Guest author - me!
Nov. 6th, 2017 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneWhen I was sending out questions to my fellow Call to Arms authors, one of them (Julie Bozza?) asked me to answer the same ones myself. So here we go.
What inspired your story?
Several things. The kukri that my dad owned (he’d fought in Burma alongside them although I don’t think he brought this weapon home with him) which now lives under the spare bed. The bomb crater that’s in the woods about a mile from here – our house is on a bomb alley for dropping unused ordnance after an attack on Southampton docks. Last, but by no means least, is the war grave I tend, that of Billy Clegg-Hill. How I ended up looking after it, given his history and mine is either an extremely felicitous coincidence or a piece of divine intervention.
Do you have a family connection to WWII?
My dad was just too young to sign up in 1939 so went into the TA. He then joined the regulars, served on Tyneside (where he met my Mum) and was posted to the far east. Like many soldiers, he didn’t speak much about his experiences, except on a relatively trivial level, like stories about snakes so thin they got into your boots. Some of Dad’s comments made it into my story.
My uncle Bill was involved in the Arnhem campaign and my uncle Les also signed up towards the end of the war.
Is there a local connection to WWII where you live?
In a word, loads. I could fill several blog posts with stories just concerning what happened at the local school. I was fortunate enough a few years back to read the old school log books, and they painted a vivid – and poignant – picture of life at the time. There were around 40 air raids recorded and one child is said to have died of fright several days after experiencing a raid en route to school. There were US troops billeted in the woods at Toothill – a pair of them went AWOL and broke into the school, stealing food and cutlery. Most tellingly, the local roads saw huge movements of vehicles in the lead up to D-day.
What inspired your story?
Several things. The kukri that my dad owned (he’d fought in Burma alongside them although I don’t think he brought this weapon home with him) which now lives under the spare bed. The bomb crater that’s in the woods about a mile from here – our house is on a bomb alley for dropping unused ordnance after an attack on Southampton docks. Last, but by no means least, is the war grave I tend, that of Billy Clegg-Hill. How I ended up looking after it, given his history and mine is either an extremely felicitous coincidence or a piece of divine intervention.
Do you have a family connection to WWII?
My dad was just too young to sign up in 1939 so went into the TA. He then joined the regulars, served on Tyneside (where he met my Mum) and was posted to the far east. Like many soldiers, he didn’t speak much about his experiences, except on a relatively trivial level, like stories about snakes so thin they got into your boots. Some of Dad’s comments made it into my story.
My uncle Bill was involved in the Arnhem campaign and my uncle Les also signed up towards the end of the war.
Is there a local connection to WWII where you live?
In a word, loads. I could fill several blog posts with stories just concerning what happened at the local school. I was fortunate enough a few years back to read the old school log books, and they painted a vivid – and poignant – picture of life at the time. There were around 40 air raids recorded and one child is said to have died of fright several days after experiencing a raid en route to school. There were US troops billeted in the woods at Toothill – a pair of them went AWOL and broke into the school, stealing food and cutlery. Most tellingly, the local roads saw huge movements of vehicles in the lead up to D-day.
