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This story was submitted to the People's War Site by Susan Stefiuk of Age Concern Shropshire Telford and Wrekin on behalf of Mrs Joan Baker and has been added to this site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Air Raid Precautions

Born in 1919, I was one of the first group of women who had to register for war work. Before this I had trained as an Air Raid Precautions voluntary part-time worker and it happened that, on Sunday 3rd September 1939, friend Mavis and I were on duty in the Air Raid Post in a north-west suburb of London. We were both 19 years old at the time, and our suburb was one of the places where the Siren sounded immediately after Mr. Chamberlain had made the declaration of War. We put on our 鈥榯in鈥� hats, picked up our gas masks and rushed out into the street. The newspapers had suggested that, the moment we declared war, the skies would be black with planes dropping bombs and containers of poison gas, so we went along calling out to people to 鈥榯ake cover鈥� and have their gas masks ready. Our warnings mostly went unheeded, as neighbours continued to cut their lawns, saying 鈥淚ts only Mavis and Joan鈥�. Luckily for us, the 鈥榓ll-clear鈥� sounded very quickly, as someone realised they had made a mistake.

A Question is asked in Parliament

When registering for war work, I had volunteered for the Wrens - the Women鈥檚 Royal Naval Service, and as my father had been a Leading Wireless Telegraphy Operator in the First World War, I was accepted. The WRNS was always a much smaller Service than the Auxiliary Territorial Service (Army) or the Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Air Force (RAF), but the Admiralty had trouble finding large enough premises to commandeer for training Wrens, and there was a waiting list for some time. But on 26th August, 1941, I reported for the 28-days training to the Hampstead New Entry Depot. My first 鈥榙raft鈥� was to a Royal Naval Air Station in Cornwall. While I was there, the Captain, R.N. in charge of the Station apparently became convinced that the country would be invaded by way of Cornwall. He managed to obtain some First World War Lee- Enfield .303 rifles, and a notice went up asking for volunteer Wrens who would learn to use them. For a very short time, 鈥渓earning to throw hand grenades鈥� was given as an alternative but I don鈥檛 think there were any volunteers for that. We volunteers were issued with a gun (mine was 1914 pattern) and had to report to the Firing Range for instructions. A short time later, we took part in an Active Defence Exercise, one dark morning at about 2 or 3 a.m. The Duke of Cornwall鈥檚 Light Infantry, from Bodmin, made a raid on our Station, attempting to gain control, and we Wrens were in a pillbox with our rifles and blank cartridges, as part of the defence force. There were official referees there, and they judged that we had taken some prisoners, who were led past us, expressing shock at seeing women, in a way which I鈥檒l leave to your imagination. Not long after this, a Question was asked in Parliament as to how Wrens at a 鈥渞emote Naval Air Station in the South West of the country had the use of rifles, while some of the Home Guard were still only using bottles in socks?鈥� The rifles were quickly rounded up, and we never learned how or where they had come from.

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