´óÏó´«Ã½

L/Cpl Alice Catherine Hunt nee Griffin ATS W/112190

Joining up. The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).

I volunteered on my 19th birthday on 17th December 1941 when recruiters visited the firm I was working for, in Bristol. My mother was horrified and insisted that they wouldn’t take me, but my father, being an army veteran of the First World War, was proud of what I had done. I was quite happy, as volunteers could leave after a month if they didn’t get on with army life.

Training

After I enrolled as a volunteer and I was then subsequently enlisted on 6th January 1942. My training was undertaken at Honiton, Devon, for 6 weeks starting on 16th January 1942. My Trade was to be a Teleprinter Operator / Operator Keyboard Line.

During basic training we undertook an aptitude test — my friend Daphne and I finished the test quickly and passed with good results. We were both asked to go to the radar section on leaving basic training, but neither of us wanted to do that. Daphne wanted to go back to the pay corps where she had worked before she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and I wanted to do clerical work.

After basic training I was posted to St Agnes in Cornwall, on the 11th February 1942 and Daphne was allowed to go back to her pay corps job. St Agnes was an AckAck Camp but I was posted to the office there. However I was only in St Agnes for a few days and was then moved to Orchardleigh House, in Frome in Somerset on 17th February 1942.

Description of Tasks.

We worked in shifts, every day including weekends and bank holidays. There were 3 teams working 8-2, 2-8 and a night shift.

At Headquarters (HQ) teleprinters received messages (signals) constantly and these messages were then redistributed to their intended destinations either by teleprinter, telephone or despatch rider, some of whom were ATS.

Most of the signals were Orders and during a particularly busy period many came through with the name Overlord on them. These were in code and had to pass through the cipher office before they could be issued.

Signals marked PP had to be despatched immediately. One night a PP signal arrived and a despatch rider was called. Despite being told that there would be no one to receive the message at the other end until the next morning he insisted on setting out. In the blackout conditions he unfortunately met with a fatal accident.

On The Move

We were constantly moved around during the war from place to place. There were many memorable moments.

Memorable Moments.

On 30 October 1942 I moved to 3rd Command Signal Company, Wilton House, in Salisbury. This was where we worked again in shifts, in underground cellars in Wilton House, receiving signals through the teleprinters.

Then I was moved on to Bicester Ordnance Department on the 21 December 1942, in Huts Tobruk and Rostov. Many of the ATS girls suffered from lack of heating in their huts but, because the Signals girls had to work shifts, their heating was kept going all day.

One night on duty at Bicester we found that the Teleprinters were not connected. We snuggled down and slept the night away, but were afraid to wash ourselves in the morning in case we didn’t look tired enough.

ATS Signals were not expected to drill but I did decide to be clever one day on parade and turned my nice thick khaki stockings inside out. This was noticed straifght away and I was torn off a strip!

When VE day came I was again based at Alderbury near Salisbury, we were there to learn an OKL course. I was taken along with a group of girls to a dance. It turned out that there were 4,000 men and 200 women there — my feet hardly touched the floor all evening!

I saw a signal that came through that said that we had won the war,in Europe, though I carried on with my job until I was demobbed during August 1946.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.