大象传媒

This story has been submitted tot the People's War website by Don and Betty Tempest of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Martha Halliday and added to the site with her permission.

At the beginning of the war, 1939, we lived in Barry Crescent, Seaton. On a particular day I was cleaning the windows for my Mam when this Aeroplane flew overhead, I just froze, because at that time I didn't know whose aeroplane it was, but later I found out it was a German plane, I don't know what happened to it, whether it was shot down or not.

After that I went down South to work in a boys school, that was in 1940. In 1943, I enlisted in the ATS and did my basic training at Fullford Barracks in York. Then I was posted to Selby area, in a little village called Barlow, about three or four miles from Selby. I stayed there for the rest of my Service.

My duties were to look after the Officers, a sort of female Batman. At first I worked in the Sergeant's Mess, then I was transferred into the Officer's Mess. It entailed taking care of them, waiting on them etc. We did have to go on gas parade, which meant putting on your gas mask and going into this big hole which was filled with gas. It was frightening, I hated it, but it had to be done. We had to stay in the hole for only a few minutes, to test the gas mask.

We didn't see any action in Selby, it was very quiet where we were, but we did hear about the bombs that had been dropped in York and various other places.

There was some good times as well, we were able to borrow bicycles to ride into town, one particular time I remember, there were four of us going into town, when this big Army lorry pulled up, with Military Police in it. Well, our hearts just stopped, we thought 'What have we done?' Well! We hadn't done anything, but they said, 'We just stopped to give you a lift'. So, they put our bikes, and us, on the back of the lorry and took us into town.

If we went to the pictures, we had to catch the 10pm 'bus back to barracks, and woe betide you if you missed it. Sometimes you got put on a charge, but more likely you just got a telling off, and you would make sure you didn't do it again.

Six or Seven of the Officers came from El Alamien. They were great, they were very kind to us, some times we would work hard in the bar looking after them. They were very nice. But one night when I was waitressing, the Sergeant told me to go and ask the Major if he would like a roll, he looked at me and said, 'Well! It just depends who it is with'. The Serageant had meant a Bread Roll, but I know what the Major meant, and I went 'Bright Red' and came out.

One night I went to the cinema and the lady in the ticket booth said, 'There's a ticket here, you've got to sit beside this family and they will arrange for you to go to their house for tea, which is in Selby'. I thought that was lovely. It was their way of saying 'Thank You'. My family were living in Durham at the time, so it was nice to spend some time with a family.

We had certain duties to do and the sergeants would allocate them to us. I didn't always like the jobs we were given, but we had to do them. We went on Pay Parade, once each week. We had to go up to the Officer, salute, collect your pay, which was Seven Shillings and Sixpence or Ten Shillings, old money, and some of that had to go back to your Mam. When we were paid we saluted again and marched back to the ranks.

Towards the end of the war our camp was also used for German and Italian Prisoners of War. They were kept at the bottom end of the camp, we, the ATS, were in the middle, and the Officers and Soldiers were at the other end of the camp. We had no problems with the Prisoners, but we weren't allowed to fraternise with them, which was a shame because after all they were only human. there was one German, who was working in the garden of a house near us. One day he came out and said, 'You come back to Germany with me!' I just ignored it, we only spoke to them when we had to.

The Italians were cheekier, they used to come down to the Officers Mess and start talking to us about making 'Bambinos', but we just laughed and they went back to work.

We had all sorts of approaches, one I remember in particular was this person who was from the Medical Corps, and was an Optician He said to me, 'Are you bothered with your eyes?' I said, 'No!' and he said, 'Well! they're bothering me!!!'

When we had first joined the Army our parents warned us not to kiss a Soldier or you'll have a baby.

Whilst I was serving in Selby I met a young man called Albert Hilton who was a dancing instructor. We wrote one or two letters to each other, but then he broke his arm and I never heard from him again. I would love to meet him, for old times sake, and to find out why he stopped writing to me. I still have one of his letters.

I met my husband when I came out of the Army, he was a Miner. He died nearly 33years ago, so I've been on my own since then.

Ten years ago I joined the Burma Star Association and I have met three of my old pals who I was in the ATS with, one is still living in Selby, one is in Kent and the other in Middlesborough. One of the three was our Corporal and she used to talk in her sleep about the meals she would make when she got home.

I have just found out that our Major is still living in Selby and I wonder if they will be having a parade to celebrate the end of the Second World War. The Major was called Probin, there was also a Captain Scott and a Lieutenant Steadman in our Unit and I would love to hear from them again if they are still alive

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.