大象传媒

This story was added to the People's War website by a volunteer from CSV on behalf of Mavis Guttridge. Mavis Guttridge fully understands the site's terms and conditions and the story has been added to the site with her permission.

3rd September 1939 - 11 o'clock and all sat around the wireless to hear the Prime Minister tell us we were ar war, 11 o'clock at night and we heard our first Air Raid Sirens, all a false alarm, luckily, because we hadn't a clue!

Right from then I wanted to enlist, preferably in the Air Force but all I could do was wait - a reserved occupation and my parents "not until you are 21." During that period of time I saw a Heinkel at about 100ft flying parallel to the River Trent and immediately overhead. Experienced the largest raid on Nottingham in May 1941 and had to work alongside the building where 50 nightworkers were killed at a bakery. We also worked for three days against an unexploded land mine and other not-too-happy episodes.

In 1941 I was able to volunteer having overcome my obstacles. Bridgegrowth for kitting out, Morecambe for square bashing and then to RAF Ouston in Northumberland to start my training. As a blank SD my job was to become a Plotter in the operations room. The trade blank SD was used to prevent the enemy from knowing the location of our operations rooms. The work was both interesting and, we felt, as near as possible to actual combat that we as women were allowed.

To describe an operations room (affectionately referred to as "the hole") would be too complicated and lengthy but we had to display on a huge map the position of all aircraft (both friendly and hostile), shipping and balloons in the area. It all involved precision and speed.

The British Isles was divided into "groups". Later I was posted to 12 group which covered the Midlands and Yorkshire mainly, the busiest was possibly 11 Group which was the south east, including London. Our aircraft had to sometimes be scrambled to assist 11 Group at times like the Battle of Britain. Other particularly stressful times were plotting out the 1000 bomber raids and, of course, all the activities on land and sea that were part of the DDay landings. At such times as these our huge lighted displays on the walls were one mass of lights showing the state of readiness in flight of the squadrons under our control.

On the lighter side there were times such as when we, as WAAF, were issued with white knickers (no coupons for us) and because equipment had run out of my size. I was able to entertain my friends by giving a display of the knickers starting under my armpits and finishing below my knees. We were also issued with flannelette pyjamas which we said were like "sleeping in your Great Coat" but which we later appreciated our cold winter nights in wooden huts.

Many of these times were sad and we were able to see at first hand the losses but never since have I been able to experience such companionship!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.