大象传媒

I left school early, as we did, many of us, in those days, with the wish to join something [and the vague idea that I should do something for My Country鈥 I would have liked to join the Land Army, but my mother objected [I think she had been reading Mary Webb, and had visions of lustful farmers鈥 鈥� and so I joined the WRNS. A mistake, as it proved, for I spent a thoroughly unhappy 2 years 鈥� and did very little for my country. I was posted to Bletchley Park [as far from the sea as you can get in England] How exciting! Some would say; not so. Nobody trained me for anything, not even when I was put onto operating a vast machine [early computer prototype]. I hadn鈥檛 a clue what I was doing. Many days [and nights] I spent filing naval signals; the only one I remember was a request from an admiral on the Far East, needing a new hat [his other must have blown overboard鈥 So I was more relieved than most when the war ended.

One thing, though, I must add: before joining up I worked for a year in Exeter, at the time it was bombed. Nobody who has seen an innocent city wrecked, and its people killed, could possibly see war as any sort of solution, to however bad a situation. A colleague, who was pregnant, was killed 鈥� and her baby with her. 鈥淏ad things happen in war鈥� says Donald Rumsfeld, and so they do. But we should never accept this, as he implies. Never! [But we don鈥檛 learn, do we?]

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