大象传媒

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I volunteered for the WLA (Women鈥檚 Land Army) after having to register for 鈥淲ork of National Importance鈥� at the age of 17 in 1942. I was instructed to proceed to Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, for 2 weeks training and directed into the Womens Timber Corps. Branch of the WLA. Our uniform and conditions were exactly the same, but we were distinguishable by our green berets, instead of hats and a badge of pine tree and letters WTC. This was 28th December, 1942. About 80 girls were taken here for training every month, a great variety of girls 鈥� from disparate backgrounds and jobs 鈥� we鈥檇 never met Geordies and Yorkies, but we soon learned that although our speech was different, we were all very similar underneath. After this basic training which included tree recognition, use of axes, saws and measuring timber, work was generally felling and measuring and cutting pit props for the miners, an essential product for all the coal mines, which played such a large part in the war industry and on the home front. At the end of the 2 week training, we were split up and posted to many different parts of the country 鈥� myself and 5 other girls to Mortanhampstead, Devon, a small town on the edge of Dartmoor and this was our work place. Although peaceful, war was never far away 鈥� large areas of countryside was given over to training for American and British troops. The area of the SOUTHAMS was totally evacuated as a training ground for American troops in preparation for D-Day, and was sadly the site of the disastrous loss of life to American forces at Clapton Sands in one night.
Whilst pruning and thinning in a young plantation on Dartmoor, we came upon a human skeleton - strange but not really unpleasant 鈥� it transpired it was the remains of a Hungarian banker who had chosen this secluded spot to take his own life.

In early 1944 we were moved from Devon to a WTC camp just over the Tamar in Cornwall, Boyton near Launeston. Here were approximately 30 girls in three nissen huts 鈥� all very different, but all with the same feelings 鈥� it can鈥檛 be long now so let鈥檚 get on with it. Hard work, but lots of fun. On the 4th July 1944 we were given a thanksgiving dinner by the American troops stationed nearby 鈥� almost a banquet after our usual camp rations! The camp was closed as a WTC camp late in 1944 and used to house German POW鈥檚 as much needed accommodation for the numbers now arriving.

I finished the remainder of my war service working in forests around South Molton, N. Devon and lived in a private billet with girls who became life time friends after we were made redundant in February, 1946.

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