大象传媒

I was working in Westminster, London from 1939 in the Air Ministry. I was accepted into the Wrens but I could not be released from my job. I was age 17 and six days. I used to fire watch at the office one night a week and one night at home in Wimbledon. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden at home, an unexploded shell landed one night. We went to relatives in the next road until it had been dug out - we were very lucky, it did not go off. We also had a bomb on the other side of the road which killed poor old Fluff our cat.
My office was hit twice, I was not on duty that night. There were a lot of secret records on the street. They wanted volunteers to fire watch Westminster Abbey but my father would not let me go - 'he nearly went mad'.
When war started they wanted to evacuate us to Harrogate. We had to wait and sleep in the office for several days until they moved us. We could not tell anyone where we were going. We were there a few months and then moved back gradually to London as Harrogate was itself a target for bombs. Whilst I was there my mother did find out where I was, Lord Haw Haw told everyone in a broadcast from Berlin. It was such an office upheaval and all for nothing.
We had air raids night after night in London and did not get much sleep. I used to wear a boiler suit, helmet and gas mask when on duty fire watching. We heard a bomb coming one day and were told to get down, I hit my helmet on the wall and had a headache for days!
Things quietened down for a bit and then the V1's started. We had to shut the front door three times one night. Then it was the V2 rockets. No warning with the rockets, some people were never found. A girl I knew, all that was found was her handbag.
My husband was in the Welsh Guards stationed at Esher, Sandown Park - he used to sleep in the stables. We met in Kingston in 1943 at the YMCA - I did voluntary work there once a month. We married in 1945 as my husband was expecting to be sent back to France after time spent convalescing in England following wounding at Falaise. Instead he was sent to Palestine for a year.
I was in Whitehall for VE celebrations. Thousands and thousands of people, all dancing and kissing. Sad too as we thought of people we had lost. We used toilet rolls from the office as streamers. It was a relief it was all over.

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