大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Marie on behalf of Doreen and has been added to the site with her permission. Doreen fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

It was the summer of 1942 and I felt that I needed to do my bit to help win the war. I was 17 and a half years old. The W.A.A.F. had vacancies for balloon operators. But at the time there was a smallpox epidemic in Swindon where I lived, and I had to be vaccinated and have a certificate to say it had been successful before I was allowed to leave the town. When I got that though, I reported to Innsworth R.A.F. camp in Gloucester on 19th August for induction and training. We got various jabs, taught how to march and received lectures like 鈥減utting temptation in people鈥檚 way鈥� about keeping your belongings safe by never leaving them lying around 鈥� all these years later I am still very careful with everything!

After a month at Innsworth I was sent to number 11 Balloon Centre at Pucklechurch, 10 miles north of Bristol, to be trained as a balloon operator. In six short weeks we had to learn how to drive the winch, splice wire and ropes, handle the balloon and a variety of other things. We also had to sign a form to say we understood that we could the cause of someone鈥檚 death if an enemy plane hit the balloon cable. The hardest part of the training was spicing the wire 鈥� we soon had blisters on our hands that kept bursting because of the metal picks we had to use and they never got chance to heal properly. One Friday there was a pretty stiff wind and one of the balloons had to be emergency deflated because of the damage from being blown side to side. Then another balloon鈥檚 cable snapped and it floated off so as a 鈥渟prog鈥� crew 鈥� new and out for the first time 鈥� we were quite chuffed to have held onto ours!

During training we had to go 鈥渋nside鈥� a balloon. It consisted of the main envelope that was inflated with hydrogen gas, underneath that was another compartment with a ballonet that was filled with air and had valves for letting out any excess, and then the fins and rudders were air-filled. On one side of the balloon was a rip panel that could be used to deflate it in case of emergencies, and then there were ropes attached at various points so she could be handled. If she was 鈥渃lose-hauled鈥� then lots of sandbags and concrete blocks were attached and she had to be kept flying into the wind. When we had to fly, the winch would pay out the cable to a pre-determined height and you had to be careful not to put the brake on too quickly or you could snap the cable and lose the balloon. After weeks more training and a few visits home I passed out and was posted to a permanent war site in a farmer鈥檚 field in Shire Hampton, Bristol. Despite the fact that the facilities were basic and we had to work long hours we liked to have fun. One day I made 鈥渁pple-pie beds鈥� 鈥� so that my friends could only get into bed so far and had put holly leaves in the bottom of their beds which made a few of them scream and sent one girl 鈥� Alice 鈥� running out the latrines pulling her trousers up and looking in all the ditches round the camp thinking someone must have fallen in one. It still makes me laugh to this day.

Our Corporal suggested one day that we should do our bit and 鈥渄ig for victory鈥� so we dug up part of the field and planted it with veg. We also had to take it in turns to do the cooking, so for a week two of us would be in charge of the rations. We were always sure of a good supply of Spam so learned to cook it every way there was! On one of my turns to cook, I decided to make porridge for breakfast for the following day and left it cooking gently in a huge iron pan overnight. To my disgust though it went like concrete 鈥� I eventually managed to get half of it out of the pan and water down the rest but the remarks the crew made were most unladylike and I didn鈥檛 try that again!

At Christmas though, the two girls who were on cookhouse duty got breakfast and then cleared off home for a lovely Christmas lunch without telling anyone. We had to make do with bread and butter and pineapple and didn鈥檛 get a proper meal until 6pm. And as I had been up since 6am I was cheesed off and told them so in no uncertain manner. Then towards the end of January I was on cookhouse duty again with my friend Alice and she was worried as we had nothing for sweet sent with the rations and we鈥檇 given the crew apples four times that week already. I had the idea of making fritters with currents and sultanas in them and they went down a bomb 鈥� nobody could believe I was the instigator after my porridge. But my popularity went up several notches!

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