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Vera Low Paybook No:W/81 869

As building work was at a standstill due to the war, my husband found himself without work, so one morning went out and when he returned had signed on with the army. About a week later he was instructed to go for his medical in Brighton and that was the last I saw of him until after Dunkirk in January 1940. He spent several weeks in England and was then drafted to the BEF in France. The first I knew of what had happened to him, was when I received an additional shilling a week on my allotment book granted to army wives, and notification of his overseas posting.

As I had been left alone with a rented house which I was finding increasingly difficult to pay for, my father negotiated with my landlord to free me from the 3-years lease, which meant that I had to store my furniture and live with my parents. This made me think seriously about the future and I realised that I needed to do more than just stay in our small Sussex Village of Clapham, while others were out doing war-work, so decided to join the women's army.
I enlisted in September 1941 with mixed feelings. I was pleased that I was getting involved, but a little apprehensive about what the future might hold for all of us. I met, with other girls at Queens Road in Brighton where we took the 'King's Shilling' and after a week of saying my goodbyes, I met up with them and a lot of other girls at Central Station, Worthing on our way to Queen's Camp, Guildford where we would do our basic training.
On the first day we were issued with our equipment which consisted of skirt,tunic,three shirts, three pairs of khaki draws with elastic round the legs, two pairs of blue-striped flannellette pyjamas and a lovely warm greatcoat. We also received cutlery, plate and mug which we had to look after very carefully or pay for a replacement. Our basic training consisted of four weeks of square bashing (marching, drill parades etc) and getting to know our way around and what was expected of us - the last day being a passing out parade.
From there we had a month at the Royal Artillary camp at Oswestry where we were given training in the use of G.L. (gun laying) equipment, which was part of the radar system, and operation of the radio location/predictor units which enabled the anti-aircraft guns to be kept trained on their targets.
After the first week I told the officer in charge that I felt I would never master all the switches, screens and dials, but he insisted I would succeed if I allowed myself another week, which I did, by which time everything began to make sense. While there, I met Mary Churchill who was working on predictors and I heard that she later went to the Officer Cadet Training Unit.

At the end of the month's very intensive training at Oswestry we were posted to the 139 Ack Ack Regiment at Scunthorpe on site with 4.5 guns. This was the first regiment to admit women to work on the gun site, so initially we found that life's comforts were very basic and our first uniforms for working were men's battledress, which caused some teasing by the men. However, once things were organised for the ATS life improved with baths, showers and hot water being provided and also suitable women's battledress issued.

The work involved shifts of five girls working 24 hours on and 24 hours off. At night, when the alarm went, those on duty had three minutes to get to, and start the generator with the heavy swinging handle to get electricity to the transmitter van, enabling us to start transmitting from our receivers directly to the command post where the plotting of the incoming aircraft took place. As the electricity being generated was about 1200v, 'static' would bounce off our metal helmets as we worked at the screens. We learned to ignore the constant 'pinging' but after a year were told not to wear the helmets any more.

On the few occasions my husband was back in England, I was granted leave with him which we enjoyed, however briefly - we called it our 'snatched few days'. It was on one of these that we were walking across some fields on our way back to the airfield when enemy aircraft began strafing the area. We leaped for safety into a nearby ditch which we found was full of a prickly hedge which had been trimmed. However, we were safe apart from some thorns to pull out.

During the four years we took over some five gunsites around the country, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Derby, Nottingham and Scunthorpe, my favourite being the latter, as the people were so friendly an kind, always having an open house for us and entertaining us. When the time came, we were all sorry to leave and continued to keep in touch with the friends we had made there.

At the end of 1944 our mixed Regiment was due to be posted to Belgium but I did not join them as my husband was against me doing so. It was after this that I developed pneumonia and spent 6 months in hospital. On recovery, I was posted to the REME workshops in Wainscott, Kent, at the ordnance depot where we packed and distributed adapted firing mechanisms for the Bofa guns to enable them to shoot down 'doodle bugs', until the end of the war.
By the time I was demobbed, I was a much different person from the one who went to sign on at Brighton in 1941. I had experienced living as a member of a large extended family, where there was always support and friendship at hand.

I also felt I had achieved a great deal more than I would normally have had the opportunity to do at home. I had trained, worked, travelled and met some wonderful people from all over the country which has affected and influenced me for the rest of my life.

Although terrible things happened during the war which left their mark on us all, I had a lot to be thankful for as my husband came home again safely despite having been through some very hard times. While apart, we had grown up and both changed, but found that our experiences drew us closer togther and we were lucky enough to continue to spend the next happy forty nine years together.

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