For Jack Lock, who was living in Faversham when I met him, the first phase of the War brought him close to death, but ended in romance, and meeting the woman to whom he was married for 58 years.
He was already a member of the Territorial Army, and working for a gas company in Sevenoaks, when war was declared. He told his manager: “I’m off,” and dashed home to get into uniform.
“When I got there my two sisters were busily polishing the buttons, and my mum was in tears,” he said. “I was with the 4th Battalion of the Royal West Kents and stayed with them throughout the War.
“I had been told by an old soldier that if I got the chance of an office job I should take it. So, when the sergeant called out: ‘Anybody got office experience?’ up went my hand.
“I think I got the best job in the army – quartermaster’s clerk. We went to Axminster, in Devon, training for several months, and I was looking after the stores, food, money and just about everything. My job was to feed people, pay them and clothe them so I didn’t have to do much training.”
The crossing from Southampton to France was a rough one, and most of the battalion was sick. As they disembarked at Calaise, the men were in pairs, each carrying a box of ammunition. Soon they were heading into Belgium, towards the ancient city of Oudenaarde, on the River Scheldt.
It was there they became aware of the attacking German forces who announced their presence with a barrage of shells. “We got the command to move, and started heading back the way we had come,” said Jack. “We had to destroy our truck to prevent it getting into enemy hands. We did this by putting grenades under the bonnet.
“I don’t know how far we walked after that but it was a long way, sometimes on the road, sometimes off it, to bypass the many refugees that were on the move. At last, we got back to the shores of Dunkirk. By then we had eaten all our rations, so we were hungry.
“All we had to give us cover were the bushes. By now the Germans were shelling and machine gunning us. We lost a lot of men. I was very lucky not to get hit.
“On the beach we were divided into groups of 50. The plan was to get onto a boat. There was a boat high and dry on the beach. The captain told us: ‘Put your kit on board. Then with you lot pushing and me revving the engine we can probably get off, and I can take you away.’
“Quite a lot of us were at the side of the boat all pushing. The tide was coming in so there was water all around us. One chap was just ahead of me, so close he was touching my chest.
“A shell burst up on the right hand side of us and this chap just sank beneath the waves. He was killed outright. But I wasn’t touched.
“I saw a boat from one of the destroyers about 100 yards of shore and decided to swim out to it. They hauled me on board and took me out to HMS Ivanhoe. I climbed one of the ladders up the side of the ship, but when I got to the top, didn’t have enough energy to get over the rail.
“Fortunately, a big sailor saw me and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, lifted me over the rail and dropped me onto the deck. Otherwise I think I would just have dropped back into the water, I was so exhausted.”
Jack was taken to the torpedo operators’ mess and given mugs of coffee, bully-beef sandwiches and mugs of tea.”
Back in England Jack was given a couple of days leave and spent them with his family. On a visit to a pub with his dad, a postman, he was berated by another postman who told him he should be in the army. “You ought to have heard my dad,” said Jack. “He went through the roof. This chap decided to get out sharpish.”
The Battalion was moved to Birmingham, and on a walk, Jack happened to run into an old friend, Ted Collins, who joined up at the same time as him. Neither was aware if the other had survived or been killed or captured.
He was then transferred to a quartermasters’ stores in a village outside Birmingham. Not much was happening, so Jack accompanied the quartermaster’s batman, who was walking into the village to meet a girlfriend. The girlfriend introduced Jack to her friend, who was holding a bike at the time.
“I called her the girl with the bike ever afterwards,” said Jack. “I invited her to our battalion dance. She declined at first but when I arrived, she was there. And that was it. Her name was Marion, and we were married on April 18th 1942.
But within three weeks I was posted overseas. I didn’t see her again for three years. But we remained married for 58 years. We had three kids, two boys and a girl.