大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Alex Crawford on behalf of Ivy Ross and has been added to the site iwth her permission. Ivy Ross fully understands the site's terms and conditions:

I was in the Air Force from 1942 to 1945. I was mainly on the barrage balloons on the balloon site at Derby. There were 32 of us there and we all took turns doing night duty to protect the site. There were two of you at a time and you did two hours with four hours off at a time. We had batons but because nobody was really taught how to use them properly, we probably would have just run off in the other direction if anyone came!
The work consisted of learing to drive the winch that controlled sending the balloon up to about a thousand feet The balloon was really massive, and was called Bertha. They were nearly always called that though. The top third of the balloon was hydrogen and that was very deadly. That was why when it was shot by our own guns it used to burst into flames. But the other two thirds was filled with ordinary air and when it came down the bottom half was deflated and we had to keep that part clean with hose pipes and maintain it. There were 42 ropes, like you have on a tent but they were very much heavier and they were attached to big metal rings and concrete slabs to hold the balloon down. But if you had a very strong wind nothing would hold it down!

Generally there was a very good atmosphere. You'd get the odd one who was a bit rude who thought they were in charge and tried to control everybody. You had to take it in turns to do the cooking so that was a good base for your life coming out. Some were better than others though!

We lived on the balloon site and we had two huge Nisson Shelters; oval shaped metal ones, slotted together with a wooden door at each end. There were 16 of us in each of these two huts.

The latrines were a board with holes in and buckets underneath! They used to come and empty them on a daily basis of course. And there were big metal basins for washing in. Every other day these big lorries would come round with shower cubicles in them too but when you had time off you'd go into Derby city itself and use the council baths. Our kit was very good it was just like the army battle dress and but it got very cold in winter and you learnt to keep your pyjamas on underneath! The biggest thing of all was the horrible boots which you had to wear all the time for safety reasons.

It was a nice group of people to work with but they used to place everybody away from home so even when you had time off you didn't have the money for the rail fare home. We had a couple of transistor radios and would play games or sing for fun.

Rationing didn't affect us because a cook-van used to come round and they bought all our supplies and they left it to us to use them wisely.

We had a lovely old Shire horse there that we were allowed to ride and she used to come and put his head in the cook-house window. That was Bonny and she was beautiful. That horse has stayed with me all my life because my biggest love now is Shire horses. You don't see them really now in London. I formed a great bond with this horse and she used to follow us around til the farmer used to come and get her back again. Like a big soppy dog she was.

It was a good life but a very frightening life. We were taught the basics of looking after ourselves but it was still a worrying time.

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