Page 127 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

At first the war was very much “overseas” in Europe where Hitler was invading one

country after another, and we would hear the grim news that they had fallen to the enemy

one by one. Every day our radio in its large wooden cabinet would carry the BBC news
followed by Radio Newsreel. Their reporters, such as Richard Dimbleby, became

household names to us as we gathered round to hear progress of the war, made vivid to us
by sound effects and stirring music to convey the drama of it all. At first nothing much

seemed to happen in Britain itself during the time of the Phoney War, but we heard of the
fall of Western European countries with deep concern as the theatre of war got nearer to

the English Channel.

Meanwhile our boys were sent up to East Africa and became involved in the Abyssinian

Campaign. This did not affect my peer group as we as young teenagers continued to laze

around on St. James beach in the summer holidays and at weekends – those who were
locals as well as regulars from up the line. Now that I think of it there was a distinct dearth

of boys in their late teens and twenties. As the war continued our older brothers and their
friends would disappear into training in the army, navy and airforce as they left school, and

they would reappear from time to time in uniform.

There was plenty to remind us, even at St. James and Kalk Bay, that there was a war on.

There were the blackouts, now and then total but mostly dim-outs where we were, with our
parents putting up black paper blinds on our windows to cut out the light. Situated on False

Bay and near the Simon’s Town naval base, this was obligatory, especially as any attack
that might come was expected to come from the sea. There were visiting ships lying in or

off Simon’s Town which were clearly visible to us. We were told not to discuss shipping
movements by the slogan “Don’t talk about ships or shipping” in case we might be aiding

enemy agents to pass on this information. When men came on embarkation leave their

movements were kept suitably vague to fool the enemy too. My mother and I were nicely
caught out in an early total blackout when we wandered down from Moselle Road to the

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