大象传媒

By G Atkinson

At the outbreak of the war I was a reserved occupation. However circumstances altered and I was able to volunteer for the ATS. I spent six weeks in camp at New Battle Abbey, Dalkeith near Edinburgh. Some of the 18 year old conscripts were heartbroken at leaving home but to me it was more like a holiday. A beautiful line of lime trees were in blossom in June and their perfume filled the warm air.

Corporal Weichselman was in charge of the hut I was in. A German refugee, her name changed by deed pole came through and she became Corporal Welman.

After all the tests, medical, dental treatment and a great deal of marching in heavy shoes and very warm uniforms we were posted according to our abilities. Having matriculated in 8 subjects including, maths, English, geography and art I was offered 3 or 4 alternatives. However I opted to go as a trainee draughtswoman and was posted to Beverley in East Yorkshire together with Muriel Elder (with whom I kept in touch until her death).

We arrived at the Commander Royal Engineers office in North Bar Without in Beverley East Yorkshire. Bar billet was at 72 Lairgate, a large townhouse, there were a mixed lot of ATS drivers clerks, surveyors clerks, cooks, orderlies etc. we were very well looked after and one of the cooks was brilliant, after civilian rationing it seemed excellent.

Our training at first was just the most menial tasks in the drawing office, Mr Wood a civil engineer in charge, an architect Mr Robinson (Robbie), Staff Sergeant Gurther (a Swiss) and a young boy from Hull called Dick- he had lost his father in an air raid in Hull. Hull suffered very badly indeed from enemy bombing.

Eventually we were deemed capable of other work. The office dealt with engineering work and building in the Humber and Spurn Peninsular areas. Spurn was very heavily fortified. So our drawings and maps were of these areas. We had a lot of tracing work to do. Our lettering had improved and we were deemed to be up to the standard of a draughtswoman.

Eventually the work became less as the time was getting nearer to D Day. Draughtswomen from all over the country were given the chance to the School of Military Engineering at Ripon. I was one of the lucky ones and went there in March 1944 for a course in architecture and surveying.

We were able to enjoy a very different experience. It was very intensive training but we were able to get out into Ripon and enjoy the lovely country round about. We walked by the rivers, visited Studley Royal ad Fountains Abbey and worshipped in the impressive Ripon Cathedral. On church parade we marched from Deverell Barracks into Ripon, very often with the Engineers Band. This was the Ripon that the First World War poet, Wilfred Owen had known and loved and where he had rented a room in Borage Lane. Here he was reputed to have composed his finest work.

We had a family testing exam and I was then posted to Leeds. This was an unhappy place; I had to work in an office with only civilian staff. The house I lived in was cold and I seemed to be able to make no friends at all. We were told not to go into Leeds at night as it was not deemed to be safe.

Luck however was on my side; another course was started for ATS girls who had passed at the best grades. I was one, I went back to a much harder course, but a least I knew many of those I鈥檇 been friendly with. The huts were warm, the food reasonably good. It was late in 1944 and it was a severe winter, the ice on the lake at Fountains Abbey was strong enough to walk over.

There were not so many R.Es, as the Sappers who had been working so hard when I first went to Ripon, had gone to the D-Day landings. Another severe exam lasting 5 days which I passed and I went back to Beverley. Muriel was still there and we did some survey work on properties being de-requisitioned. After V.E Day I got my discharge and went to live for a while in a little cottage in Beverley. Not a very exciting war, but very few members of the ATS trained in the SME at Ripon. Sadly very few of my friends from these days are left.

I visited Spurn a few years ago on a wild winters day, 26th December. It was blowing a gale and it gave me some idea of how hard and lonely and indeed menacing it must have been for the troops manning the fortifications there. I was pleased I was able to see the area which we spent so many hours mapping, in Beverley drawing office.

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