth shut about this - when they issued him with his cheese or his bacon ration they didn't give him 50 times X they gave him 55 times X to cover for mistakes in cutting up. Well, if he had a little joint left over, the locals got treated. This was in Cupids Green where the Grove Hill estate is now. HOSPITALS I had 2 operations in 1943. Quite a few of the wards from the Great Ormond Street hospital were evacuated to Hemel. There were a hell of a lot more young nurses than there are now. The hospital was run on more or less military lines with a matron at the top - a real dragon. If there was any dust she would come along with her white gloves. The West Herts. Hospital was very big and covered the whole of the Dacorum area. An extension of it was the "Old Workhouse" and a considerable number of huts that were constructed in 1939. This was called a base hospital. It was situated at the top of the incline of Queensway and named St Pauls. Although under the same governors it was staffed mainly by Great Ormond Street sisters and the local Red Cross. It catered for the victims of the London Blitz After a bad night large convoys of buses arrived. They had their seats taken out to be replaced by racks to carry occupied stretchers. Unfortunately in 1940 the convoys were very frequent! THE AMERICAN BASE AT BOVINGDON One thing that comes to mind is the relationship between American and British troops stationed locally. The only Americans that I knew of were stationed at Bovingdon airport. The issue was complicated because in practice, but not in theory, there were two separate armies here. One white, one black. What friction there was, was between these two groups. There was a Black American transport company stationed at Bovingdon. These gained a reputation for the quick delivery of goods from point A to point B. This was especially true of the run between Boxmoor station and the airport. One ventured very carefully up Bovingdon Hill in those days as it was not unusual to be passed by a powerful and heavily ladened lorry at 50 plus MPH. One natural resentment against the American troops was that they were paid a lot extra per day than all other allied troops. This enabled them to purchase from their well-stocked stores such items as nylons, cookies, fruit that was not available to the British public. These goods were given to the British girls with the odd bottle of 'Jack Daniels' for Dad, to keep him happy and not interfere too much! This obviously caused resentment and in the phraseology of the time it was said that the Americans were cocky little devils who were "Overpaid, Oversexed and over here!" This resentment would sometimes flare up during the regular dances that the local community held for entertainment. It was usual to see Military Police men from both the British and American armies stationed at the entrance to the hall. Any sign of trouble, and these men would enter the dance, separate the opponents and march them out of the way. It seemed to be so efficiently done that the dancing was barely affected. The Black American troops, (those who came from the southern states where segregation was still enforced) liked being in England as it was the first time in their lives that they could speak to any white man that they met. They could also enter any cinema, theatre, bus, eating or amusement establishment without having to look for the offensive notice boards that said "White only" or "Black only". In London I remember getting on a crowded bus (standing room only) with Margaret (my wife). A black American sergeant stood up and insisted that the lady should have his seat. Margaret sat down between two black soldiers and we spent the rest of the journey talking where they had just been and what they hoped to see before the day was finished. We were staying with Margaret's Aunt Elcy, on this trip, and went to many tourist attractions and shows. We managed to go to the famous 'Windmill Theatre', with its nude tableaus. My mother wanted to know all about the trip when we got back to the farm and Margaret said that the 'Windmill' was "much ado about nothing'. "Oh Shakespeare", said my Mother. We did not feel that we need correct her! There was a very large pond next to the main Leverstock road opposite what was then Coxpond farm. This was used to check that they (the Americans) had correctly installed the waterproofing of their vehicles. Where the pond was about 4 feet deep they built a replica of a landing craft with its ramp down. This was to prepare them for landing on the D Day beaches into the sea. If the job had not been done correctly their engines stalled in the deep water. The unfortunate driver then had to dive into the depths of the pond and tie a tow rope to the front axle so that he could be winched out. They usually got a cheer from the amused audience. THE RESISTANCE There were a number of incidences that we were witness to but didn't understand until the OSA was lifted after the war. At odd times, sealed trucks used to drive down our country lanes, stop and then dump two people and drive off. What we did not know at the time was that the Government had taken over the large and isolated Gorhambury House near St Albans. It was used to train the VERY brave men and women who were dropped in Europe to organise the Resistance units. The only equipment that they carried were a compass and Ordnance Survey maps without any names on them. What we were watching was an exercise where they were presumed to have landed in the wrong place. They had to work out where they were and get to the correct rendezvous point as quick as possible. Whilst doing this they had to be careful not to be caught by the patrolling instructors who were playing the part of Gestapo searchers. BOMBING There were over a thousand bombs dropped in Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding areas. Fortunately in open country but there were a few killed when their houses were destroyed. The Germans seemed to have two methods of dropping their bombs. One method was to drop the whole batch together. This made a very large noise but people used to say that the ones that you heard had missed. The second was to drop them one after another with a few seconds in between. I didn't enjoy this method as each explosion seemed to get louder and nearer. TAX Another thought that comes to mind is how savage Income Tax was. The Chancellor had to think up two extra ways of raising the large amounts needed to finance a very expensive war. The first was called 'Excess Profits Tax' to stop people profiteering from the war as some did in the First Great War. For the first time after a long and deep recession, factories etc. went onto full production. This meant that they were making larger profits and their workers, who were working overtime, both earned more. The authorities averaged the previous (about) five years earning and then took it away from what they were now earning. The obvious surplus now was called 'excess profits' and was taxed; this seemed slightly unfair. We did not have much spare cash for luxuries that were few and far between! The other scheme was called 'Post War Credits'. This was a form of compulsory savings. A percentage of what you earned was taken by the Government who promised to pay it back after the War. The Government was so great in debt after the war that it could not pay back these 'loans' immediately. This was countered by creating a minimum age before you could claim what was owing to you (round about 60). This meant that people, such as my wife who were very young earners having to wait about 40 years before they received their repayment. FINALLY One unexpected happening of the war. My grandfather had an oak tree felled and cut into planks, that he wished his coffin was to be made of. The Government refused to let the undertakers use what was quality wood for coffins. He had to make do with a plywood coffin, whilst my father used the planks to make what is now my kitchen table! I will now conclude by trying to remember an interview that I heard on my tractor wireless whilst cultivating a field in the early 1990's. A senior Labour politician was asked, "What was the difference between the large Labour party victories of 1945 and 1990". He replied saying that you must remember that we had been fighting a war for six years when our lives depended on each other. This meant that you had learned to understand and tolerate other people's points of view whilst fighting the evil of Fascism; whereas now it seems to have descended into a case of "Them and Us". To me this summed up the difference between the war years and now. We were surprisingly happy in those days because of the helpful and generally cooperative mood that we were all in the same boat. There were no strangers, and when you ventured into the town it was a pleasant trip and not the mad dash of today. Interview: Lynda Abbott and Fay Breed December 2011
Keywords	Evacuation; Farming; Hospitals; Bovingdon airbase; American troops; resistance; bombing; tax
Collection	Home Front
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1939-1945
Conflict	World War Two
File type	html
Record ID number	213

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