大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Chris Comer of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Gwen Comer and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

During the war I kept house for my father in a little village called Ellesmere in Shropshire and could not join the forces.

I worked at an army camp, the Elson Depot, just outside Ellesmere making camouflage nets. One Christmas we gave up our Christmas leave to make camouflage nets for the Russian troops. These nets were mainly white with just little dashes of green (this was very trying for the eyes). At this time Russian officers supervised us - they were always well turned out in smart uniforms and were perfect gentlemen. It seemed strange that after the war the Russians suddenly seemed to be our enemies.

There were men at the camp mending army tents. These were boys whose beliefs did not let take part in combat duties - Conscientious Objectors. They were not allowed to wear any badges on their uniforms and so were easily picked out and given a hard time by other men at the local dances. We felt sorry for them. They all seemed to come from nice homes and treated us with respect.

There was a big American camp at Oatley Manor full of American GI's. They were popular with the local children giving them sweets etc. They came into the village for dances and a lot of romances and GI marriages resulted (some of them a bit short lived!) - but I didn't have a lot of time for them myself. There was a lot of friction between the white and coloured Americans. In fact one coloured American received a serious beating from his white 'comrades' after he had the temerity to dance with a white girl. It was sad when they were supposed to be fighting a war together.

We helped the war effort but, like those in munitions and the NAAFI, never received much praise for this.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.