大象传媒

I applied to join the WAAF on my 18th birthday. When asked what trade I would like I answered 'maps' and was told I would be put on 'special duties' (top secret). The special intelligence test seemed so easy to me I thought there must have been a mistake. So I became a cartographer and draughtswoman, a man's job at that time (the men were paid twice as much as we women) and joined the 9th Group HQ Fighter Command in Preston, Lancashire. I loved it. I drew a lot of the maps for Operation Overlord and the Cherbourg Peninsula, so I knew when D-Day was coming. I was posted to Tangmere where I plotted the positions of guns etc. to 8 figure grid references. I was on duty there on D-Day - we weren't even allowed to go to the toilet that day! Later I volunteered for the 2nd Tactical Air Force and was posted first to Amiens and then to Ghent. We lived in a convent and worked watches around the clock at a chateau turned into an Operations room. I was near St Denny Westrum airfield when it was bombed. I remember Belsen being discovered from the air and the film made of the camp being compulsory viewing for everyone after the war.

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