A Few Days at the Seaside, A Cautionary Tale.©2009
This story is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the owner. ©2009 Andrew Jonathan Frizzell on behalf of the estate of John George Frizzell. All Rights Reserved.
A Few days at the seaside. A cautionary tale.
Written by Jack Frizzell, additional material Andy Frizzell
We are coming up to the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation in may/june 1940.
My father's story started in April 1939 when he signed up to the Territorial Army. Here are some of his words from his memoir of events as written in his short story "A few days at the seaside"
Authors Note:
Over the course of a few days at the end of May in 1940, the mass evacuation of over 250,000 troops took place at Dunkirk.
What is written here is a personal history of a small group of young men, who were part of that number. They were all Drivers in "A" Section of the Royal Army Service Corps Ammunition Company, 144 Brigade, of the 48th Division of the British Expeditionary Force in France.
They were Territorial Army volunteers, mainly of the 18 to 19 years age group, naive and long-suffering under poor and amateurish leadership. Those who survived those few hectic days in May 1940 went on to serve in other units in many campaigns in different theatres of war. Due to their youth on enlistment they were not de-mobilised until the early summer of 1946, a seven-year term of service none of them had anticipated when they signed on in April 1939 for... "Four years with the colours".
Many never came home. Some transferred in 1940 to the Royal Air Force and won distinction as pilots during the D-Day landings in 1944. Others flew with Bomber Command and lost their lives.
This narrative is factual, and every incident described actually occurred.
JACK FRIZZELL. May 1st 1988
"They are all gone into the world of light,
And I alone sit lingering here,
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear."
TO THOSE WHO COVERED THE RETREAT AND NEVER CAME HOME.
THE PREFACE ... "YOU ARE RECOMMENDED" ............"
A group of apprentices gathered around the Austin Motor Company notice board to read a brief message from the Apprentices Superintendent Mr. Marsh.
"There is no exemption for technical apprenticeships and associated studies from the present compulsory six months term of Militia Service except for those who accept equivalent alternative training. You are therefore recommended to join a local Territorial Army unit, and arrangements will be made for medical inspections and enrolment at the North Works canteen next Saturday afternoon."
Most of us were attending technical college studying engineering, and six months militia service away from home would be a serious disruption to our three-year course. So it was the Territorial Army for us.
Enrolment Saturday was Cup Final day - 29th. April 1939. Wolves vs Portsmouth. We worked on Saturday mornings, but finished at half past twelve and made our way across the railway footbridge at the Longbridge works to the North canteen where a large number of apprentices were already gathered, being called by name into line for medical inspection.
We hoped that the procedures to receive the King's Shilling were not too long, as we had a fair way to cycle home where our priority was to listen to the Cup Final on the wireless. Our medical inspection started. We stood in an embarrassed line with our trousers round our ankles while a scruffy-looking tweed-clad doctor cupped our testicles as we forced a cough then he measured our chests and that was it.
We were fit, and we were in! The enrolment form was hastily signed, and then we grabbed our cycles and were off home to hear how Wolves would fare in the final.
The signing-on had all been swiftly and cursorily completed, but we had noticed a document that carried in fairly small print the words:
"For four years with the colours."
To be continued....
