Evington in Wartime by A.W.P.Mackintosh
Evington in Wartime by A.W.P. Mackintosh (Evington Local History Society Oct. 1986)
It is almost axiomatic that when a country prepares for war it invariably prepares to fight the previous war in which it had been engaged.
The Great War (1914-1918) was prepared for by the British on the lines of the Crimea War, and the very recent Boer War, and by the French on the lines of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These, to a large extent, were mobile wars and so a large element in the armies were cavalry regiments. It was not long however, before it was realised, when confronted with the German Army, that it was a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable obstacle. Very soon each side came to the conclusion that they would have to dig in to protect themselves and so began the trench war, which dragged on for years, until the Germans had to surrender due to shortage of supplies brought about by the Allied Blockade and the intervention of the U.S.A. in 1917.
Under the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, Germany, who had already ‘scraped the barrel’ to prolong the war, was saddled with repayment obligations (reparations) of such severity that the resultant shortage of goods in the home market caused their money system to collapse to such an extent that a million mark note could be bought in this country in 1913 for one penny.
It was this appalling state of affairs which brought Adolf Hitler into prominence since his main platform was the cancellation of the economic terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The French would not relax their demands, so this led in turn to the secret re-arming of Germany and so to the 1939-45 War.
As we have previously noted, there is always the tendency to prepare for the next war in terms of the previous war.
Since the Great War had become a static war, the French built the Maginot Line of fortifications across France from the North Sea to the Swiss border. The Germans followed suit by building the Siegfried Line, then they also prepared for a mobile war.
The military tank was invented during the Great War but at that time it was still a slow, cumbersome and ungainly weapon.
The aeroplane was also used in the Great War, but mainly for spotting in aid of the artillery. In the meantime, the aeroplane had been greatly improved through the use for civil purposes. The Germans, and others, had greatly improved the tank as a military weapon, so to everyone’s surprise and consternation, when the Germans attacked France and the Low Countries in May 1940, they did so with a military force that was unmatched anywhere else.
The Panzar Divisions were composed of fast, highly mobile tanks and dive bombers which not only caused havoc with their bombs, but frightened the opposing forces by the noise they made. In addition, the Germans were able to drop paratroopers behind the enemy lines so the
French and British armies found themselves in the impossible position of having to fight both in front and behind them. This was to become known as the Blitzkrieg. The French had no alternative but to surrender and the British Army had no alternative but to disengage and make the best way they could to the Coast. Most of them converged on Dunkirk where they were eventually picked up by ships of the Royal Navy and all sorts of pleasure boats which rallied to the rescue.
The Home Guard
In the meantime, this country was virtually unguarded as most of the regular army were in the Expeditionary Force, in France.
That is when and why the Home Guard was formed.
At this point it is necessary to correct some mistaken ideas about the Home Guard. In 1940 and 1941, the men of the Home Guard went about their duties very seriously indeed. Most of them were veterans of the Great War and were seasoned soldiers who had been under fire in the trenches just over 20 years before.
The ‘Dad’s Army’ attitude came much later on when there was no further danger and most of the able-bodied men had been called up for other duties.
The present writer was not a soldier in the Great War, but had a lot of experience of it He joined the Boy Scouts in 1915 and eventually had the Hundred Days War Service Badge for work as an orderly in military hospitals, sphagnum moss gathering on the moors (for field dressings) etc His qualifications for an early call-up into the Evington Home Guard Platoon were that he had been a member of the London Scottish Territorials from 1919 to 1931 and had done a lot of rifle shooting at Bisley in Pirbright – the Guards Shooting Range.
Immediately after joining the Evington Platoon, he went for a fortnight’s refresher course with the Leicestershire Regiment at Glen Parva Barracks He was then appointed Sergeant Instructor of the Platoon.
The writer had come to live in Evington Village in 1936 and by 1940 was very well acquainted with the surrounding district.
Since most of the recruits for the Platoon lived nearer the town, the most important task was to familiarise them, as quickly as possible, with the area they had to guard.. This area stretch from where the Waitrose now is (now Tesco off Ethel Road) to Stoughton Church and from the Convent (now Krishna Avanti Primary School) to the rising ground in Shady Lane, beyond the brook. That is, it was about two miles long by one and a third of a mile wide, or about 1700 acres in extent.
The Headquarters of the Platoon was at Evington House, where Evington Park now is. At that time the house and the estate belonged to Mr. Tom Trevor Sawday, whose wife, Constance, was the daughter of Alderman Wakerley. Mr Sawday was an architect by profession He had no military background but was well known as one of the founders of the Leicester Aero Club, along with Roy Wynn of Wynn’s Cafes and Harry Purt of Leicester Chamber of Commerce.
The Officer in Command was Lieutenant MacCrory who had previously been a regular soldier and who had married the daughter of Alderman Hawkes. He dealt with administration and parade matters. The Second in Command was Mr. Sawday and under these were Sergeant Instructor Mackintosh and Quartermaster Sergeant Arthur Gorbold – in charge of stores, uniforms, rifles, etc.
In order to provide a quick means of instruction to the recruits on the lay of the land, which had to be guarded, the writer decided to make a sand table on the scale of 36 inches to the mile This meant a table of 6 feet long and 4 feet wide with a 4 -inch surrounding edge. This he had made at Hawkes, the Shopfitters. Instead of sand, however, he obtained moulder’s clay from S. Russell & Sons Ltd., Bath Lane. The table was supported on two trestles.
Then came the problem of getting hold of suitable maps of the district. When the dire threat of a German invasion was in everyone’s mind, the first thing which was done was to remove all signs of identification from shops and business premises and all maps of a larger scale than 1″ to the mile became unobtainable. Six -inch maps to the mile were eventually obtained after high level representations were made through Battalion Headquarters at Magazine in Newarke.
After the writer, rather laboriously, enlarged these to 12 inches to the mile, his colleague, the quartermaster Sergeant, who lived in Whitehall Road, said that he could make a photographic plate of the 12 inch map and then project this onto a 6 feet by 4 feet sheet of paper and his daughter-in-law, who was an art teacher, could outline in all the details.
We now had a 6 feet by 4 feet, 36 inches to one mile,map, and when we started to transfer the details to the table, there were so may persons interested in what was going on that we had volunteers who said that they would make houses and others that they would make trees and others who would make hedges and gates and the local builder said he would make the roads. Roger Butterworth, the dentist, set about manipulating the clay to form the contours which we had decided would be on a scale of 1″ to fifty feet. The highest point was on Spencefield Lane and was just 100 feet above the brook on Shady Lane.
The writer discovered some green powder in Woolworths which was intended for putting out incendiary bombs but was also a perfect grass colour. The finished model was so realistic that it looked as though the district was being viewed from an aeroplane. A numbered and lettered grid was then added and each section leader was given a 12-inch map in a leathered case to correspond with the model Instructions could then be given at the model so that we knew where all our men were within a few yards.
The writer had to join the army in December 1941 and was out of the district for nearly 41/2 years.
Sometime after the war he asked Mr. Sawday what had become of the model and he said it was a shame, but the table had been made use of so much and people had been leaning on the unsupported ends, that the clay began to crack. Finally towards the end of the war, it had deteriorated so much that they decided to scrap it.
At any rate, it had served its purpose at the time when it was most needed.
Another of our activities in the early weeks of dire danger was practice in throwing Molotov Cocktails. These were made from petrol and phosphorous and contained in beer bottles. The idea was to throw them at the rubber inner tracks of the German tanks. On impact, the glass would break and the phosphorous would set the petrol alight and so by burning the rubber, immobilise the tank.
We had a road block in front of the old cottage – now called ‘Sand Bank’ on the Stoughton Lane Concrete-lined slots were made in the road and, when necessary, lengths of railway line could be dropped into them and so hold up all traffic on the road. If any of the tank crew got out to remove the rails, there was a firing point in front from which he could be shot. A supply of Molotov Cocktails was kept in the cottage garden and they could be thrown at the tank when it was stationary.
The Battle of Britain
The Germans, after they had consolidated their positions along the coast of Holland, Belgium and France, made their first attempt to invade Britain in September 1940. They were now in a position to send their bomber squadrons from any point along a thousand miles of coast line.
They knew that the British fighter plane strength was quite inadequate to guard against attacks from so many dispersed departure points
And yet, when they sent their bombers over in daylight, they were always met with the full British fighter plane force. This must have been a real puzzle to them.
Mr. Churchill attributed this great success to the gallantry and bravery of the ‘few’. This was certainly very true but it was not the whole story. It was not until much later that the missing factor was disclosed. Britain had a secret weapon and that was Radar.
By means of Radar, we could learn well in advance, where the planes were coming from and in what numbers. Consequently, our fighter planes could be sent to the appropriate interception points in adequate strength instead of being otherwise dispersed to protect many possible points of entry.
When the Germans realised that daylight bombing was a dead loss, they then turned to night bombing and that was the beginning of the Blitz.
The War comes to Evington
It was on the evening of 19th November 1940, that Leicester was seriously bombed for the first time, and it was really devastating so far as both sides of London Road Railway Station were concerned. They didn’t actually hit the railway, but Highfields was very badly hit, particularly Titchbourne Street and Saxby Street, where there were hundreds of deaths. On the other side of the railway, Freeman, Hardy & Willis’s warehouse in Rutland Street was burnt down, as were Lulhams in Charles Street and Arthur Kemps in Dover Street, along with many others. The resultant fires could be seen very clearly from Evington.
The next night, 20th November 1940, was the second serious blitz, but there were very few casualties.
A string of bombs were dropped in Evington. The first one landed in the back field where Goodwood Road, Gifford Close and Spencefield Drive now are. The next one fell in St Denys Road and burst the water main. Very shortly afterwards, Main Street, Evington was flooded to knee height and it was some time before they managed to shut off the escaping water.
The next bomb fell where Cordery Road now is. The next one on the other side of Evington House, where the cricket pitches now are, and the last fell in the fields where Headland Road now is.
A land mine landed in Victoria Park and the ornate pavilion, which used to be the grand stand for the Race Course, when it was there, was demolished and most of the surrounding windows in London Road, Victoria Park Road and Granville Road were broken by the blast.
Another land mine was dropped in St. Saviours Road, near Mellor Bromleys, Gents and Steels & Busks. Very little damage appears to have been done but a lot of people were so frightened that they came up to stay with their friends and relations in Evington to get away from it all.
2nd World War Bomber Crash
On the morning of 10th April, 1941, the writer was in Birmingham on business and when he returned to Evington about 1.00pm he saw a number of fire engines and ambulances near Errington’s Garage. (Errington’s Garage was situated on Main Street, in Evington.)
On his arrival home, his wife told him that Mr. Sawday (The architect who owned Evington House, which is now in Evington Park), wanted him urgently. She then said, rather excitedly, that a large plane had passed over the house about three times, each time getting lower, and she had heard that it had finally crashed near Evington House.
On arrival at Evington House, Mr. Sawday told him briefly what had happened. The plane was a Hampden Bomber with a crew of five aboard. Four had been killed outright and the rear gunner was still alive but critically injured.
Mr. Sawday said he had a most important meeting to attend in town and must leave immediately. He wanted Mr. Macintosh to get together some of our men to guard the plane and keep the general public away.
The first thing the writer did was to look at the wreck which was in the field where Cordery Road now is. He then looked towards the out-buildings of Evington House and noticed a hole in the roof of the double-storied building. The ground floor of this building housed a model of the district and everything seemed in order there When he went upstairs, however, he found two bombs lying side by side on the loft floor. This was rather an alarming discovery so he immediately went to the house and told Mrs. Sawday and recommended that she and the two maids find somewhere else to stay for the time being ,and this they did right away.
When he had got his team together and given them their instructions, he returned to him own house and found his wife, who was expecting, most anxious to get to the Maternity Home which was in Clarendon Park.
Since there was some more urgent work to be done with regard to the wrecked plane, he got Mr. Soar – the proprietor of Soar’s Garage – to take his wife to the Maternity Home.
The story behind the crash then began to unfold itself. The pilot of the bomber knew a young lady who lived in St. Denys Road and he was showing-off, presumably with the expectation of attracting her attention. On the final run, he just missed the writer’s house and then hit the chimney of the house in St. Denys Road. The occupant of this house was a Mrs. Harris, who had been recently married. Previously she was well known as the daughter of Mr. Cotton, the, then, newsagent in the Village.
Mrs. Harris was out in the back garden, presumably alerted by all the noise, when the plane hit the chimney of her house and she was killed by the falling bricks. It also caused the plane to tip forward and crash with the fatal results, as mentioned.
The writer was eventually able to get to the Maternity Home about 6.00pm, just after the baby, a son, was born.
About 8.00pm, a detachment of King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, under a Lieutenant, arrived and took charge of the wrecked plane and that is where our involvement ended. And so ended a very hectic day.
- Day
In June 1944, shortly after D.Day, the writer, who was then an officer in a Transport Company R.A.S.C. was given the duty of collecting a series of searchlights – spaced at 10-mile intervals – from locations near Cambridge up to Peterborough and then to a final position in a field between Thurnby, Evington and Stoughton. There were a sergeant and 10 men with bell tents and the searchlight and generator at each site and it required one lorry to tow the searchlights and another vehicle for the generator
It was while he was engaged on this duty that he learned what the searchlights had been used for.
Stoughton Aerodrome was started to be laid out in the latter part of 1941 with the object of being the starting point for an eventual invasion of Europe. In 1944, it was allocated to the American Airborne Division. Their means of transport were Dakota aircraft – each carrying 20 men. Most of the pilots had not had proper navigational training, so the searchlights were used as beacons to guide them all the way to the Normandy beach-head. A further series of searchlights took over from Cambridge southwards to the South Coast and small ships with searchlights at 10-mile intervals completed the beacon path for the rest of the way to Normandy.
The writer, after the assembly of the vehicles at Peterborough, then proceeded in convoy to Retford on the Great North Road in Nottinghamshire, where he was informed that he had to wait there with the full complement of vehicles, searchlights, etc. and men, to await further instructions.
He learned, unofficially, that the new scheme was to place the search-lights at a similar series of 10-mile intervals, right up to the Yorkshire Coast, when another airborne invasion would be undertaken into North Germany.
After waiting about a week, the writer was recalled with his vehicles for another more urgent assignment. The searchlights, generators and searchlight crews were thus left behind at Retford and so far as is known, were never used for the purpose contemplated.
Aftermath – the 20 Club
The other great activity for adults during the 1939-45 War was Civil Defence. Two local people concerned with this activity became great friends. These were, Frank Exton and Wilfred Fulford. They used to regularly discuss current affairs during long night duty hours together.
After the War, they decided to form an organisation in which others could also join in the discussions and this they called the ’20 Club’.
It was formed in November 1947 and met initially at Snowden’s Cafe in Main Street The cafe was the upstairs room over Snowden’s Sweet Shot in the building now occupied by the Mark Jarvis Betting Shop. (Now an Estate Agent’s shop). Frank Eton became the President and Wilford Fulford the first secretary. The meetings were to be held fortnightly with a different Chairman each time and each member in turn was to be responsible for opening the evening’s discussion.
It took some time for the full complement of members to be recruited and it was not until the third meeting, in January 1948, that the present writer became a member.
This was in the days before television and it was not long after when the desired number of members was reached and thereafter, there was actually a waiting list.
There were two strict rules: 1. If a member failed to notify the Secretary of absence on two occasions in succession, he was asked to resign. And 2. If in spite of sending apologies, the member did not attend 50% of the meetings in one year, he was also asked to resign.
It was a remarkably well-run organisation, so much so, that after over 20 years in existence, there were still 10 of the original members regularly attending. They were beginning to get rather old however and since T.V. was becoming a strong competing attraction, it was decided in 1969, very regretfully, to disband. And we never once had an outside speaker.
This paper was kept safely in the files of Mr. Chapman. He has agreed that it can be forwarded to anyone who is trusted to agree to share it for community benefit and not for profit. It will be of particular interest to the members of Evington’s Local History group.
