大象传媒

In 1940 I was eighteen and conscripted, I wanted to join the Army but failed my Medical so I was posted to the NAAFI.
The Navy,Army and Airforce Institute or NAFFI for short was a Civilian Force where many men and women catered for servicemen and women all over the World in combat zones.Many brave men and women gave their lives during the War helping in the War effort.Some men were stationed aboard ship or in field camps and the women manned the sprawling canteens and field kitchens.
I was first sent to Otley near Leeds, as a Coffee Bar Assistant where I trained as a Kitchen Assistant. Then I found myself at Harewood Barracks, in Leeds as Kitchen Maid. This being the lowest rank, I was first up at 6.00am, lighting all the fires and taking Head Cook a cup of tea in bed. I was then sent to Cavely Barracks in York, from where I attended a course,just behind the Minster.Leaving this I was posted as Head Cook to Hornsea,then onto Billy Butlins at Filey, which had been taken over by the RAF.A notice was posted asking for voluteers,I put my name forward and a letter arrived one day, marked personal and not to divulge the content to anyone.All would be explained at interview.All went well but the destination was kept from me. I was given a train ticket and found ten more girls, going to the same destination. We arrived at a train station in Hampshire, from where we were transported in a lorry, deep into a dense forest.
We came to a clearing and there before us, were row after row of tents. We were allocated two-man tents but shortly after it was my 21st and I had brought a cake with me. All eleven girls crammed into the two-man tent, to enjoy the cake.
The mess was open as and when because most of the lads were coming off manoeuvres late at night.
We found out later that our soldiers were to play a vital part in the DDay landings. When they had gone to embark, the whole area was very quiet and we wondered how many of our lads, would come back.
Not long after, a letter was posted signed by Ike Eisenhower asking for volunteers to help in the push across Europe as part of the British Liberation Army. We boarded a Hospital Ship, bound empty for France. The ship landed us at Arramanaches in Normandy, so we had to go down a rope ladder and onto a landing craft, then onto the Mulberry Harbour.From there we boarded a lorry, which travelled on very rough roads.
Our destination was a battered Cinema in the town of Caen, which was almost flattened. Our billet was the projection room so twelve girls slept in there. The kitchen range, which was downstairs, was fuelled by old oil. I had never cooked like this before and the oil had a habit of overheating. One day something went wrong and the whole range went up in flames. I screamed and lads next door rushed in and fought the flames. Later the Commanding Officer for the whole of the area, came in and said
鈥淭his is the only bloody place in the whole of the town with a roof on and you try to burn the bloody place down鈥�.
We spent Christmas there and I was determined to give the lads a meal to remember but we were short of pans, so we cooked in large empty bully beef tins.
Because the lads were on active service, they had no money so tokens with eight sides, were issued made out of compressed linoleum.
One day, walking down the street with a couple of girls, we met these sailors and one came up to me and said 鈥淵our Peggy Dowding鈥� to which I replied no, so he said" Well you must be Joyce Dowding then", to which I replied I was and it turned out to be a lad, from our neck of the woods called Terry Collins, who later in life would be our local Mayor. Small World.
I finished the war in Ypes Belgium,where I stayed for a few months.During my stay there, I met a Belgian girl, Marie and we became very good friends.I would go to her house for tea.Over the years we kept in touch and now after all this time, her niece writes and I met her and her family, when I went back recently, to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of VE Day.
From Ypes I then went to Antwerp, then joined the British Army of the Rhine, where I stayed for five years.

Written with the help and cooperation of Miss Joyce Dowding by Ged Fleming, Cleveland CSV (Story Gatherer)

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