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This story has been submitted by Helen Hughes of the People's War team in Wales on behalf of Sid Shorten...and is added with his permission.
HAVERINGLAND (Norfolk) camp 18
Tuesday December 30, 1941 to Friday December 18,1942
A tiny hamlet of four or five cottages and the large Hall with extensive grounds and a big lake; Two miles on the Norwich side of Cawston and 8 miles from the City. One bus each weekday passed the lodge gate which was at the end of a very long drive. A daily truck was laid on into the City and once we were settled in it was announced that married personnel with homes in the area could have sleeping out passes. My Sister Helen鈥檚 house was empty on Magpie Road so I quickly made arrangements to take it over. She was away in Scotland with her Husband; he had been rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk and was likely to be in Scotland for quite a long time.Douggie was a gunner sergeant with the 3rd. British Division. So within a week or two Jean arrived and we set up our first home. The previous unit at the Hall had been the 288th. Company R.E. which I had been near to joining when first called up.
The daily truck was no use with the sleeping out pass so once again my bike came into play, with working in the kitchens it was shift work, early morning till after the midday meal one week then afternoon till supper the next so the bicycle meant I could get home every day. During this year in Norfolk my cyclometer registered 4800 miles.
The cooks and HQ platoon occupied the Hall with the Officers and Senior NCOs; the rest of the Company were in Nissen huts in the grounds. The Company worked on training schemes and on construction work at various sites and aerodromes in the area. Everything was going fine, I was know finding the biking easy my legs had got used to it and we were happy in what now felt like our home when on the night of April 27th. I had been on late duty and so had not gone home, at around midnight we heard the sound of aircraft and then the noise of bombs exploding, this went on for quite a time and those of us with families wanted to go into the City but the CO had the gates locked and doubled the guard, as he said there was nothing we could do other than get in the way of those whose job it was. On the afternoon of the 28th. he gave us the OK to go; the damage was extensive, the City station and Heigham Street School were totally destroyed, Edwards and Holmes shoe factory on Drayton road was gone, the front windows of my parents鈥� house were smashed but otherwise they were OK. Many houses in the Heigham street area were destroyed or severely damaged. I found Jean at my parents she had gone to check on them. I returned to camp next morning the 29th. it had been a quiet night, the lull before the storm. That night saw a bigger raid with firebombs as well as high explosives. We had been kept in camp that night again but were allowed to go during the morning.
The Odeon Cinema had received a direct hit and with the resulting blast the front of our houses on Magpie Road had been badly damaged, the windows and frames were gone as was the front door, these houses had to be boarded up until such time as repair crews could get round to them and that would be many months. As soon as the sirens had sounded the warning Jean had got dressed and roused the old couple next door taking them to the street shelter nearby, they had spent the night there.
With the house boarded up we moved in with my parents for the rest of the time I was at Norwich. The City centre was a shambles with several big stores burnt out; Buntings store was destroyed by a bomber crashing into it, the stores safe was salvaged later but could not be opened, two of our men offered to have a go, (this was a few days later the Company were employed on salvage work in the City) they got it open and the firm put some cash in the Company funds. Our men had had professional experience in Liverpool. The roof of the Cathedral Cloisters had been saved from firebombs by prompt action by firewatchers on the roof. These air raids became known as the Baedeker raids, in the two nights 231 people died and almost 700 were injured.
Norwich had 44 air raids in total the first on July 9th. 1940. the last one on November 6th. 1943, when the war started Norwich had just over 35500 houses at the end 30300 had been damaged or destroyed.

Jean now had to register for work and was sent to Colmans to work in their box department, this was her first experience of factory work but as usual she soon made friends and said she enjoyed being there.
In July the Company went off on a 4 week manoeuvre, I was left behind to cook for the rear party of 16 who were to keep the camp in good shape. I arranged for Jean to come over on the Saturday morning bus with the idea of her getting the afternoon bus back and I would follow later after doing the teas. She had a meal and met some of the men she had known from the paper shop days at Prudhoe; we made our way down to the lodge gate in time to see the only bus disappearing down the road. The only alternative was to get my bike when I had done the tea and with Jean on the crossbar we set off; it was hard going for both of us, she was about ten & a half stone at that time. The road was fairly flat apart from two places where we were glad to walk for a while.
Early in September I got home about 6pm. and Jean had not arrived I waited until near 8pm. and was just leaving to go into the City to make enquiries when she turned up with her head bandaged. There had been a lone plane come over with no alert and had dropped a bomb at Colmans, she had finished work and was at the bus stop they had turned to go for shelter when she banged into the road sign,(in those days they were a 鈥漈鈥� shaped steel post) her head was cut over her left eye. This was in King Street, when the bus came the conductress saw the blood and cut and had told the driver to go via the hospital so she could get it attended to, after getting treatment she had then caught a bus home. Next morning she was up for work and would not be put off going; it was the same gutsyness she showed all through her life.
While at Haveringland we had our first casualty, it was normal for one of the guards to light the fires in the ovens and Soyer stoves between 6 and 6-30, the stoves were in an open shelter outside the building and could be a job to get started at times. On this morning the guard had trouble and had gone to where there was a store of Molotov cocktail bottles, the idea was to sprinkle a little drop into each of the 6 stoves and then light them. It seems that he did that but did not put the bottle away before lighting the first stove there was a flash back and he dropped the bottle and was immediately smothered in flames. We rushed out to help him he had run to the wash room and thrown water on to himself as we got there to help. The medics were there quickly and he was rushed to hospital but unfortunately he died two days later. At the board of enquiry an order was given to place the Molotov鈥檚 in a secure location.
Early in December we learned that the Hall was going to be demolished as part of another aerodrome for the American airforce. This became Swannington airbase instead of Haveringland because Churchill had been a frequent visitor to the Hall pre-war and the powers that be thought Haveringland would draw more attention from the Luftwaffe. So once more we were on the move.

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