大象传媒

I am Mary Pattie. I am Scottish, aged 83, and was in the Royal Air Force from 1942 to 1945.

In 1942 I worked at the Dutch Vice Council, so did not really have to join up. However I was bored with clerical work and in September 1942 decided to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Airforce (WAAF). After signing up and taking the necessary tests, I was told I would not be allowed to drive the vehicles because I was an inch too short. Would you believe it, they then placed me in a clerical job. Had I known this would happen, I would never have joined up because I ended up doing the same kind of job that I had been trying to get away from.

My first posting was to an Air Gunnery School, RAF, Castle Kennedy, in Stanraer, Scotland, and I was the only female there. My job was to keep track of the engine flying times. So they gave me a bicycle and every morning I cycled around the aerodrome to collect the information, which kept me very fit.

My boss, Squadron Leader Barton, decided that he wanted to take a picture of his squadron, but insisted that I should be included. However only sergeants, air-gunners and other high-ranking aircrew could pose for the picture and I was only a Corporal. We resolved the problem by fixing working tapes over the tapes on my jacket and one of the pilots gave me a broach in the shape of wings, which I then pinned on to my uniform. Thus I gained instant promotion to the rank of a Sergeant Pilot in the RAF and eligible to be in the picture! Ofcourse, I was instantly demoted after it was taken.

We all got on very well. I listened to their troubles, darned a few socks and generally looked after them as if they were my big brothers. On 14th August 1945 I was demobbed, but I have often wondered how many of those lads, my "big brothers" got safely through the war.

I was married during the war and in 1945, after it ended, I moved to Sunderland to join my husband who was working in the shipyard. I now have three children and they were born in Sunderland, so they do not speak like me at all.

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