大象传媒

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Brixham and the ATS.

My name is Dot Steer, the only daughter of Walter and Eva Pook of Babacombe, Torquay, Devon. I went to Homelands Central School, which I enjoyed very much, and left just before the war broke out. I got the usual Certificates, but I can't remember what they were called. I went to work in the same Solicitors Office where my father worked for forty years. He was the managing clerk. 'Whilst I was still at home I remember at about six o'clock each evening a plane used to fly over the town. It was an old Lysander, I think. It was very regular, every evening, about six to six thirty. It was in the summertime. It came in over the cliffs to the South West. It appeared to be starting off on a journey. What it was doing I shall never know. I can't find out'. After about a year I decided to join up. I joined the ATS. It must have been 1940 and I was only 19 years old. I remember my number, which was 258777. I had never been away from home before. My farther did not want me to go. He would not come to see me off, I think he was too upset. He said ' I went through the war last time for four years. Never thought to see you going into uniform'. As far as I can remember dad was in the Infantry. They were not prepared like they are today. I remember joining up with a girl from Brixham, who cried all the time. I first went to North Wales to be kitted out. It seemed a long way from home. It took all day to get there, trains being what they were. We had to do drill, which was a pain. I suppose that I was there no more than a couple of months before going on to be trained as a Signaller. I can't remember where. It wasn't Catterick. We got the usual 72 hour pass at the end of our training, but travelling took up a lot of the time. My farther did not want me to come home. He said don鈥檛 even try to get home. I felt that it was very hard. I was trained in the morse code and then we had to type it through the headphones. We typed it onto sheets of paper. It was all in code. I can't remember where I went after training. I do remember that we worked shifts. I can't remember any more, it has just faded away. After the end of the war I returned to work in the solicitors office.

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