Note.
The Ballyhoura Rural Service facilitated the recording and publication of this book.
(Extracts from Michael Box’s Life Story The Early Years)
These extracts from Michael’s short book ‘Life Story The Early Years’ highlights the
interesting life he had. For those that knew Michael it will obviously be a
very interesting read but it would also be of interest to the historians among
us.
There will
be a small number of copies available at the next workshop.
Gloster
Aircraft Barrage Balloon Attack. (Gloucestershire Aircraft
Company was renamed Gloster to help non British with their pronunciation.)
Gloster
Aircraft was six miles across a flat plane from Dowtys, where I worked
(building under carriages for aircrafts). We could see Gloster Aircraft in the
distance and all around it there was a ring of barrage balloons to protect it
from dive-bombers. In the summer when we would have our dinner breaks at Dowtys
we would sit on the roof of one of the buildings and we could see across to
Gloster Aircraft. Half twelve to half one was our break time. At one o’clock
every day the balloons would be lowered down for servicing – the whole lot down
together. Obviously someone had tipped off the Germans that this was happening
every day at one o’clock. One day we were watching these balloons go down when
we suddenly saw an airplane diving from above. The plane came straight down
towards the factory and we said ‘cor’ look at that plane. We didn’t think it
was a German as it looked just like a Bristol Bullfighter, as it had a very
similar pattern to it. It was a Yunkers88 actually. I got my leg pulled
afterwards for getting it wrong. Anyway this plane levelled out over the
factory, dropped one bomb and it hit the tool room at Gloster Aircraft. It
killed fifteen people and wounded a lot more and destroyed a whole load of precision
machinery. Then away it flew up into the air and it was gone over Chosen Hill
just on the edge of the Cotswolds. That’s where they roll the cheeses down the
hill... And he was away and gone out of sight before anyone realised what had
happened. Then all the balloons went up again, it was pathetic. Obviously if
they were lowered one at a time they would still have protection… It is easy to
criticise in hindsight but it could have been avoided with a bit of thought.
That was a wartime experience of bombing that I had. Bloody daft things
happened in the war!…
Conscription.
I tried to
join up a couple of times and got told off by the boss… When the war finished
and they didn’t want planes anymore, we were all called up because conscription
was still on…A friend of mine was called up at the same time and we volunteered
to join the navy so we went to the HMS Royal Arthur, Skegness…During that
period we got interviewed and did a medical…eventually had to pass an exam to
see what we knew about engineering. I passed anyway and got accepted as a
recruit to be an engineer in the Fleet Air Arm… We did a general induction of
forces set up. It was like basic training. They had a rifle range there and
they taught us how to use a rifle. They also taught us how to do various things
in the engineering line and it was quite interesting. My knowledge of aircraft
helped me to get into the fleet arm of the navy which was one of the better
sections. We were far better treated than the ordinary navy sailors. I had
nearly three years in the Fleet Air Arm. I was working on the naval equipment
of the Spitfire. It was called the C Fire with slight modifications to suit
naval use. They had a different shape intake for the engine for low flying over
the ocean. It had landing gear that was lower down for deck landing on an
aircraft carrier where the hook would catch to keep it down…
When we
eventually ‘passed out’… we had to do six weeks with the RAF Training School
near Cannock Chase in Staffordshire… where we had to learn about aero engines
because those who had been selected to be air mechanics, of which I was one had
to go on to Hednesford. It was a training place to learn about aircraft jet
engines…
The Log
Man.
I worked on
a lathe as an apprentice and on the next line to me was a man that was in fact
a very good turner. He came in one day in a blazing temper and said “that
bastard pinched my logs again” and I said what are you talking about?
It seems
that his brother kept him in firewood. He used to bring a load of logs down to
where this man lived which was on a very steep bank. There is a place in
Chalford Valley near Stroud where most of the houses are on a steep bank. There
is no road or such for vehicles and even today the deliveries are still made by
donkey, would you believe. This man lived in one of those cottages near the
bottom. They called them pitsies? Anyhow he had a store of wood next to his
cottage. He had a feeling that someone was pinching his wood. He knew it was
disappearing and he had a feeling it was a bloke from a cottage above him who
worked in the same factory, the same shop actually. He could never catch him.
He would stay up at night watching but could never see it go.
Anyway this
day he came in blazing. He brought a log of wood into the works. It was about a
foot long and about four inches in diameter. He bored the log so it had a
hollow chamber inside it. It was around November, fireworks time when you could
buy a one penny or halfpenny banger. The halfpenny bangers were called little
demons and you could buy twelve for sixpence. Anyway he brought in a load
of these demons and stuffed them into
the log. He then turned a round of wood and bunged the end of the log so that
you couldn’t see anything. “ I will get the bastars” he said… So he took the
log back and put it nicely on his pile of logs… one morning he came in and said
“the bugger has it, its gone…
(There’s a
nice twist to the end of that story of the log man but you really need to read
it in the context of Michaels full story, which is truly a step back into
history.)
(‘Chalford
Donkey delivering shopping’ can be seen on YouTube)
