- Contributed byÌý
- radaroperator
- People in story:Ìý
- Bessie Shackley (now Bessie Thomas, author), Peggy Youell, Mrs Denny, Dorothy Dyson, Effie Taylor, Vera ?, Laura Cunningham, Pat Hennessey, Bettie Everett, Joan Atkin, Rosemary Cotton Symonds
- Location of story:Ìý
- RAF High Street, Darsham, Suffolk (references to RAF Madley, Herefordshire, Snaith and Hill Head Fraserburgh)
- Background to story:Ìý
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:Ìý
- A7907916
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 19 December 2005
Bessie Shackley and colleagues at RAF High Street, Darsham, Suffolk July 1944
Reading the article by Peggy Youell entitled ‘The lighter side — Life in Darsham’ prompted memories of the village where I was stationed as a twenty year old WAAF radar operator.
I had been stationed at Snaith in Yorkshire and subsequently at Hill Head near Fraserburgh before being posted to High Street Radar Station near Darsham between 1944 and 1945.
The radar station was surrounded by a security fence and we worked in a bunker within this area. There were eight of us on duty at each shift moving to different positions every hour. The bunker was dimly lit and we were looking either for aircraft or for distress signals on the radar screens. Their height and distance were then passed on to Fighter Command Headquarters.
When V2s started to be launched, we had to look at a small screen at close range for thirty minute intervals. Due to this close scrutiny, we had to have our eyes tested every six months. Whilst on duty one night I plotted a V1 coming directly at the station. Luckily it missed the transmitters but landed in the field behind us!
We were billeted in the wood mentioned in Peggy Youell's article and when going on duty at night, we used to jump quickly into the wagon as there were lots of rats running around in the wood!
When off duty, we used to cycle to The Ship Inn at Dunwich for home-made jam and bread and also to Southwold where a Mrs.Denny offered us hospitality.
I used to call at a house (which was probably Peggy’s) to collect milk and, at the top of this article, I have included a photograph of some of my colleagues featured with the horse-drawn milk cart at the camp.
WAAF colleagues I recall from my stay at RAF High Street near Darsham (who are also featured on some of the photographs) are Dorothy Dyson, Effie Taylor, Vera ? Laura Cunningham, Pat Hennessey, Bettie Everett and Joan Atkin.
Towards the end of the war, I moved to RAF Madley in Herefordshire and earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be invited back to attend an event 60 years on, at what is now The Madley Environmental Study Centre. Unexpectedly I met and recognized a wartime friend and colleague, Rosemary Cotton Symonds who was a Flight Mechanic stationed there. What a wonderful reunion having lost all contact with each other for 60 years!
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