大象传媒

'This story was submitted to the People's War site by Madeline Tuck of the Suffolk Library and Heritage team on behalf of Rosemary Baldock and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'
As I was in a reserved occupation I should not have joined the forces, but 3 weeks before I was due to marry, my finace Jack, a RAF Observer on Stirling Bombers, was posted missing. I decided that I had to get away and do something else so joined the ATS. I was attached to the Royal Ordnance Corps and after 3 months training was posted on an attachment to an American Unit doing something called 'locations', re-ordering supplies. I went AWOL three times because they would'nt give me leave! Once for my 21st birthday, the second time to go to a friends fathers funeral with her, and the third time when a freinds mother was ill and wanted me to go with her to see her. I was put in the cookhouse to clean dirty dishes at night as a punishment. 1 week the first time, 2 weeks the second and 1 month the third! On Fridays brick lorries would be parked outside, you could pay the driver 6d to travel to wherever they were going. I was due to go to Amsterdam but the British bombed the quayside warehouse that we were due to work in so I did'nt go.
After the war one of Jack's crewmates visited me to tell me that he had died 4 years earlier- he visited the families of all the crew members who had'nt survived.
I returned to my base for 3 months after the war then returned home. I met Eric, and was married to him for 54 years until he died 5 years ago.

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