大象传媒

As a 19-year old secretary, in 1939, I worked at Thomas Cook travel agents in York. The outbreak of war meant that the office was closing so when I heard that the RAF were establishing a women鈥檚 branch I decided to join the WAAF (the 34th County of York company), as my boyfriend was also in the RAF.

Immediately after Christmas I was called up, with instructions to report to Sheffield. Arriving there, I found it was just a room in a school with a small staff of women, none of whom were in uniform. I was taken to a nearby house to spend the night and the next day I was despatched by train to Uxbridge. From there I was taken to Langley - a few miles away - by RAF transport, and billeted with about 20 other young women in a small block of flats.

They all belonged to the No. 1 Mayfair Company 鈥� recruited from the upper classes - and seemed very surprised when they realized that they had been infiltrated by someone from Yorkshire! However they were all quite friendly.

Uniforms were non-existent except for our Air Force blue cardigans which were all worn with our civilian clothes regardless of whether they matched!

But January 1940 brought snow and a long spell of very cold weather, so as an emergency measure we were issued with RAF overcoats. Every morning we went en masse to the building where we worked 鈥� about 15 minutes walk away. What a weird sight we must have made buried in our men鈥檚 overcoats!

Originally I had been enrolled as a teleprinter operator but in fact was allocated a typewriter in an office occupied by several civilian typists. However, along with the other WAAF personnel I was shortly moved to High Wycombe, the new HQ of Bomber Command. I presented myself to Signals expecting to be working as a teleprinter operator, but |I was told in effect to 鈥渄isappear鈥� as there were already too many teleprinter operators.

One day in March 1940 I was delighted to be told that I was posted to RAF Linton-on-Ouse. I could hardly believe it, as my home was in this village and my boyfriend鈥檚 squadron had just moved there from Boscombe Down.

Once at Linton I was immediately issued with a complete WAAF uniform 鈥� black lace-up shoes, grey lisle stockings, skirt, tunic, peaked cap, overcoat, underwear, and a gas mask (which had to accompany one everywhere).

At last I was working as a teleprinter operator, but as we worked 8 hour 鈥榳atches鈥�, which meant sometimes going on, or coming off, duty at midnight, I was not allowed to live at home. We were billeted in the Married Quarters which the RAF families had evacuated on the outbreak of war.

My boyfriend, Pat, was a Wireless/ Op/Air Gunner with 58 Squadron which at that time were equipped with Whitley aircraft. Their first operational missions were dropping leaflets over some of the European countries which had already been occupied by the Germans. On the evening of April 30th Pat and his crew took off, along with other aircraft, to make a drop over Norway. Sadly, they did not return, and were reported 鈥榤issing鈥�. Of course it was hoped that they may have landed safely somewhere and been taken prisoners of war, in which case the Red Cross would eventually be informed. However as time passed there was no news of them having been captured and there were eventually reported as 鈥榤issing, believed killed鈥�. Needless to say, I was devastated, but hopeful that the crew may have landed safely and been taken Prisoners of War. However, hopes gradually faded and eventually the Red Cross established that they had not been taken as POWs so they were reported a 鈥淢issing, believed killed鈥�.

By June 1941 WAAFs were training as wireless operators and so I was posted to the London Radio School for training. Our billet was a very large house in Chiswick, only a few minutes walk from the school, which we attended from Monday to Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a one hour break for lunch, and from 8.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. There were about 40 of us in my class and our instructor was an elderly gentleman who had been recalled from retirement. He introduced himself by telling us that teaching a class of young ladies was a new experience for him as he had previously only trained young men for the Merchant Navy. He told us he didn鈥檛 feel it was right for young ladies to call him 鈥淪ir鈥�, at which point one of the young ladies called out 鈥淐an we call you daddy?鈥�. I don鈥檛 remember his reply but he seemed pleased so from then on we called him 鈥榙addy鈥�.

The course was quite gruelling, learning the Morse code, but gradually with a great deal of practice we increased the speed at which we could send and receive Morse. A relatively small amount of time was devoted to 鈥減rocedures鈥�. The course lasted 6 months, after which were 鈥減assed out鈥� or failed. As far as I remember, the failures were only about six of the whole class.

The course finished in mid-December and we were given 14 days leave. Naturally, we were delighted to be going home for Christmas, and on New Year鈥檚 Eve I reported to 15 Group HQ in Liverpool as a Wireless Operator.

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