大象传媒

I am Pauline Markwell. I was born in 1923, and I lived in Fort Road, Newhaven, at the time, which we had to leave because the Navy came along and we all had to get out and find other accommodation, and they stayed there for the duration.

My memory, one thing stands out very clearly, is walking on the cliff with my friend. This is before we both joined up into the RAF in 1942. Then there was a little boat sitting out there, been minesweeping, and the sea was dead calm, and Masie and I looked at it and there was an almighty explosion and the next thing, there was nothing there at all. Not even a piece of driftwood. I can remember that so clearly. Apparently it had been out minesweeping and he was coming in and he switched off the degaussing gear, and headed for the harbour, and he hit a mine. We鈥檇 heard the plane the night before laying the mines going along which was often happening. That was one of my very clear memories.

Another one that stands out in my mind and I guess in a lot of people鈥檚, was the Dieppe Raid, when the night before the Dieppe Raid, which would have been the, 18th August 1942, the place was alive with troops. Canadians, 1st Division, 2nd Div:, 3rd Div:, and they cheered them up whilst they鈥檇 been stationed in Fort Road, and they were all round Sleeper鈥檚 Hole as we knew it then. There were Tank Landing Craft and Personnel Landing Craft, and they were all over the harbour, moored on both sides of the boats. On the other side Lord Lovat鈥檚 Piper was going up and down playing the pipes while the troops went onto the boats. There was such a lot of activity; soldiers everywhere. My mother kept sending me down to the troops with buns and magazines and things. I鈥檓 sure they appreciated the buns but I don鈥檛 think they ever had time to read the magazines. Anyway, we went to bed, and in the morning my mother woke me quite early and we went onto the balcony of our house and there was not a boat in the harbour. It was completely empty. The sea was flat calm, and they鈥檇 all gone, as we now know, to Dieppe. And as we stood there watching, the first one came back with the wounded. I remember that day. I was working at the workhouse then, as Master鈥檚 Clerk. We didn鈥檛 have any of the tragedy there I don鈥檛 think but they did go by, lorry loads with the dead, or else with the wounded. But there were loads of them in Newhaven, shell-shocked, getting escape the only way they knew how, by getting drunk. They were rolling around the town. It was quite terrible really.

Thinking back to another memory, we were still living in Fort Road because I was still at home and I must have been quite young, and we鈥檇 gone to bed as normal, my parents and I, and I think we had a Naval Officer billeted on us as well,

In the morning we were getting up and having breakfast as usual, and Captain Shaw and his wife Madeleine arrived on our doorstep absolutely bedraggled and dusty. No luggage, nothing. They鈥檇 had to leave their flat in Dieppe because the Germans were advancing down the coast and they had walked or however all the way to Cherbourg with the Germans coming behind them where they boarded a collier and crossed to Southampton, and from there they鈥檇 made their way to us, where they stayed for quite a long time and got some clothes together and managed to pull themselves together. Captain Shaw lost his boat in Dieppe harbour because she was shut up in the inner harbour and he was probably at home. He then joined another ship down at Fishguard.

Just after that I joined up so I don鈥檛 have very many more memories of Newhaven in wartime, but of my own when I went into the RAF. I was mostly in non-combatant units, Fighter Training Command and things like that. But in 1944 I went to France, which was quite exciting. We flew from Croydon airport, we didn鈥檛 know where we were going. I had a code with my mother, and I said if we go to Paris, I鈥檒l tell you I鈥檝e been to see Roland who was a friend of ours who lived in Lewes, and if we go to Brussels, because we knew at the time they were the only two places that girls were going, I鈥檒l write something about Brussels carpets. Off we went in an old Dakota and there were two girls on board. The rest were all quite high-ranking army, and I was sitting with a certain red-braided gentleman, I don鈥檛 know what his rank was, but we flew straight over Newhaven. I was so excited I was leaning across him saying 鈥淚 live down there, I live down there鈥� and he was very cross with this rather stupid WAAF.

Anyway, we landed at Le Bourget, which had been very heavily bombed and we bumped our way down the runway, and off to billets. I was actually billeted in a hotel about two minutes walk from the Arc de Triomphe, which was quite an experience. The Germans had not long been gone, and there was a lot of evidence that the Germans had been there. In the hotel that I was billeted in there were pictures of the Fuehrer and things on the wall that had been taken down; you could see where they鈥檇 been. There鈥檇 been German SS women there.

There were still a lot of Germans, as a driver we had to go out driving into the hills and on long trips, and as a driver we were well aware that there were Germans being hidden and sheltered by French girls. One night our troops did actually come across a couple of Germans who were hiding, and there was rifle fire and bullets whizzing around, and we were ushered down into a cellar for safety, and that was quite an event.

They used to put wire across the roads to try and decapitate motorcyclists mostly, but we drove open jeeps. With your head exposed, and you could have lost that.

I had an officer who had worked with the Macquis. I had to drive him out to a place called Coulommi猫res, which was a long way from Paris, he went in, he said 鈥淚鈥檒l find somewhere for you to go鈥�, and I got out of the truck and I was standing there, and an airman came up to me. I said 鈥淗ello鈥� or something, he said 鈥淒o you speak English?鈥� and I said 鈥淥f course, I鈥檓 a WAAF鈥� and he鈥檇 never seen a WAAF before. They鈥檇 been in the Middle East and come back through Italy and ended up in France, and he brought all the others out to meet me. When I came back I was loaded down with lilac that was growing in the garden and they wanted to know how many there were of us and they threw a dance for us, and laid on lorries to fetch us with arm-chairs and took us out this place. We had a wonderful time, and we were the first WAAFs they鈥檇 ever seen. But this is understandable because there weren鈥檛 many WAAFs in the Middle East. But as a driver, you weren鈥檛 releasing a man very often because sometimes a man had to come with you because it wasn鈥檛 fair to go on your own.

It was quite an exciting time. We stayed there for a year and they eventually sent us back home. I enjoyed my time in France.

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