大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's war website by Pam Riding of Kirklees Libraries on behalf of Mrs Hassall and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions.
I went into the voluntary WRVS in Kirkheaton. My father was in charge of the ambulance crews. My uncle was also in charge of first aid. During wartime all the wives helped, they were proper family affairs.
Of course we had rationing. But you could always exchange things you didn鈥檛 like with other people. We had a local grocer, who, when he had been to the pub, would let you have a tin of salmon from underneath the counter! We also had a milkman, who used to carry illicit joints of pork hidden beneath his overall!
When I was seventeen, I joined the WAAFS with a friend who was a bit older than me. I was sent to Padgate in Lancashire and became an aircraft "chippie鈥�-carpenter. Of course, the planes only had timber frames-linen was stretched over the frame and then you had to put a pungent sticky liquid on to hold the linen onto the frame. When the planes were damaged in bombing raids, I had to go and help repair them. I also dispensed the fuel. There were several areas of the camp, stores, fuel and maintenance but we were trained to do all the jobs. At one time I was given responsibility of having the key to the fuel supply and I had to measure it out using a long stick.
I met my husband there. He had been posted there from Honeybourne. He helped to devise the use of radar in planes- he helped to develop radio controlled systems. They would fly in blacked out aircraft and see if they could land safely. When they got to the end of the runway they would feel a bump and then they knew it was time to take off and then when they returned they would again feel the bump and would know that it was time to stop the plane. Pilots would be sent to the camp mostly to rest up. He learned to drive during the war and never took a civilian driving test.
My granddad was killed in an air raid in London.
I remember Whitley Hall being taken over for American soldiers. There were a lot of Americans about. I also remember gun crews at Upper Heaton and Almondbury. Windows would rattle when firing began. I remember one bomb dropping and killing a cow and also incendiary bombs in Dalton.
Everybody knitted in those days, including the men. Uncle Bernard knitted.
I didn鈥檛 enjoy my time at Padgate because I was homesick all the time, but my friend really enjoyed it.
When my husband was demobbed, he gave me his clothing coupons so that I could buy my wedding dress! My mother was a tailor and was going to make my dress, but it would have cost more in coupons to buy the material than to buy a dress. When we got married we lived in Wolverhampton which was just at the end of the war.
A photo of my mother- in -law and sister-in-law was posted to her husband Norman, who was taken prisoner during the war and the photo actually reached him in the camp. He was taken prisoner in Italy. He had climbed a telegraph pole to look out over the surrounding area and when he looked down he realised he was surrounded by Germans. He also played the violin and again this was sent out to him and surprisingly he received this as well. He was sent to work on the land of a French family and he took his violin with him. After the war was over they sent the violin back to him and they kept in touch. He did escape from the camp, but had to walk miles until he eventually met up with the Russian army. Because of all the walking and the fact that conditions were so cramped in the camp, his feet never fully recovered.
My brother in law, Harold, was on the beach at Dunkirk. He had a badly shot up leg. When he was captured by the Germans they did experimental surgery on his leg and managed to save his leg. In peacetime he would probably have lost his leg.
My brother was in the air force but just at the end of the war. He did go to Egypt.
When I came back to Kirkheaton, there were a lot of strangers in the village. This was because some of the families who had been evacuated during the war had chosen to stay in the village, rather than returning to their home towns.
My Grandma Mallinson was knocked down and killed on Bradford Road in Huddersfield by a "Queen Mary" which was a long flatbacked vehicle, with a trailer on it, used for transporting large vehicles by road.
Grandad Mallinson worked for Upper Agrigg Bank in Huddersfield during the war and although he must have been going on for 80 years old, he was sent for a gund firing course in Dewsbury, in order to defend the bank and money from being stolen by the enemy.
My Auntie Maude and her husband Ernest came back from Canada during the war, to serve for their country, as she was a trained nurse and he was a parson.

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