HUNSTANTON WARTIME MEMORIES OF A SMALL BOY

By Kingsley Pearce

The Military Display – The Great Panjandrum, Blacker Bombard and Machine guns

On some Sunday mornings during the war it was not unusual for the Hunstanton Home Guard unit to parade at the top of the Green outside the Town Hall.  This parade was always of interest to us for as small boys, we knew the identity of the khaki dressed soldiers and their civilian activities during the working week. Their uniform, however, was not quite the same as we now see on TV’s Dads’ Army.  Also we might see the St. John Ambulance Brigade parading, and very smart they were too in their uniforms. Dr W.E.H.  Bull was the Divisional Surgeon of the Brigade, grandfather; J.T. Woods was Ambulance Officer, and in the nature of an NCO, a very smart Sergeant Rutter.  I still have a photograph of one such parade.

The special Sunday morning for us was when there was a military display of weaponry from a number of troops that were then in the Town.  The troops were very often those returning to the country from a theatre of operations and occupying many empty private houses and larger premises such as for example the Glebe Hotel at that time in Northgate, Convalescent Homes, and some large properties on the Cliffs.

The Blacker Bombard

Back to the Display, at the top of the Green and opposite to the Town Hall, there was a strange looking weapon in place.  The weapon could best be described as having the appearance of what looked like a short length of very wide drainpipe for a barrel, being set low on the ground and mounted on four wide spaced legs spread out from underneath, and having the sinister appearance of a giant spider.  I was told that the very smartly dressed officer that I could see, with a red band around his cap, red tabs on his lapels, Sam Brown belt, and having on his shoulder tabs the insignia of a crown and pips, which indicated to me that he was a Staff Officer and held the rank of Colonel, was by name in fact Colonel Blacker, the inventor of the spider looking squat contraption, which was a form of mortar.  Hence it being called a “Blacker Bombard”

There were also about six trench mortars and their teams on the Green, to the right of the market cross together with four or six large machine guns.  All the weapons looked as if they were to be fired as ammunition was in evidence.  They did fire, the first one being the Blacker Bombard.  This weapon had been sited just to the left of the stone cross, and appeared to be aimed at the large area of open beach to the left of the Pier.  That part of the beach effectively being screened off, as it were, by scaffolding that ran underneath the Pier, and then turning to run south to the sewer outfall at the hump.

The projectiles fired by the Blacker Bombard seemed to spiral through the air leaving a thin curl of black smoke in their tracks.  I was left with the distinct impression that the weapon might be just as dangerous to those firing it as it was to those on the receiving end.  I believe that later the weapon was said to have been used mainly by the Home Guard.

The Trench Mortars

The next weapons to be fired were the trench mortars  The bombs from the Mortars falling to the right of the Pier down onto the beach.  I was told that the expertise of the men was obvious from the fact that when firing, each of the mortar teams managed to get several bombs into the air before the first bomb fired came down.  Indeed they made it look very simple, the mortar teams rapidly and expertly placing bomb after bomb into the mortar in swift succession. The bombs sailing gracefully high up into the air with perhaps three or four bombs trailing and being in the air at the same time.

The Machine Guns

The machine guns were next to be fired onto the beach from the right hand side of the cross. At that time from the lower part of the Green to the right of the Pier, across the lower pathway and before coming to the steps then down to the promenade, there was an area of hard surface, with some seats and an ornamental block stonewall overlooking the promenade.  This area was accessed by a continuous run of about four steps down from the lower path of the Green, in effect serving as a roof of the promenade shelters being immediately below.  The machine guns all opened fire together clattering away, and you could see that they were firing down from the higher Green, to the right of the Pier and onto the beach.  As impressive as it was, the hail of bullets were nevertheless hitting the top of the ornamental wall, and raising a cloud of chippings into the air, nearly along the whole of its length. As impressive as it was to me as a small boy, the murderous power of those guns was a sobering sight.

The Great Panjandrum

Perhaps the most interesting, but puzzling contraption of the day was however the “Great Panjandrum”.  The device looked like two enormous spoked wheels, joined together by a short thick centre hub, and to be about the same height as that of the Pier.  This giant wheel had appeared on the beach, from just off from the promenade, and to the left of the Pier. From the edge of each wheel, where the spokes joined the rims it looked as if very large fireworks, or rockets had been ignited, with a mass of sparks pouring out of each one to provide its driving power.  The wheel moved sedately forward on the beach in a straight line, and began to pick up speed.  All spectacular and exciting, the giant wheel propelling itself along belching a trail of firework looking sparks from all around each of its wheel spokes, then turned in a circle, followed by a second tighter circle, and then fell over with sparks still pouring out.  Had it been a display for November the 5^th no doubt it would have stolen the show.  However, I wonder to this very day what ever could have been the possible destructive military purpose of the “Great Panjandrum”?