EXTRACTS: The Art of Denis McLoughlin © 2013 The Book Palace (272 PAGES in Full edition)

19 ale, art and air raids wartime experiences W e had no Ack-ack guns at the camp so a seating form was used as a gun. It is therefore hardly surprising that, when we got the Bo- fors guns and went across the bleak moors to Penhale, we never hit the target, which was a long sleeve pulled by a plane. I was a “layer” and we sure layed an egg when it came to good shooting. Always surprised me tha, when behind a clocksight watching tracer go up, it always appears to go in a curve - suppose it’s because the gun is being swivelled to follow the target. Things weren’t bad there until the retreat from Dunkirk. We’d had sheets on the beds but these were whipped away to give to the veterans who were in pretty bad shape. War was real and they scared the pants off us “those effing German 88’s and they weren’t effing going back.” Phew! In hindsight, if we had used our three point seven and four point five ack-ack guns, which are almost identical to the German 88’s, as field guns and not kept them pointing up into the sky, the Panzer 1’s and 2’s the Germans were using at this time would have been reduced to scrap metal, as they weren’t much good. Like, Dunkirk might never have happened. Next stop was under canvas at a camp near Aldershot. At this dump a guy in the tent had feet that were nobody’s business. The unrelenting pong was disgusting so we let him have the tent to himself and we all slept out- side. You get freezing cold mornings in Aldershot. Whilst here an artist was called for, so, as I would volunteer for anything safe, they had me paint- ing the rhinos on the vehicles of the 101st Light Ack-Ack and Anti-Tank Regiment (It later became the 1st Armoured Brigade). About June a large number of us were thrown out of this elite mess and arrived at the Royal Ar- tillery Depot at Woolwich. There were thousands of swaddies (not squad- dies as they say today) at this place and we were told it was the safest place to be: “Just look at the effing balloon barrage.” (At this point I must state that during all my army career I never cursed or used obscenities as folk who knew me will confirm. Whether this came from a good upbringing or my just being contrary I couldn’t say.) On September 7, 1940, the “Safe Place” lost that status. I, with others, was on guard-mounting parade on South Arch parade ground when more planes than could be imagined came in from the south. Luckily we had just finished making trenches on the edge of Woolwich Common and we really dived in when we heard the machine guns of what I believe were the Stukas. Think the balloons were the targets but it seemed safer to keep our ABOVE: Self portrait: Gunner McLoughlin in 1943.