大象传媒

This story all began in 1937, when my sister came over to England. To work in a London hotel as a waiteress. I was sixteen when she came back to Ireland to visit us all and was most impressed by the clothes she now owned; even her job sounded exciting so i desided to join her in 1942. By this time, my sister had been conscripted for war work and had been sent to Vickers Armstrong in Birmigham to work on the Spitfires ( I was completely unaware of this until i arrived at Euston station after my boat and train jorney from Dublin). My arrive in Birmingham caused a few problems as I was classed as an alien and han been granted permission to travel to my new place of employment in London! As I was only seventeen when I came over, my sister made arrangements with Vickers Armstrong to employ me so that I would not be left alone in London. Every six months I had to report too the local police station to request permission to prolong my stay in the UK. This requirement continued until my marriage in 1946. The home office then stamped my travel permit to say that I was now exempt from all restrictions placed upon aliens at that time. When I joined my sister I spent a month in the training school learning how to use the various machines. I started on a drilling machine making holes to reveting; I then went onto a hand press which produced variuos parts for the plane. I was then put on a large press, but I was removed as it was far too large for me to operate as I am only 4'11. I was then sent to "E" block Assembly; this was where the panels were produced and tested prior to fititng in the planes; these were used for the "blind flying" ( I think this probably meant night flights). Although it was againist the rules a group of us put our names in a vacant spaces on one of the panels and wished good luck to whoever would use the machine. One girl put her address in as well and recieved a letter from a pilot saying that he had noticed the names whilst flying over Germany and was amazed to discover women were actually producing such a complicated and vital piece of equipment! He also came to see us at work after being granted permission to visit as of course our work was very important and there was high security at all times. One of the highlights of my time there was a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt. She visited all the departments in turn and I seem to remember that she brought sweets in for all of us. I do remember thats he seemed a very caring a pleasant person. During our lunch breaks concerts were organused for us to keep up morale; we had visits from such famous names as Tessie O'shea, Charlie Chester, Tommy Handley and Ted Ray. There was quite a lot of tension at that time as you never knew when we were going to experience an air raid. You always had to carry a gas mask and a helmet. I remember the hospitak opposite my lodgings (Jaffery Hospital) being bombed; alot of incendiary bombs were dropped and the home guards and air raid wardens were all involved in putting out the fires and evacuating the patients. The air raid wardens were vigilant in checking that you did not show ant lights at night to maintian the blackout. There was no streetlights, and of course only limited light allowed on vichels. Whenever is was foggy the trams had to stop as it was impossible to see; we used to do quite alot of walking. Vickers Armstrong had their owb air raid shelters; if the siren went we had to down tools immediately abd head for our shelter. The were below ground with brick sides and stone floors. At my lodgings we had an indoor anderson shelter; this looked like a metal cage and could take 8-10 people at the one time. We had to stay in the shelters until the "all clear" was sounded. I often say that I stopped the bombings in Birmingham as there was only to major bombings after my arrival - one at aston cross and one at the rotunda. When the air raids happened Aston Cross my sister took me along to see what had happened and I remember seeing all the rubble and all the stock from the shops lying in the rubble; there was quite alot of looting at times like that.

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