大象传媒

I was in the Land Army, one of the first women in Belford. It was a hard occupation, as we had to cut trees down and measure them to very precise standards of girth and length. It had to be perfect or else it wasn鈥檛 good enough. Our hours were 8-5, and we had to ride to the saw mill through the woods from Belford every day. I (Ann Smith) spent 4 years in the Land Army.
After this I (Nancy Turnbull) joined the fire service part time. We had to deal with many fires, mostly farms fires, and sometimes fires in the woods, but on two occasions we dealt with fires resulting from crashed planes. One was German, but there were no survivors.
This was also a difficult job, as it was very physical. There were drills every Sunday, but I did find it enjoyable. This was helped by the fac tthat there were dances every night, and we got to socialise with the soldiers stationed nearby. I (Nancy Turnbull) even met my husband at one of these dances, and after the war we were wed.
We were always very short of food, and for lunch every day we used to have date sandwiches which is all we could get in those days. However, cigarettes were always in plentiful supply and were cheap. Things were so bad, that we were forced to bake our own bread and make our own clothes, and if we were lucky, we could buy coupons to get extra goods at the shops. If we were really lucky, we could steal a parachute from crashed aircraft which could be made into underwear or wedding dresses. Things were made easier for us because our fathers were friendly with the soldiers, and because of that they used to get army blankets for the family and work boots for themselves for when they were working.

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