大象传媒

Story by Albert Simmons
When I was ten years old I lived with my six sisters, Mum and Dad at Shiregreen cenetery lodge.
This was at the start of WW2 in 1940.
The RAF sited a ballon barrage inside the cemetery and I ran errands for the 9 RAF men - fetching their fish and chips - things like that.
All my scholmates were really jealous when the airmen made me their mascot. They made me a uniform and I attended their pay parade every week. I had to behave the same as all the airman, saluting and everything.
When the war became more serious the airmen were transferred to fighting units and were replaced by sixteen WAAFs. To make sure I continued my roll I waited all day for them to arrive, I was introduced to them and my service continued.
There were many interestin incidents.
On one stormy night the balloon was anchored near the ground and the WAFFs were called out as it was breaking free from the ballast bags. It was tossing about and one WAAF, called Katherine, was caught by a trailing rope and thrown into the air and was seriously injured. She was taken to Wharncliffe hospital and was there for some weeks and when I next saw her she had changed from a placid, lovely girl into an agressive and obnoxious personality - obviously due to the head injuries she had received.
Another incident was one afternoon as I sat on the steps of the guard room. A telephone call requested the staff to pull in the balloon as quickly as possible because a British bomber was approaching beneath the hight of the balloon. There was a rush to do this and I could hear the drone of the engines of what turned out to be a Hamden bomber. It broke through the cloud cover and, as I watched, the plane hit the cable of another balloon which was sited in Woolley Woods. I watched aghast as it slowly turned over and began a steep descent into a football pitch in Concord Park where lads were playing. I watched as two parachutes came to the ground and understand one was found hanging in the branches of a tree. Both airmen from the plane survived.
The WAAFs went on guard duty every night in pairs armed with trunchions. Being stationed in a cemetery, some were frightened of being so near gravestones. One of the WAAFs, a Geordie called Mickey, put a white sheet over her head and walked between two nissen huts carrying a chain from the rifle rack - whaling and making a funny moaning sound. One of the two WAAFs on guard that night was a Welsh girl called Ginger who ran screaming away - the other simply struck out with her truncheon and Mickey was laid out on the ground.
One of the WAAFs, Mary Saunders, became a friend of my family. One day she was going on leave and we went to see her off at Midland Station. whilst waiting for her train she persuaded my mother to let me travel with her to Hitchen, Hertfordshire and my mother reluctantly agreed. I heard afterwards my dad went hairless at my mother as these were dangerous times but I thought it was a great adventure.
As I returned before Mary to Sheffield I was put on the train at Bedford and put in the charge of a group of soldiers who fed me on chocolate etc. I sat on their kit bags in the corridor until I arrived back in Sheffield - tired but happy.
There were many other incidents I could relate but suffice it to say; my war was the happiest days of my life.

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