大象传媒

Memoirs of my days in the WAAF鈥檚

1940 - 1945

By Phyllis Margaret Guest

I would like you to imagine a young country girl 20 years of age standing on the platform of her local station waiting for a London train. She stands in a jumper and skirt which she had made herself and her coat is of an off white thick fabric to keep her warm in winter in a style in fashion at the time which is made to be edge to edge with a matching belt. She carries a handbag with her purse and a letter from the RAF inside.
The date is December 6th 1940 and the war has been on for just over a year, she feels that it is only right to do her bit for the country towards the war effort.
Her father is with her to see her off and as the train pulls into the station they hugged each other and say their goodbyes, not surprisingly there are some tears. Her feelings are a mixture of excitement at starting a new life and sadness to be leaving her home and family.
She has been to London just once before with her mother whilst she was still at school, they had both been to visit the Tate Gallery as 鈥漰art of her education!鈥�

That girl was me.

My brother did not join up till later on in the war as he was in a 鈥渞eserved
occupation鈥�. He became a Lance Corporal.

My sister was a Red Cross nurse.

Father joined the Home Guard, he was stationed at the Main Post Office in Tunbridge Wells. 鈥淗ome from Home鈥� he loved it.

Mother did her bit too by collecting newspapers from the tenants in the neighbourhood, which were used to help with the war effort.

So we all did our bit.

A friend of mine had joined the WAAF鈥檚 and she looked so splendid in her uniform. I just had to do the same, she gave me the address to write to at Kingsway which was the Headquarters of the RAF which I did and they sent me some forms to fill in, with a date of when I was to go up to see them for an interview.
I was so nervous the day I had to first go up to London, I wasn鈥檛 sure of where Kingsway was and had to ask many people on the way. Eventually I found it and after answering many questions they accepted me and gave me a date on which I was to report to them.
When that day arrived I found my way back to Kingsway and on entering I found a bevy of girls all waiting to do the same thing as I so I felt a little more at ease.
The N.C.O.s in charge were issuing us with orders as to what we were to do. The first thing was to give our names and address and to be fitted out with our new uniforms; this became quite a long process as you can imagine, as we were all different shapes and sizes. Fortunately I was a reasonable size and was seen to quite quickly. Whilst standing in the queue I became aware of an American girl next to me she had on the most fashionable clothes and a beautiful necklace of a 5 row string of pearls round her neck
I felt like going home there and then but I knew my father would send me straight back again so I stayed knowing that it wouldn鈥檛 be the first or the last time I would feel like returning home! I thought of my father then, he was a very strict army man and had already served in two Wars and was at that time in the Home Guard but he was always a very loving Dad for which I鈥檝e always been grateful.
The uniform was a jacket and skirt made of a very warm fabric in a lovely Air Force blue colour, steel grey lisle stockings, black leather shoes and a cap.
When all was finished at Kingsway we were given a very large sheet of brown paper to wrap our now discarded clothes in to be sent home and that was the last I saw of civilian life for some time, it gave me a very funny feeling.

After a very scratchy meal we boarded a train to Harrogate in Yorkshire. It was late at night by this time so we were not able to see anything of the countryside. Our first stop was Crewe where we all got out and made our way to a place where we could get a cup of tea. If anyone has been to Crewe you will know it is the dreariest station ever to be seen at least it was back then, we were only too glad to get back on the train for the remainder of our journey.
There were N.C.O.s waiting for us when we arrived in Harrogate and they herded us along to the Queens Hotel which had been commandeered for new recruits.
I shall never forget that night, we were all very tired and hungry and expected some sort of decent meal but all we got was cold sausage rolls and warm mashed potato at 1am, that wasn鈥檛 funny. Our beds were no better and although the pillowcases were filled with straw and the sheets were made of calico we were too tired to notice the discomfort, fortunately however there were plenty of warm blankets
The next morning we woke to the sound of a public address system telling us to get up. It was 6am and as we got dressed we felt quite proud of our new uniforms and I felt good going down to breakfast, which wasn鈥檛 too bad as it turned out.
Straight after breakfast we found ourselves out on the parade ground being put through our paces, what a performance! By the time the N.C.O.s had finished with us we didn鈥檛 know whether we were coming or going none of us had done anything like it before and oh dear our poor feet in the new shoes, the pain was awful.
It was most unfortunate for me that one of the Sergeants (who happened to be ginger headed I remember) took a dislike to me (the feeling became mutual) I could not do anything right for her so my three weeks of training was a long and unhappy time. As it happens later on we found ourselves on the same station together only by that time I was a Sergeant too, and on this occasion she was as nice as pie!
Funny that.

My first posting was to be an aerodrome called Cosford near Wolverhampton. After my arrival I found my way to the Orderly room where a very nice Corporal told me where to find the W.A.A.F quarters, once there an N.C.O. took me to a house that had been built especially for the WAAF鈥檚, quite new and very nice. There were 3 bedrooms and about 6 girls to each house I was shown to my room which I was fortunate to have to myself. The kitchen had a coal fire with an oven above where one could cook if they wanted to. I used to polish the floors and go to the local nursery for flowers so that on inspection days I got full marks, which really pleased me.
I joined up as a cook (I didn鈥檛 know how to do anything else) and was sent to the Sergeants mess doing 10 hour shifts from 4am to 2pm and 8 hour shifts from 2pm to 10pm with other girls of course, each shift would prepare the next days dinners. They put me in charge of the soup at first I used to spend my off duty time getting the stain off my hands from preparing all the vegetables that had to fill the great pans.
The food was pretty basic, just like home cooking really but because the Sergeants paid a 鈥渕essing fee鈥� they had the best food, it was good too, I know because I had to cook it! I often felt ashamed when cooking great joints of meat never to be seen by those outside the sergeant鈥檚 mess. I expect that the Officers had the same if not better still, but I never went near them to actually find out. We were cooking for 200 sergeants in total so the quantities that we had to cook were vast.
Later I was promoted to puddings and shall never forget being told how good my chocolate pudding was.
The WAAF鈥檚 were trained for many other trades some were telephonists, tailors, M.T. drivers and typists. Then there were the 鈥渉igh teas鈥� girls who planned the routes of the Pilots, on what was known as a 鈥減lotting table鈥�, this was mainly done in London and they were all very clever.

After a while the powers that be noticed how smart I kept myself (I knew my Dad expected it of me) and decided to send me on an administrative course to St.Athen South Wales to become a Cpl..
Three weeks of square bashing and lectures followed at the end of which I passed. No more cook houses for me.
Now it was my job to train the new recruits on the parade ground. I knew from my experience what to expect and was very proud when the recruits passed out. Some of my duties included working in the orderly room, which I hated. I had only an elementary education and hadn鈥檛 a clue what to do with a typewriter!
I had to see that the leave passes were all correct which were then to be signed by the W.A.A.F officer that wasn鈥檛 so bad. How I got by I don鈥檛 know.
There was a lighter side to life in that one of the sergeants was very musical and he formed a small choir, which I joined and very enjoyable it was too. My mother was a musician and so had trained her children to sing from a very young age. Somehow or other the sergeant got to know of a competition being run for the forces organised by the News Chronicle newspaper and he put us in for it. We practised avidly until the great day came. We travelled down to London by train, which was great fun. There were three sections to the competition Full choir, solos and trios; I was the second alto in the trios.
My parents had travelled up to London from their home in Sussex especially just to listen to us and it was lovely to see them.
Leslie Woodgate who was a well-known conductor at the time was the adjudicator, and when it was all over we waited with baited breath for the results. Unfortunately the choir and the soloist didn鈥檛 get through but our trio did. We had won against the army! There was great rejoicing. Our reward was a 鈥淣ews Chronicle鈥� songbook and any record of our choice. I chose 鈥淭he Nutcracker Suites鈥� and I still have my copy today.

After 6 months my sergeant stripes came through, this made my dad very proud of me, but because it wasn鈥檛 ethical to stay on the same station as you trained in I was then posted to Manchester to look after the girls on the balloon sites. What a difference! Some of the sites were near enough to cycle to and that鈥檚 what I did whenever I could, but mostly an airman had to take me by motorbike not a very comfortable form of travel especially over the cobbled streets. It was hard work but I enjoyed it.
On rare occasions the Administration Department organised dances for us, something everyone looked forward to.
As I wasn't a dancer, on these occasions I would usually offer to do duty. Mostly there was no trouble except when the drinking got out of hand. I remember one such time, when one W.A.A.F. decided to be sick all over the floor. All because she had far too much to drink, unfortunately for me because I was on duty it meant I had to clear it up and get the girl safely to bed, not one of the nicest parts of my job! Another time one of the girls who was a Corporal got decidedly drunk, I knew that she would get into serious trouble and would be severely punished for this. So with the help of another W.A.A.F. we managed to get her into bed without being found out. We sat her on the toilet for ages and finally into bed where she slept soundly until the next morning. When she woke she had no recollection as to what had happened the night before and when we told her she cried and her thanks were profuse as she was well aware of the trouble she would have been in if the bosses had found out.
I don鈥檛 think she ever did that again !

The things we do for England !

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