The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

1,500 acres between Tonbridge and East Grinstead, part of which he farmed
and part of which was leased to tenant farmers. He was a wealthy man, with
servants, a chauffeur and all the trappings of someone of his standing at that
time. ‘You were living in Edwardian times really,’ says Douglas, ‘right up
to the war.’
Douglas had three older brothers who had all gone to Marlborough too;
so had his father and his grandfather before that. Public school could be
harsh, but Douglas loved it – he was surrounded by friends and there was
always plenty of sport to play. ‘It suited me down to the ground,’ he admits.
John Wilson was equally happy at the school too. He was the son of a
distinguished officer in the Indian Police who had risen to become Inspector
General of the Bombay Presidency. Like so many children of colonial
officers, John had been brought up entirely in England, mostly by his
grandparents, although his mother would return home for six months every
year. ‘She couldn’t stand the summer heat,’ says John. However, his father
had retired in 1932, and returning to England had bought a large house in
Hawkhurst.
Shortly after war had been declared, John had taken a telephone
message for his father. ‘Markover,’ the voice had told him. ‘That’s all you
need say, and the time of the message.’ In fact, his father was on the reserve
list for the security service and the message was the signal for him to report
to London immediately. By May 1940, he was working in counterintelligence
at Wormwood Scrubs in west London.
And now his seventeen-year-old son was doing his bit too. The OTC
was run by a retired Lieutenant-Colonel, Bill Harling. New recruits joined
‘D’ Company, then after the first year they entered their house platoon for
further training. There were enough volunteers in the sixth form to base the
Marlborough College LDV on the same house platoon system. ‘I was in B3
House Platoon,’ says John, ‘which in the LDV had a strength of fourteen.
And we were never split up.’
The boys were soon set manning roadblocks on the Bath Road and an
OP (observation post) on Manton Down. The roadblock on the A4 was
created by dragging an old threshing machine halfway across. As incoming
traffic came towards them, they would make the vehicles halt, then check
drivers’ identities, ask a few questions about where they going to and why,
and look underneath their vehicle. ‘There was the threat from both Fifth