大象传媒

This story was submitted to the site by Louise Angell of the CSV Action desk at 大象传媒 Radio Derby on behalf of Lily Cannon. The author understands the sites terms and conditions.

following six years work in a hoisery factory at the age of twenty, in 1940, I was suddenly plunged into war work at the carriage and waggon works in Derby. As one of the few girls to enter B shop, the first words uttered to me, when the foreman introduced me to my work mate, (whom I grew very fond of in the eighteen months repairing hurricane wings under his guidance), "A bunny gal".

My twelve hour shifts involved leaving home at 6.20am to start work at 8.00am arriving home, often as late as 10pm. Home was at Nether Heage and I would catch the train at Ambergate station and walk from Derby station to work. During night shifts we often spent 2-3 hours in the air raid shelter. Once a bomber found it's way under the barrage balloon as we were walking along. It started to rain down it's machine gun fire. It was coming for Rolls Royce. Fortunately not much damage was done as we were thrown to the ground on the advice of fellow work mates walking behind us.

When the hanger was built at Ascot Drive, I was moved there to work on the Lancaster Bomber. I became the only female to repair the bomb aimers panels. Hundreds of broken wires to be repaired, learning all about modifications from blue prints as I went along, completing them myself to be checked by the foreman. Once I found two fingers in a panel that hadn't been cleaned properly. They were caught in the switch box. Ugh!

During my time at Ascot drive, I worked with, amongst others, a young man called Peter. After the war we all went our seperate ways and I didn't meet peter again for 35 years. We had both been widdowed but naturally had something in common. We have been married now for 22 years. Neither of us enjoy the best of health. In fact my daughter has written this from my dictation as my eyesight has failed. but we share many memories of our war years.

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