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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bruce Logan of the CSV Media NI Team on behalf of Gwyn Harvey and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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The WAAF site was in the middle of a wood near the village of Boolnetby away from main camp a few Nissan huts and an ablution block - we had an occasional air raid, the first time the siren went we shot out of the hut to the air raid shelter to land in about 6 inches of cold stagnant water, we took our chance in the hut after that.

In the winter it was bitterly cold — during a severe frost the ablutions froze and for two nights we pulled the fire bucket in the cook house put it on top of the coke stove in the hut to use as a wash basin for 4 of us in the morning!

The third day was Sunday and in the evening I went down to the village church. After the service a kind lady invited me to her home for supper. On arrival at the house she suggested I might like a quick bath while she prepared the food — she was very tactful. In the days before deodorants I must have been quite smelly.

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