大象传媒

I was just 17, and working in the office of a shoe factory when the War broke out. As soon as the opportunity came, I took a job more useful to the War Effort, working for Brooklands Aviation at Sywell Aerodrome at Sywell in Northamptonshire. I would cycle the five miles from home to Sywell, where we would repair Wellington Bombers in vast hangers. The planes were a skeleton metal framework with heavy linen stapled to it, and then painted with 'dope'. They were extraordinary aircraft, and when we got them for repair I often wondered how they managed to fly with so much damage.

The planes were stripped to the frames and fabric replaced. I remember having to hand sew the seam along a length of wing with my curved needle. At the regulation eight stitches per inch, it seemed like a mile. I still have my needle to this day, ready for any more repair work!

On Monday mornings several of the girls came into work with stories about their Saturday nights that made us green with envy. They would go to the Market Square in Northampton, where trucks would turn up and take them to the American Bases. My friends Ethel and Vera had a fantastic time. Nothing was rationed there, plenty of good food and drink, Big Bands to dance to and of course Nylons fo the girls to wear. Vera actually became a GI Bride. I'll never forget her married name Mrs Vera Grusemeyer. My mother would never let me go, but I did meet my future husband at a dance.

"The Yanks were notorious for their tall stories to "impress the dames". How many GI brides were disappointed when they got to the huge ranch in Brooklyn!"

The Home Guard used to meet at the Social Club of The Brook which was a dressmaking factory in Northampton where my mother worked. They had organised a Social Night, and my mother played Whist, while I went to the dance. I was dancing with one young man, when someone else came in with the chat up line " Is he stepping on your feet with those big boots on?" I changed partners and met the love of my life. That was in February 1942. We had to part when his call up papers arrived on his 21st birthday (August 1942). We married after the war in March l947.

and from Raymond Skinner

After the war ended in 1946 I eventually arrived at the Transit Camp on Northampton's Racecourse to be demobbed. I was asked where I wanted my Travel Warrent making out for. I replied 'Don't bother - I can walk home from here.' He insisted that I must be issued with a Travel Warrent, so I told him to mke it out for Glasgow! It was never used and I walked the quarter of a mile to my home.

As well as our routine repair work, our engineers at Sywell also did some Top Secret work for the Dambusters Squadron. We had two aircraft come in to be specially modified. Two spotlights were fitted, a differant bomb aimers position and it was adapted to carry the now famous bouncing bombs. Much later we were offered free tickets to see the first showing of 'The Dambusters film.

My best friend Marjorie Luck was calle dup into the ATS, and stationed at Elstree in London. She occasionally came home on weekend passes. I used to go down with her on a Sunday night to catch the 6.20 back to Euston. Castle Station was always crowded. The trains never ran on time and if we were lucky it was only one and a half hours late. Often I had to push Marjorie into the train and slam the door shut quickly before she fell out again, and there she would stay all the way to London.

Hard times, but the cameraderie at the time was terrific.

Majorie Skinner.

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Janice Stevenson of 大象传媒 Radio Northampton on behalf of Majorie Skinner and has been added to the site with permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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