大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Cleveland and submitted to the website by Jane Tombling, with the permission and on behalf of Hilda Morley.

In 1940 I was living in Kent, where the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies above. We all saw many Dog Fights between the German planes and our Spitfires. Planes were crashing and pilots baling out. One day my sister and I were pushing our bicycles in Eridge Park when a plane came over Hedge Hopping. That was they were flying so low over the fields and just skimming over the hedges, machine gunning anything they saw moving. This one came towards us machine gunning, so we dropped our bicycles and ran for the nearest big oak tree and hid behind it. Bullets were flying all over the place but that oak tree saved us to live another day.

In 1945 I went to live in a small village about 7 miles from Ripon in North Yorkshire. As I had to do some war work I signed on as a typist at the Royal Engineers Camp in Ripon. There was no transport of course, so I cycled in each day, rain or shine. I worked for Colonel Hutchings and Captain Nurrish of the REME. There I was one of the first people to learn about the new drug called Penicillin, when I had to send a memo to the medics serving in North Africa. All our work was strictly confidential but in a round about way I did get to know where our troops were and as my husband was in the Middle East I was very interested.

One of the most fascinating persons I met there was Franklyn Englemann of the 鈥淒own Your Way鈥� programme. He was a very large man both in size and nature. Also I met an artist called Bruno. He used to draw caricatures of us all, and after the war he worked for a well known magazine.

On a Thursday afternoon it was exercise day for all the soldiers, and they performed their antics outside the typist鈥檚 window. What entertainment for us girls to watch these captains and colonels in their little shorts, lets up in the air passing a long pole to one another. Happy days!!

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