大象传媒

I was aged 18 when my friend and I joined the WAAF in September 1941.We had been friends since we were 10 years old.The RAF needed teleprinter operators so we both trained at RAF CRANWELL, but after passing our tests we were each sent to different camps, I to HQ 12GROUP FIGHTER COMMAND, Jennie to BOMBER COMMAND at LUDFORD MAGNA.
From then on we only saw each other on leave or on occasional trips to each others camp. However after D-Day 1944 we both volunteered for secret overseas service and were both accepted. We sailed from Liverpool and in early 1945 after several weeks afloat we landed at Colombo, Ceylon. Hoping at last to be stationed together, we now volunteered to work at Koggala, Ceylon on the south of the island, and we were surprised to find ourselves on a real jungle camp. 40 WAAF's went there, a rough jungle life in the tropics. Only 3 of us were teleprinter operators. We each sweated quite alone in a palm leaf hut doing 8 hour shifts without a break or drink or meal. We weren't allowed them and dropped exhausted at the end of shifts onto our bunk in our hut. We got tropicaql fevers as did many out there, and lost every spare ounce of weight.
However the Japanese war ended. I was sent to Bombay, India for several weeks and Jennie to Singapore. We were both supposed to be en route for home but were kept waiting for a ship as wounded got preference. We were also left without pay or documents as they had been sent ahead ready for our arrival home. I had re met and married Gordon, a pre war friend who was to my surprise also serving in Ceylon,in the Fleet Air Arm. He and I didn't meet again until December 1945. On our ship going East, The Johan Van Alden Barneveldt, a Dutch ship, we were warned a German submarine was snooping areound us, but after great tension we luckily zig-zagged our way forward out of harms way.
Jennie and I had both lived at Wrekenton, a small village near Gateshead, although I was born in Newcastle where I lived until 10. We later found a third Wrekenton girl, Joyce Taberham, was also a WAAF in Ceylon, very surprising for 3 girls from the same small village to be sent out there, out of the few who went to the East.
Our service out there was really a bit exceptional, filled with adventure which later prompted me to write a book about our experiences, which I called 'LAMBS IN BLUE'
Jennie and I never regretted our service in the WAAF. We felt we learned more of the world by doing it, like many WAAF's felt.Jennie always claims it was fate that I met Gordon again out there!
Funny things do happen even in the turmoil of war.
THE END

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