What motivates a young man to prepare to fight a war?

This photograph was taken of John Reed, and his father Edward Reed, by the front door of their family home, in 1933.   John Reed was working for a company of solicitors in London but was poorly paid; £250 per annum plus commission on new business introduced.  It wasn’t long after this time that he started to recognise the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in dominating Germany.  He recorded in his notes about this time,

‘Here in England the mood was one of appeasement as one by one Hitler’s demands were given into.  The general public having no contact with the peoples of Europe who were being subjected did not realise the terrible danger ahead.  This was brought home to me one evening when I was going down the underground at Piccadilly on my way home.  All the fashionable young men wore bowler hats in these days.  As I walked to the ticket barrier a gang of youths with crew cut hair barged into me, knocked off my bowler hat and swore at me in German ending with Heil Hitler.  No one around took any notice, but I saw the light of youth who felt supremely confident and superior to all around them’.

John’s father, Edward, had kept booklets such as ‘The Truth about German Atrocities’ published in 1915 by the Parliamentary Recruiting Company, 12, Downing Street, London. S.W. detailing previous ‘Alleged German Outrages’ including how civilians had been murdered and ill-treated; the brutal treatment of the aged, the crippled and the infirm; the killing of wounded soldiers and prisoners; the looting, burning and destruction of property; the taking of hostages; how women were publicly raped and children were used as ‘a military screen against the enemy’ ‘in a Reign of Terror’ and with a ‘Calculated Policy of Cruelty’.

With the threat of war, John joined the Honourable Artillery Company in the autumn of 1938.  He noted; ‘The territorial army came into its own.  Previously it had received little support, and members had to use their holiday entitlement to go to annual camp and could not get time off for evening parades.  All this changed and the TA was looked upon to be the right thing to join.  The Regiment was well equipped with mobile Howitzas and I spent several nights on gun drill and being introduced to army discipline. My parents were horrified and my father offered to buy me out, but I would have none of it’.

In 1939 John started his training at Camp Tilshead. ‘We were there for two weeks and kept very busy all this time.  The weather was beautiful which brought on my hayfever but I managed.  I was very lucky that my age was right for officer training, so I was transferred to O group for potential officer training which meant increased drills at Armoury House.  We were equipped with 13 field guns of fine World War vintage, designed to be drawn by horses.  Later we were issued with special towing vehicles called Dragons by Morris Motors and which were open and contained seats for the gun crew. They were totally unfit for speed on the roads when towed behind a dragon truck so when we were out of the city the whole Battery would stop every ten miles or so to allow the wheel hubs to cool down and be lubricated.

Strangely at my first drill we were issued with swords and taught how to carry and unsheathe the weapons and prepare arms.  We were taught morse code and handling the wireless receiver of the day. I remember my first evening training when we were given a pep talk by the Battery Commander.  The bit that impressed me was his description of action warfare; 80% boredom, 15% activities and 5% sheer bloody wind up.’