Finding the Way in the Dark
Edgar Whitehead was ordered to report to 912 Co R.A.S.C. at Tamworth in Staffordshire. His company would be responsible for servicing all anti-aircraft units in the Birmingham-Coventry area.
Edgar was made Transport Officer on arrival and instructed to reorganize the system, work out milk rounds, reloads and cut out dead mileage. Within a week he was meeting all demands and had vehicles to spare. Putting the whole system on paper the C.O. came down from Chester and ordered copies to be sent out to all other companies.
After the fall of France the demand for more anti-aircraft guns increased. The Army's Anti-Aircraft Command manned about 4000 searchlights 1280 medium and 517 light anti-aircraft guns. All signposts were taken down, but drivers had to know the direct route from the magazine to the gun-sites. To avoid wasting fuel, Edgar took groups of twenty at a time in a three tonner until they could find the way at night without lights. When the night bombing started in earnest this training paid big dividends. Short of maps, Edgar tried to teach Rhodesian style bush navigation, but all the men were town bred.
Edgar volunteered for a parachute troop, but he was too old. The War Office wanted the names of officers with African experience. His C.O. did not want to lose him. Another dreaded medical was on the horizon...
The MO said, "I can't see how you could have been classified A2 on your recruitment. I'm afraid at best I have to classify you as C3."
Edgar appealed. A bargain was struck. "I'll make you A1 on condition you do not ask for a transfer to infantry and after the war you will not make a claim against the Government for war damages to your eyesight."
"Done." Until demobilization in 1945 Edgar never had another medical inspection of his eyes.
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo Credit: Map of Coventry, BBC Coventry History Center, www.976coventrycloseup.jpg