This wonderful account of the memories of Christopher (Chris) Adam’s has been sent to us by his daughter Jill. Chris lived in Adderley from about 1935 until 1952 although he was away at school some of the time. He lived in Adderley Rectory (now known as Cobscot Hey) as his father Rev. E.J.Adams ( Jocylen) was the rector of Adderley. Chris’s brother Michael was a few years older than him.
Chris (pictured here with his grand-daughter) wrote this account of his memories about 15 years ago (in 2009) and it touches on so many different parts of our history and is something very special to have in the archive.
Memories of World War 2
My first memory of the war was when my father had been listening to the wireless which was the old fashioned type using a horn- shaped loudspeaker and connected to a 12 volt battery. He announced that war had been declared against Germany.
We lived in a large old rectory situated in Adderley, Shropshire somewhere on the railway line between Wellington and Crewe (the property now known as Cobscot Hey on Rectory Road) .
Left: Rev & Mrs EJP Adams
There was no electric light and we used paraffin lamps in the evenings. Water was obtained from a well and this was pumped every day using a petrol engine. My mother cooked on a kitchen range which required coal and coke.
My father had been in Royal Warwickshire Regiment in WW1, so it was no surprise that he was appointed Chaplain/ Padre to the Forces stationed in the village during WWII. He was also the Chief Air Raid Warden.
I was almost six years old then and my brother was five years older. I do remember a friend of his, Peter Parker, who joined the R.A.F. and became a rear gunner in a Wellington bomber, He was reported missing and must have been shot down on a night raid over Germany. We were all very sad. Later in 1940 we were to meet some woodcutters from Estonia, Latvia and theUkraine. They had come to cut down trees for use as ‘pit props’ in the coal mines.
Left: Michael & Christopher Adams
We had other service people billeted with us afterwards. They were much more appreciative. However I remember one was a naval chaplain who stayed for only a short time. He occupied the main bedroom that had a bathroom adjoining it. He came out of the bathroom one day shouting blue murder at our dog, a Cairn terrier, which had jumped onto his bed with muddy paws. My mother of course had to clean up the mess. We thought it was rather funny to see this angry man with a towel round his waist, and not at all like a holy man.
Much later in the war about 1944 we had a pilot officer and his wife. They lived in a part of the house that was made into a flat. They were the nicest couple we had staying there and we kept in touch after they left. Unfortunately he was killed in a flying accident over East Anglia at the end of the war.
Another memory is of a cousin Alan, who had joined a tank regiment. The last time we saw him was when he arrived one night on a motor bike on his way south.
Left: Christopher Aged 9-10 dressed as a Home Guard soldier in front of bay window
He was later with the 1 st Army when they landed in North Africa and fought their way to link up with the 8th Army in Tunisia. Then they continued on to Italy. Alan was killed by a stray shell somewhere near Florence. I also remember at that time the tune of ‘Lili Marlene’ was popular but his mother disliked it intensely because of the sad association with his death.
As the war progressed the army moved out to make way for a German POW camp. The porter at the railway station told how he stayed up in the signal box while prisoners were unloaded by their guards. We had a small group of Germans (mainly older men, farmers probably) working in the garden. It was mid-winter and they were given hot chocolate and a cigarette. We heard later that they had been beaten up by ‘nazi’ elements in the camp for fraternising with the enemy. I also remember seeing wooden toys made by prisoners, one of which was a German aeroplane made from a lavatory seat taken from the camp. I was a keen aeroplane spotter and knew most of the German planes by sight as well as our own aircraft.
At the age of 7 and a half I had been sent away to boarding school situated in the village of Dunchurch, not far from Rugby and Coventry. I remember one night, it must have been in the summer that we heard the ‘crump, crump’ of bombs.
Right: Michael and Christopher with their Governess Miss Cresswell just before starting at Boarding School
We really weren’t old enough to appreciate the significance. It was German bombers attacking the city of Coventry. Not long after we were taken into the village near the Dun Cow Hotel where we saw Winston Churchill stop in his car on the way to visit Coventry. He was offered a bottle of champagne but no one had a corkscrew to open it. He was smoking his cigar and made his V sign to the crowd who cheered him.
About this time I going down the hill to the swimming pool we picked up some souvenirs from the wreckage of a German bomber (probably a Heinkel_ that had been shot down during a raid.
In our history lessons our teacher had made us awareof what had happened in the Battle of Britain and also the progress of the fighting in N.Africa.
Although my home was situated in the countryside we were well in the path for night raids on the Midlands especially Birmingham and Liverpool. During one night a lot of the villagers came to the Rectory with their pets (cats, dogs and canaries) to shelter in the cellar which had been reinforced. You could hear the drone of German bombers going overhead. I was told to go back to bed. About then I remember we took roast potatoes and parsnips to a searchlight unit based not far from us.
On another occasion my father was called out to liaise with the military who had called in a mine disposal squad to defuse a magnetic mine. This had been dropped over the village after German raiders had been driven off Liverpool docks. These mines were meant to destroy shipping. One had already exploded over a cowshed on a farm and some cows had been killed. The cowman had been injured and had his glass eye blown out.
The Home Guard were under the command of Col. Brown. They used to meet quite often at their HQ in the stables and coach house of the Rectory and I remember them coming back with rabbits and also the occasional pheasant. On another occasion they were searching the outbuildings looking for an escaped Italian prisoner. He was later captured trying to steal food from a farmhouse.
Above left: Michael and Christopher with their father in the 1950s
At the latter end of the war just before ‘D’ day there were American soldiers stationed in the camp. A group of American chaplains came to visit my father and brought ‘spam’ and chewing gum. The Americans were not popular with the local men for they were unfair competition with their nylons for the girls and superior spending power. Many of them must have perished on the beaches of Normandy.