大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Julia Shuvalova for GMR Actiondesk on behalf of Nellie Meek and has been added with her permission. The author is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the site.

In 1940, my fiancee who served in the grenadiers guards lost his life at Dunkirk. I am eighty-five now, a widow, and I have grandchildren and great grandchildren. But I still sometimes think of my years in the forces and my grenadier.

I joined the branch of the army in 1940, serving in a mixed heavy ack-ack battery. We were in teams operating instruments that gave information to the men who fired the guns. We were kept busy with enemy aircraft.

All the same there were good times. When we were off duty we had dances in the NAAFI and concerts, some good, some not. The army dentist had once removed my front tooth, so I had a false tooth on a pallet put in. During a dance it fell out onto my partner's shoulder...

I remember being on alert at the command post when droves of planes were on their way for the D-Day struggle. What a sight!

Our company were together for four and a half years. We got on very well and served in different parts of the country. I remember once it was my turn to fill the bucket with coal for the hut fire. It was snowing hard, everything was covered. When I got to the hut, I realised I'd collected a bucket of pebbles, so I had to go back and do it all over again.

London was our last posting. After that I was demobbed and sent nearer home, to the Lake District - and what a difference that was!

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