大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV / 大象传媒 Radio Nottingham on behalf of Ivy Haddenham and has been added to this site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was sixteen when the war started. I was working in hosiery, but we all had to register for war work. I wanted to join the Land Army, but my boss wouldn't let me as we were making underwear to be worn by the troops.
When the underwear was being packed up we used to write little notes to the troops and stuff the notes in with the underwear. We wrote our names and addresses for them, but they never did contact us!
Hucknell was a garrison town. Troops were billeted in the furniture factory. Some of them were Polish too. The Poles were very nice people and very dishy men too!
The hosiery factory was next to where the troops were billeted. The works canteen was open from 4 until 10 pm. They always finished up singing 'God be with you till we meet again'. My Dad played the piano for them. You knew if the canteen was full that the troops were off the next day.
I always regretted not being able to join the Land Army and wonder if my life would have been different if I had joined up.

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