- Contributed byÌý
- actiondesksheffield
- People in story:Ìý
- John and Molly Schofield
- Location of story:Ìý
- South of England and Belgium
- Background to story:Ìý
- Army
- Article ID:Ìý
- A4552553
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 26 July 2005
Molly's Story
This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Bill Ross of the ‘Action Desk — Sheffield’ Team on behalf of John Schofield, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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My wife was typical of lots of girls of her generation. She was not a heroine, but she did her bit to help us win World War Two. She did not pass what was then the equivalent of the Eleven Plus examination, and consequently, she only had an elementary education, and left school at the age of fourteen.
At the outbreak of war, she was sixteen years old and was in domestic service. At eighteen, she volunteered to join the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), and was trained to be a height and ranger finder. On completion of her training, she was posted to an Anti-Aircraft Battery. When on duty, she assisted with the firing of the Ack Ack Guns by predicting the height and range at which the shells had to be fired by the men of the battery. Her Ack Ack Battery was eventually stationed in Kent as part of the defence of London, which was then being blitzed by German Bombers.
During the build up to D-Day, the battery remained on the south coast to defend against attacks by enemy aircraft, whilst the troop and materials were being massed there in readiness for the invasion of France.
A few months after D-Day, the battery went over to France and then into Belgium, and it was in Brussels that my wife celebrated V.E. Day in 1945. I say my wife, because despite the war, we found time to get married. It was a typical wartime wedding; she was twenty and I was twenty-one. We were both on leave and had to get a special licence on a Friday, and were married on the following Tuesday. I was on embarkation leave, so we did not see each other again until after the war in Europe was over, which was more than eighteen months later.
After the war, Molly settled down to be a loving wife, mother and grandmother. We were able to celebrate our Diamond Wedding Anniversary last year (2004), but sadly, she died last November. We had spent more than sixty happy years together, which is something I will be grateful for to my dying day.
Pr-BR
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