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I lived in Kilnsea (East Yorkshire). I was a radar operator in the ATS, and I was posted in the Midlands when they were bombing the big towns.

When I was at Wolverhampton, there was a US Air Force base next to us, and a message came over one day: if you’re going on leave and any of their planes were going to one of the airfields near your home, you could take a ride with them instead of the train. So I made the arrangements to take the plane the next time I went home on leave.

But the morning I was meant to go there was thick fog. We got up in the air, and the pilot came back down two minutes later because it was so thick.

I had to turn around and go back to the train station. It had more or less lost me a day, because I would be arriving in Hull too late to get out to Kilnsea.

When I got to Hull I went to the transport police, and they said they had a fellow waiting to go to Kilnsea. He was in their office waiting for a taxi, and they said ‘You could go with him if he doesn’t mind.’

I walked into the transport police office and it was only my brother! He was on leave from the continent. He said they’d just asked him if he minded sharing his taxi with an ATS, and he was hoping it would be a nice little lass!

(Transcribed by Joachim Noreiko)

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