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This story is taken from an interview with Leah McConnell at the Ballymena Servicemen’s Association, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I was in the services. I was in the WAAF and I transferred to the WRAF when the war was over. I did 6 years and 9 months, 6 years and 9 months. [I joined up in] 1942. When the war ended I still stayed on, because I’d signed on for 2 more years, and I wanted to fulfil my engagement. So that’s why I maybe had a wee bit longer service than some of them. And then most of them in England, they were conscripted. We were voluntary, you see? Women’s voluntary Air Force.

I joined up in Belfast. But my home wasn’t in Belfast. I belong to County Fermanagh.

I never served there. I was posted across the water straight away. I went to Innsworth in Gloucester for what we called square-bashing. You’ve heard tell of it?
Rough. It was about 3 months, roughly. Then at the end of it I got a week off. So I got home for a week. Then you started your original training for what you wanted to do. And I joined up Balloon operator.
[that entailed] Flying balloons 5 thousand feet. Barrage balloons. It was a hard job. It was hard work. We took over from the men. They had to go do further work for the RAF, you see? They were taken for other jobs and we took over. It was tough now, I can tell you. Day and night, you had to be up.

[duties]
It depended. You were on a site where there was maybe 16 ladies and a corporal, and that was divided up, because so many was to go to the one side of the balloon and the others to the other, and then we had what they call a winch, maybe you’ve never heard of a winch.
And you had to learn to use that, and when the call came to fly the balloons, one lady, one was always to do that job. Any one of the crew — a crew, we called them — and you run to the winch and you got in and flew your balloon 5 thousand feet. And that stayed then until you were told later on to bed them down again. And when those balloons were down on the ground again they had to be tied, because they were very light, you know. It was a nylon kind of fabric. And great big blocks, they were that size, and we had to move those and tie them to the balloon. In all hours of the night. However, it’s over now.

[were the balloons filled with explosive Hydrogen?]
I’m sure it would be. And they had to be topped up all the time. They had to be at a certain pressure. But it was a great life, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Oh, I did.

[balloons only used when air raids were in progress]
That’s right. Oh, you forget about that when you’ve got to think about these things. And what’s the use of joining if you weren’t going to do the job? That’s what I said. However.

[based in Gloucester]
No. Once I did. I had to go back to do my balloon training. Then I was posted to Newcastle-on-Tyne. You know, in the north of England. And there was a lot there, because they were all coming along from the coast there. And I went to a place called Long Benton, I think it’s still about. I was over there a couple of years ago and I saw a signpost for it, but maybe there’s no RAF there now. They’re all changed, you know? I wouldn’t know it anyway.

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