Forward Assist

Dennis Metcallfe (89)

“When I was about five years old I remember going round the streets with the other kids looking for bits of shrapnel to collect. It was like finding treasure, and I’d keep it till it went rusty. We’d explore in places we weren’t supposed to go. I found shells and even part of a rocket once.

After the war I did my National Service in the Army and went to Italy and Egypt. It taught me to look after myself and keep my uniform smart. I thought it was smashing! The food was good but I couldn’t afford to drink because I would send most of my wages home to my mother.”

Harry (Brother-in-law of Dennis)

“In 1952 when I was 18 I was called up to do my National Service. I joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and served with the 4th Hussars Regiment.

For a while I served in Belsen camp in Germany. It was such a sad, eerie place. We’d take a tank out on tests every day into the middle of the pine forest. There were sign posts up, just like a ‘No Trespass’ sign but they said: 5000 buried here, 3000 buried here. We’d get out of the tanks for a smoke and there were no birds at all, no sign of anything. It was deathly silent.”

Joyce Millett (90)

“I was in the Land Army. We worked out in the fields. It was hard work. We had to feed you lot!

I went to school around Grove Hill. My husband was in the RAF.”

Jimmy Kirk (90)

“Just after the war I was in an Able Seaman in the Navy. I went to Jamaica, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Gibraltar and served on the HMS Paladin. They were happy days. We’d get a small cup of rum every day, which we called sippers or grog.”

Margaret Kirk (90)

“I was a volunteer Police woman in lodgings in Bedale.”

Marjorie Roberts (90)

“My Dad served with the Bantam Regiment during World War 1. He was injured during The Battle of the Somme, losing a leg and sent home for medical care.

During World War Two I served in the Women’s Land Army. Once I was married I followed my husband Theo to his various postings, including Turkey. My Mam was a widow and I wouldn’t leave her on her own so she came with us wherever we went. She didn’t mind travelling as long as we went with her.

When I gave birth to our son Jeff, Theo came home to see his new-born. He was put on a charge of desertion because he hadn’t got permission to leave the base.”

Vera Sparks (93)

“I served in the Women’s Auxiliary Force between 1942 and 1946. It was a big thing to serve your country in those days and I wanted to do my thing. I was a cook at Thornaby Aerodrome. I enjoyed being with the lads, serving them their food. I would wave off the young airmen as they left in their aeroplanes, never knowing if they’d return again.

I was also stationed in Alness, Invergordon for about three years. The people were very sociable. The villagers used to come out and wave to us, I felt very safe there. I remember in August 1942 we had a very special visitor: Prince George, the Duke of Kent. We waved him off but were shocked to hear his plane had crashed further north at Caithness.

After the war I went back home to look after my father, but I missed the company.”

Sheila (Vera’s Niece)

“I was brought up in London and I remember helping my Mum hang out washing on the line when the Germans were coming to bomb the railway sidings down the bottom of the road.

We were bombed seven times. One time I was in bed with Mum and we heard the alarm going off. We were sick of hearing it so we didn’t go to a shelter. Mum said, ‘We’ll stay here, your Dad’s on fire watch.’ So we stayed in bed and a bomb hit. The roof came in and the widows came in and Mum pulled up the covers and we hid underneath.”

One of the German pilots leant out of his cockpit and at the women in the street. Everybody was terrified, nobody could move. I remember the noise of the bullets pinging off the tin baths in the back yards.”