大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War wensite by Stoke-on-Trent Libraries on behalf of William Wainwright and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I left the 51st Highland Regiment in 1942 and joined the 34th Armoured Brigade. I went to the Army Technical College for 8 months. Everyone was specially selected and interviewed, I was a chemist so that is why I was chosen. It was really very intensive training - we learnt everything about the Internal Combustion Engine in a week! I was posted to Guildford Command Workshops, where I was given the charge of the Carrier Bay. I tested the Carriers (these were mini-tanks)and realised that in almost evry one of them the steering was faulty. I immmediately sacked the Foreman and half of the civilian workforce.
The Carriers were fitted with Bren guns. We had 15 Carriers in the bay at any one time. To stamp my authority I decided to paint white lines on the floor and announced that from now on there would be a Carrier in each of the sections I'd painted and that everything connected with that Carrier must stay within the white lines.
I remember that there were lots of ATS girls on the site but admit I was taken aback one day when two girls arrived carrying an Oxyacetalene tank and announced that they were the welders I'd sent for!
I then moved on to take charge of the "B vehicle section" - these were wheeled vehicles. The first people I saw there were the lady welders! I was there for two months before I was asked to take a Commission.

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