大象传媒

My father was the headmaster of a school in Deptford for 3 to 11 year olds. When the war broke out we just left and I was evacuated with the school as a helper on the journey. We didn鈥檛 know where we were going when we went to the train station and ended up in Eastbourne. All the children were found homes or foster parents. I stayed there six months.

I was eighteen and old enough to be called up so I came home (to London) and stayed with friends for a while and then, in 1940, started work at the Ministry of Supply (it doesn鈥檛 exist now) in the drawing office attached to Woolwich Arsenal, where they made the armoury. At first I was tracing drawings - big drawings 2metres x1.5 metres and then I was promoted to the drawing office as a Design Office Assistant (DOA), at 拢5 a week, which was a good wage then, and drew details of gun carriages and their working parts and illustrated hand books on how to take rifles apart and put them back together again. One day I was called to an office and locked in and made to sign the Official Secrets Act (again) and was given aeriels of the V2 weapon to make drawings of. These were sent to the Cabinet, to Churchill. They were Hitler鈥檚 last secret weapon, the beginning of the rocket technology. Now they鈥檙e in the Imperial War Museum

This story was added to the People鈥檚 War website by Helen Pritchard on behalf of Barbara Hatts who fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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