大象传媒

This story was told to Helen Kemp at Fairfield Manor Residential Home, Broadstairs, Kent. The author is aware that the copyright of this story now belongs to the 大象传媒.

I was born in 1923 and was one of 10 children, 3 brothers and 6 sisters.

I remember the bombing all around us especially in the Margate and Ramsgate Roads. One day I went with two of my sisters to buy six eggs for mum. On the way back a home guard shouted at us to lay down on the pavement. Bullets from aircraft fire went all around us. We were all fine but the eggs were broken and when I got back home I remember saying "It wasn't me that broke them, it was Mr Hitler"!

Our house and the one next door had a space between them and a V1 bomb went right between the two houses and hit the house at the back. One day during the bombing my dad who was an electrician, just left his bike and ran. The planes were after the trains carrying the miners home from the pits. Their wives were always waiting for them. Once we heard a German plane coming over - they always sounded different- and we rushed to the Anderson shelter we looked up and saw the bottom of the plane open and a bomb drop. We thought it was very exciting!

I wanted to join the ATS and told them I was 16, I was really only 15. They said come back in three weeks and my dad made sure I did. I wsn't allowed to be idle during those three weeks, I was made to work in a laundry in Ramsgate dealing with bedding and clothing for the soldiers. i went back in thrre weeks time and joined the ATS and was sent to Halifax for my training. Although I wasn't very good at it I was sent on a cookery course. I didn't pass.

I was then sent to Chillwall, Nottinghamshire and they put me on washing up. We looked after about 200 soldiers who were being trained as tank crew. I only remember one bomb in Nottingham but it didn't kill anybody.

When I was on leave in Ramsgate I used to watch the German and English pilots dogfight over Ramsgate and Dover.

My senior officer, SGt. Garside tried to show me how to cook Yorkshire Puddings. There were two massive big ovens and I couldn't believe it when mine rose more than hers.

One day we were making doughnuts when the King and Queen visited. They spoke so kindly to me and then asked what I was making. The Queen asked if she might try one and said they were delicious. I was very proud to have made adoughnut for the Queen.

I felt very honoured when I was taken and shown the tank that had been made especially for Winston Churchill before it was taken away for his use. We were never told where it was going. Before the men left with the tank I cooked them breakfast, bacon and eggs, but there were never any sausages. We never saw sausages at all.

I had a good time in the ATS and felt I was a shy person but it made me more confident in myself. The soldiers used to take me out and have a good time before they went to war, many never returned.

I met my husband in a Nottingham pub, he was in the army. We had four children, 3 daughters and 1 son.

I had a good life and loved the ATS and didn't want to leave. After the war we came back to Ramsgate to live in a prefab and I found it hard cooking for just the two of us after 200 soldiers!

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