大象传媒

I was 18 in 1942 and living in Manchester. I worked in a Grocers and on the way back from work one day I decided to volunteer for the WAAFS.
My mother went mad! My brother was already away in the Army and we were having air raids and sleeping under the table or in the cellar.

But I wanted to work on Balloons. The first stop was to Gloucester to be kitted out, then we got posted to Morcambe for training. There we were split up into civvy billets. We were very lucky because we had good food. Our billet had been a guest house, but some WAAFS had very little to eat. There were hundreds of us girls there. I enjoyed square bashing and everything.

After Morcambe it was on to training at two Balloon sites. Fizakerly, Liverpool was first, with further training at Widnes. As soon as there was an air raid we had to adjust the heights of the balloons.

Widnes was a popular camp. I learned to cook there as we had to cater for ourselves!

I was on baloon sites for a year then we were disbanded. It seemed that balloons had not been as an effective defence as had been supposed. My remustering was for training as a motor mechanic. The training was for six weeks at Weeton near Blackpool. We were trained by a male Sargeant and worked on all kinds of RAF vehicles. We had to do everything on cars and I was given the name "Greasegun Annie"

The next posting was to Charterhall in Scotland. This Airadrome was an Officer's Training Unit and Bomber Command. It had a Cinema, a Hall for dancing and a Church. The three mates that I'd joined up with at Picadilly in Manchester and had been with throughout were posted elsewhere.

I met my future husband at Charterhall. He was in the RAF working as a mechanic. The work was on Beacons and Browsers which were to direct planes back in. Unfortunately he didn't dance!

Then he got posted overseas and I got posted to Bomber Command, Cottesmore, Lincolnshire and to Rutland. I left all the girls I knew behind, but of course met other girls.

I was made Leading Aircrafts Woman and served 4 Years and 1 month altogether. I came out in May 1946 and married in the June so my head was full of that.

I missed the people though. Six of us who joined up still wrote to each other and those of us left still do.

I look back on my war experience with pleasure and gratitude for the people I met. There was sadness too for those men who didn't come back and for the girlfriends who found themselves pregnant. But the mood was live for today, there may be no tomorrow.

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