大象传媒

Memories of Swynnerton

Primrose and Ivy Spencer and myself started work at the R.O.F. Swynnerton at the start of the war. There were three shifts; days, noons and nights. We caught the bus at 5.15 a.m. for the day shift to commence work at 6 a.m. The noon shift started at 2p.m. and the nights at 10p.m.
Our wages were about 拢2.10.0d for days, a pound more for afternoons and two pounds more for nights because of the unsocial hours.
The dept where we worked was called 7C and we made 22 mm shells, they were used for Spitfires, our fighter planes. We also assembled detonators and boosters, these were used to detonate the detonators. We had to fill the shells with TNT explosive powder, this made our skin and hair go yellow and also gave some people including myself, tummy trouble.
One day the bosses asked the three of us if we would go to work in the department where they filled tracer shells, these were also used by our spitfires. They asked us because we were quick workers and tracer shells were in great demand. They put us on the filling machines where we had to place a foot on a pedal after we had filled the shells with explosive powder. This pressed the powder into the casing. There was also a device like an egg timer, we were supposed to keep our foot on the pedal until the sand ran out. After a while we found out that the machine worked without the timer, little realising that it was the combination of pressure and the time that made the shells travel the correct distance. When the bosses saw the amount of shells we had turned out they could not understand how we had managed it. When they found out what we had done (or failed to do) they threatened to put us against a wall and shoot us. Only for the fact that we were such good workers, the punishment they gave us was to make us go on a concert to entertain the workers.
There were one or two men who told jokes and a girl who was a very good singer. As she sang we danced the Velita and other ballroom dances. As we could not get any material for costumes we used cast off bridesmaids dresses as ballgowns. We did another scene where we had white pleated skirts made from roller towels and tops made from green tablecloths. Altogether it was a very good concert.
We also joined the air raid wardens. We had to patrol the clearways at night because the German planes were trying to bomb the factory. They dropped flares all round the place but they never hit us as we had the army gunners there to protect us.
Prim, Ivy and myself passed our first aid certificate but it only covered us whilst we were in the factory. We were also trained for Mustard gas attacks. We had to be painted all over with whitewash as this was supposed to protect our skin from being burned.
We had a friend who had her arm blown off, she worked in the bomb making factory. We also had a friend working with us who had her hand blown off. As soon as they had cleared the mess up they made us go back into the same shop to work as they said we would lose our nerve if we didn鈥檛.
On our way home at night the German planes were everywhere but our Spitfires kept them away from us as we were taken home in a fleet of buses.

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