大象传媒

At the beginning of the war I thought I would like to join the F.A.N.Y.s (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry),who were drivers, thinking I would spend the war driving Generals and Colonels around the country in staff cars. However as soon as I joined, the F.A.N.Y.s became amalgamated with the A.T.S. and my dreams were shattered.

I was still a driver though and was posted to a village up near Lancaster, called Caton, where a vehicle depot was being started. The vehicles were stored in a large park under the trees, so as not to be too visible from the air. Our job was to keep all the vehicles clean and in good working order, so that they were ready for immediate delivery to where they were needed and also to bring in other vehicles. So for much of the time we were convoy drivers.

One regular trip was to Liverpool Docks on the train to pick up vehicles sent over from America, then we had a police motorcycle escort out of Liverpool and were put on the right road back.

Driving in convoy wasn't easy as you had never driven this particular type of vehicle before, and we were allowed to drive up to three-ton lorries but no tracked vehicles. Of course there were no signposts. At traffic lights your heart sank if you were the one who had to stop at red and the vehicles in front drove off out of sight and you'd still got ten or so of your vehicles behind you. So you had to hang out of the window and shout at any pedestrian, "Which way did they go?" and hope for directions. Anyway we always did get back safely.

Another regular journey was to, if I remember rightly, Longbridge, Birmingham to collect Morris utility vans, and I was usually designated leader because "I lived in the area". So I had to lead everyone through Birmingham and on to Whittington Barracks, where we were put up for the night - this was not a popular stopping place. But I was lucky as I spent the night at home on these occasions. The most desirable journey was to go off by yourself to deliver one staff car, but these were few and far between.

At some stage I was sent down to South Wales to a civilian garage and workshop to learn to be a driver mechanic. After that I always drove at the back of the convoy to assist anyone who broke down (I can't believe it now!)

We did quite a lot of train travelling as our driving journeys were one way - and Preston station was memorable for its free canteen for service personnel, which consisted mainly of sandwiches and very memorable to me were beetroot sandwiches with damp pink bread and red filling, not very nice!

Anyway they were happy times and we all enjoyed ourselves.

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