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As I was in a reserved occupation, I needed special permission to join the W.A.A.F in 1943. This was granted. For training as a wireless operator, I was sent first, along with other girls, to learn the Morse Code, at Blackpool. We were all billeted in the Victorian houses which lined the streets.

These house had, until the war started, been used as boarding houses. Factory workers in the mills of Lancashire were granted one week, every year as a holiday, and they came to Blackpool to enjoy the sights and sands in their 鈥渞est week鈥�.

The landladies were all very nice and we girls were made welcome. Unfortunately we had to stay much longer than a week, and the menu never varied. We knew what was for supper every single day. But it was wartime and we were lucky to have food.

For reasons we shall never know, W.A.A.F. authority forbade us from using the baths in our houses. We were told to wash up as far as possible and wash down as far as possible, using the hand basin. We were not told what to do with possible.

To compensate for the order of not being allowed to bath in a bath, every week we had to march to the huge complex of the Derby Baths in Blackpool. A platoon of possibly 100 girls, in uniform marched in the roads, with a corporal walking on the pavement by our side. Our platoon was led by Amy Smith in the middle, with Rosalind Orchard on her right and myself, Vera Webb on her left. Rosalind and I held up the traffic on the side roads, just like policemen, until the platoon had passed. When we got to the baths it was a mad scramble to find a cubicle to undress, otherwise undressing had to done in the auditorium surrounding the swimming pool.

When cleansed and rinsed, we assembled outside in formation for the journey back. But this time the local band led us to the disbanding point and we marched to their rousing tunes.

Rosalind and I were chosen with just 16 other girls to be specially trained to use an instrument known as a Goniometer. We had to give bearings to Bomber planes, some of which were in bad shape and needed to be led home. We were trained to send and receive plain language and code at 25 words per minute. We were sent in鈥� sixes鈥� to Fighter Stations. We manned, operated and looked after all the equipment in the Direction Finding Hut for 24 hours every day in shifts, until the war ended.

鈥楾his story was given to Leicester CSV and submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Rod Aldwinckle of CSV Action Desk Leicester on behalf of Vera Webb and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions

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