大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Website by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Emalyn Barlow and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I joined the A.T.S. when I was seventeen and a half. I was in the Artillery for four years. I was stationed at various places including Cardiff, Birmingham and Swansea. I was in Swansea when the first bomb was dropped there and the place was devastated.

In Cardiff there was a dance hall and we all wanted to go, but it had a very bad reputation and was banned. So we put on our civvies under our army greatcoats and got in that way.

I had one or two bad dos when I was going back to camp. The camp was at the top of the hill past a small wood. There was a soldier folowing me. He said "I'll walk you back to camp", and he said he knew a shortcut through the woods. When we were in the woods, he said "I'm not a soldier" and he drew a knife. I ran for my life.

On another occasion, I heard footsteps behind me, and on that occasion I ran fast up to the camp gates and shouted "Don't shoot, it's me". That made me very wary of the blackout.

On VJ Day I was sat on a lion outside Lime Street Station Liverpool waving my little flag. To get home I had to walk through China Town and the Chinese cafes and restaurants opened all their doors and gave us free food and drink. They were marvellous.

I came out of the A.T.S. 谩nd went to Australia for the next 20 years.

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