大象传媒

Typed by a UCN Community Volunteer.

My decision to join the Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) came one sunny day in June 1940. I wandered past the Racecourse in Northampton on my way to work and saw hundreds of half dressed exhausted soldiers. The soldiers had been dropped off by one of the evacuation trains making its way from the south coast following the Dunkirk evacuation.

I volunteered for the WAAF, and this took me first to West Drayton for two weeks training. This included sleeping on sawdust sausages rather than pillows, resulting in everyone鈥檚 ears turning red. I was then sent to Filton airbase in Bristol. The airbase shared a runway with the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Work involved getting up at first light to steer a row of cars onto the runway to block it and prevent a German landing. We did not get much sleep as there was an army gun stationed just behind our quarters.

I made many good friends in the WAAF and played in the Up Avon Invincible hockey team in 1945.

The bombing was terrible; I had to be on duty at all times at my teleprinter. As I couldn鈥檛 leave my table I used it to take shelter. There were numerous bombing experiences that I can remember. Such memories include a runner going to the cookhouse; he put a bucket on his head (for protection) on the way, which he had to use for bringing back the cocoa at night! Another memory was of a sight I thought I would never see, a man crying. A sight I will not forget and a have not seen since.

One day Anne (one of my close friends in the WAAF) and I decided to go into Bristol to do some shopping. We had our gas masks and steel helmets. We stood outside a Drapers shop and watched our squadron up in the air fighting the German bombers. An old lady came out of the Drapers shop and made us come back in. This meant we missed most of the show. Jettisoned bombs were falling around us. We went back to the camp along Patchway duel carriage way, passing seven unexploded bombs, unbeknown to us. The danger of the unexploded bombs meant that we were confined to camp.

As Filton was being bombed it proved a dangerous to be. We went to an empty stately home in Upavon, where I shared a room with my friend. Again we were kept awake this time by rats running up and down the walls cavities. In Upavon we had our own cinema for entertainment, as we were so isolated. This showed different films each night but was very unreliable and broke down a lot. Mind you it was free! When the hero or heroin got into a close embrace an airman would shout out 鈥榠nstructions鈥�, but I wont go into that! Sometimes we had rats running around our legs, the WAAF would scream 鈥渒eep your hands to yourself you dirty old man鈥� (mistaking the rats for men).

When I was a corporal I was asked to take a lorry load of WAAFs to Tidworth for a dance. The Americans were stationed there; they provided us with ice cream, beer and doughnuts, food that we had not seen for a long time. Rounding the WAAFs up afterwards was a nightmare. Trying to find an American solider that was fit to drive the lorry afterwards also proved to be difficult. The man they gave me could hardly stand! I went to the guard鈥檚 room to ask for another one, but he was not much better. We hit the banks on the side of the road frequently on the way home.

I was in charge of my house of seven WAAFs and invasion was highly likely. When the alarm sounded we had to report to the hanger complete with gas marks and fully dressed. I had always been a sound sleeper and was rudely woken by a military policeman as I failed to hear the alarm. We dressed as quickly as we could and ran to the hanger, we were not popular as they were waiting in the cold for a long time, for us!

A lot of watercress grows in Wiltshire grows and quite frequently we had corn beef, potatoes and watercress to eat. I remember the snails crawling on the edge of our plates as the cress had not been washed! I crushed them with my fork and pushed them onto the table. We were issued with our own knife, fork and spoon which we had to keep for the whole of our time in the WAAF. We had to wash out utensils in a sink full of dinner bits!

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