大象传媒

I lost my teenage years to the war.
Because parents were frightened to let children out of their sight, to be under constant supervision becomes very restrictive.

The war in the Middle East and later in Italy was only brought home to us by the cinema Pathe News,newspaper reports and the 大象传媒 news bulletins which were eagerly awaited. The constant battles and losses at sea, the quite dreadful fighting going on in the desert, the awful waste of men's lives in combat,these things were governing our lives and yet, unless you were personally involved the horror, was far removed from your daily existance.

When I was 18 in 1944 I decided to join the ATS. My brother was already in the airforce and the idea of being quite grown up was very appealing, actually you just swap one set of rules for another when you join the forces.
I grew up very quickly, became an army driver and was responsible for my own actions which did not involve having parents to hide behind.

A very vivid memory of my training in Camberley, was looking up at dusk to see hundreds of bombers in the sky, no doubt part of the thousand bomber raids in Germany at that time, how terrifying for the citizens of Germany!

I was stationed at Shandon on the Gareloch in Scotland- a prewar Hydro was taken over by the army and our quarters were in part of a lovely hotel. Our duties were many and varied. Drivers were rather pampered- being excused parades and early morning runs etc. because our working ours were so unusual. The sappers canteen was always open to us and the memory of these wonderful egg, bacon and sausage sandwiches lingers still.

Although the war seemed to be a world away, never the less the shipping that we saw in the Clyde was obviously very much to do with the war. The flying boats at RHU, the Naval depot at Roseneath, even the POW camp (for Italians) all very low key and yet these things are as fresh in my mind as my most recent holidays. My army service came to an end in Scotland. I had met and married a young soldier who was in the 8th army throughout the campaigns in North Africa and Italy- he knew what war was all about. How senseless it is- I wonder will it ever stop?

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