大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Alma Harrison of Uckfield Community Learning Centre, a volunteer from 大象传媒 Southern Counties Radio on behalf of Joyce Ashdown and has been added to the site with her permission. Joyce Ashdown fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was 19 years old and had just been kitted out with my uniform in Gloucester. My initial training started in Morecombe in January 1942 which lasted 6 weeks. We then moved to Chigwell where we started our balloon training we were taught wire splicing, rope knots and winch training. I went on site in London, our duty was to operate Barrage Balloons during air raids. The object of the balloons was hopefully to catch the enemy planes in the wires that were under the balloon.

One particular incident I remember well happened while I was on duty the night the Bull Ring in Birmingham was being bombed. This particular night we heard the sirens and on the command rushed out to put up the barrage balloon, which we duly did. We then went to the air raid shelter with the rest of the crew as the bombing went on overhead. Suddenly the sergeant appeared and said 鈥渨ho has got the split pin?鈥� (this activated the armament and the balloon would not be any use without it). We had forgotten in the rush to pull the pin out, Two of us rushed out and pulled the balloon down again, we were both very frightened as the air raid was unleashed above us and we were in great danger. We managed to remove the pin and get the balloon back up again.

I was posted to Scotland, replacing the men on Clydebank, Glasgow. We were told that a week previously a whisky warehouse had been bombed, and the men on the site had taken advantage of all the whisky and had been very drunk. The smell lingered for weeks. I was injured because while I was taking the armament off the balloon, it was not bedded down properly, the wind took it and it crushed my right knee leaving me with severe injuries which still trouble me today. Later I was invalided out of the service which was a great disappointment to me as I loved my work. I later trained as a telephone operator in the WAAF鈥檚.

Recently, on the 60th anniversary of VE day I decided to ring an old friend who I haven鈥檛 seen for over 30 years. I managed to find her telephone number and rang. When she answered I said 鈥淲hat were you doing 60 years ago today?鈥� She replied 鈥渨ho is this?鈥� I said 鈥測ou should know鈥� She then said 鈥淕inge鈥�, we spent a long time chatting over old times. Mrs Ashdown remembers the wonderful camaraderie amongst all the crews, and all the other service people.

Mrs Ashdown remembers that they were grateful to Cinema owners during the war, who welcomed service people to their cinemas free of charge.

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