大象传媒

I was on my way to Sunday School on the morning of 29th September 1939 when I first knew war was declared. This didn't mean much to me. We were waiting for something to happen, but it was a long time before anything did happen. I was nearly 19 years old. After a while we started to practice responses to air raid sirens. Air raid shelters were built, some underneath large buildings, others were in back gardens. During this time I was still working in the printing factory. Buses were blacked out so as not to be visible from the air. All houses had black-out curtains so as not to be visible. People started to have to go to work in the munitions factories. Men and women were conscripted to the Forces. People working had to take a turn at firewatching duties in case of enemy aircraft attack.

About 1942 I was called to go either to the Auxilary fireservice, munitions, or land army. I requested Fireservice and was granted this. I was sent to Leamington Spa, Warwickshire for training as a switchboard operator/control room staff.
While at Leamington we had lots of air raid warnings as there was an airfield at Stratford and others nearby. We were called out to chimney fires as these were visible to planes coming over.
In January 1944 we recieved a letter advising us we were to be moved, we didn't know where. We later realised it was to do with one of the big pushes of the war.
We marched as a group to the station and transported to Barry Dock. We stopped over night somewhere. I still don't know where this was. We had a list of kit to take with us including our ration book and personal toiletries. We were fed as group while travelling. All train windows were blacked out and station names erased. This was the case all over the country.
I went to Barry dock, south wales. I stayed here for about 18 months. During this time I went to Newport for 48hours duty, coming back to Barry for 24 hour rest. While at Barry we were woken in the middle of the night to find all the American soldiers marching down to the Docks for one of the invasions. We went to see the camp later and it was deserted as if no one had been there. While at Newport one of the fiemen wanted to teach me to drive, but I wouldn't let him because I couldn't see how I would ever be in a positon to have a vechile to drive. How short sited. Sailors or every nationality came into Cardiff. We used to go into pubs at Bute Street. We had to be very careful who we spoke to for fear of giving away secrets. Some of this time i spent at Swansea, going to Mumbles, where one of the girls taught me to swim. The fire station here was very basic, with no mains sewers, but we did have running water. We very lonely and isolated here.
While I was still in Stoke I met a young soldier who was training in the area for the Royal Artillery. He was from Glenfield, Leicester. He was posted aboard and I started recieving letters from him. They were all censored. I still have these letters, but they have no dates. He was serving in the south east asia command with the west african army. While he had a burmese cat in burma. After returning to England he spent some time in Stoke and we got married, using pooled coupons to clothes and wedding cake. At this time he had an allotment for a short while. This was after the war had ended, in April 1946.

I went back to Leamington for a short while.
At this time my husband to be sent me directions of buses etc for me to go to Leicester to meet his father and step-mother. He was still abroad at this time.

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