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This story has been written onto the ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War site by CSV Story gatherer Jessica on behalf of Hilary Collins. They fully understand the terms and conditions of the site.
I gave up university in London after one year and joined up to the Royal Air Force, where I trained as a plotter and was tested and qualified soon after. I plotted through the Battle of Britain and we were always very busy during our duties. After the Battle of Britain we never had anything to do on duty because there were no enemy planes, so we sat and made our cami-knickers, sometimes even from parachute silk! They were 8 hour shifts - 8 hours on and 8 hours off and we sat there, 34 feet underground, with nothing else to do.
I was in-charge of the other girls and so I wasn’t allowed to mix with them because it was thought if I was too friendly with them I couldn’t tell them off properly! This meant I was not permitted to go to any dances or socials.
Quickly after the Battle of Britain I got bored because there was nothing much to do anymore. I asked to re-muster to Keep Fit and my request was allowed. I retrained as a Keep Fit instructor and I was posted to Kenley, Surrey in a WAAF Unit. Every morning at 7.30 on the Parade Ground I led the girls through the routines and we were always watched by the fighter pilots who giggled! I worked through and became a sergeant in Keep Fit.
After a while I moved to admin, which was a bit like a matron, and had to look after the girls and ‘keep them in line’. My first position as admin was at Barrow in Furness and it was horrible. The corporal used to run me around in his motorbike and sidecar. One day I was doing the girls’ kit inspection and none of them had any underwear. We looked out of the window and there was a Chinese ship sailing away, with all the underwear hanging off the sails! The girls had hung their washing outside to dry after washing it and the Chinese sailors had pinched it!
I was then moved to Longmaston, in Yorkshire. It was the happiest unit I was ever at. Everyone had bikes and was free to go cycling whenever they were off duty, wherever they wanted to go. One of my jobs was to make sure that they didn’t pregnant! Only one girl did, and I didn’t found out until after she had given birth at her home nearby.
Then, I was posted to Pocklington. The Bomber Command was tough and I was bribed with cigarettes and gin by the officers. There were two women with many men in the mess and the other woman always accepted these gifts! Once I broke into the sergeants’ mess for the young pilots. I was pushed through the lavatory window and later I found out it was for a bet to see what underwear I was wearing!

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