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This story was entered onto the People's War website by Rod Sutton on behalf of Betsy Simeons, the author, with her full permission. She fully understands the sites terms and conditions

I was a buyer in a millinery shop and the owner of the shop was a Pay Master commander in the Royal Navy. He signed my papers when I applied to join the WRNS. If I had not joined then, in 1941, I would have been called up and would have had to join the land army, or something else. Within 10 days I was called and went to Plymouth for a fortnight’s training.

In October 1941 I was sent to HMS Vulture, St Merryn as a Leading Wren, and I there until January 1942. We had to get it cleaned up and operational to use as an emergency airfield. While I was there a Swordfish crash-landed and being the eldest Wren on site I was the one to put on the asbestos suit and get the pilot out. Luckily the plane didn’t catch fire, but I dislocated his shoulder in the process.

We had to get Port Isaac cleaned up after ratings had left it in a mess, and we went to Port Quin, daily, while they were live bombing on Gull Rock but we didn’t do any bomb marking there.

One night we were all in our dormitory when an invasion call came through. We all had to get up, unlock the rifles and load blanks. We went to the back door of our quarters, VAD in the front and the rest of us behind in line. We heard a noise outside and imagined that the crew of a submarine or something had come ashore, scaled the cliffs and was crossing the yard. When we opened the door…. two sheep walked by!

Still with HMS Vulture, I went into camp and was confirmed as Petty Officer. During my last three weeks with HMS Vulture in 1942, I was sent on a ‘Gas Course’, which I had to teach to all the other Wrens when I got back.

I was then drafted to Scotland, Doniebristle, and on my way from King’s Cross there was a terrific bombing raid on the East Coast. We sat outside York with no lights, very little food and we couldn’t even have a cigarette. We shared the little we had. When we arrived at York station it had been flattened. Naturally I missed my train when I arrived late in Edinburgh and had to stay in a hotel for the night.
In Scotland, I was stationed in Aberdour, in a Roman Catholic school run by nuns. I volunteered to do armoury work, testing the guns on the aircraft. On one occasion, I miss aimed and accidentally shot a cow, but it wasn’t wasted, the carcass was taken to the station butchery. However, the meat it provided seemed to be finding it’s way exclusively to the officers’ tables, the Wrens certainly didn’t see any of it, so I went and made the point that since it was Wrens that had shot the cow they should have a share too!

My next posting was to Arbroath, to HMS Condor. I was only there for a couple of months and I didn’t live on the camp but at Coliston Castle. I remember it had a very long drive and ‘followers’ were not allowed to escort the Wrens past the gates. Wrens who went out in the evening would wait at the gate when they came back until there was a group of them to walk up the drive together. One night, I had been out babysitting for the local schoolmaster and, as it was very late, he insisted on escorting me back up the drive. I would certainly have been very nervous about walking back alone. After this incident, I spoke to an officer about it and it was agreed that escorts would be allowed as far as the back door.

The bathroom we used had a bath with very high sides and the door to the room was extremely thick. I remember there was a notice on the door warning of the dangers of locking it from either side because no one would be able to break in to get you out in case of an accident.

I had a shock when I was drafted to Inskip, Lancs. There was nothing there except a few nissen huts. We had to decide where the quadrants were to be built and I ended up making charts, which would have taken three months to be printed in Bristol. One night an officer came in and asked me what I was doing. When I explained, he loaned me a slide rule and showed me how to use it, which made the job a bit easier. When the airfield was finished the Wrens arrived, but only two out of the twelve had had any training.

From there I went to a lovely house, Parrox Hall, where my quarters were in a summerhouse attached to the main house. A Swordfish crashed onto the beach and caught fire. They managed to get the pilot out but his face was very badly burned. I took off my blouse to put over his face to protect it from the air and put on his Mae West to cover myself up. The vehicle that came to collect him had to keep moving so that it didn’t sink in the sand and he was taken to Fleetwood. He ended up in St Dunstan’s and we kept in touch. Three years ago I learned that he had died. He was an Australian orphan.

Another plane crashed when the tide was in and it blew up. No one survived. We were called out to pick up the pieces. There should only have been one crew member, but we found three boots. We spent hours clearing up the pieces while two special constables stood and watched us – and did nothing. The next day someone from the police station called at the camp to say that a member of the public had found a forearm, which we had missed, and that they were very upset. My comments were unrecordable – what effect did they think it had had on several inexperienced young ladies?

When I went back to Parrox Hall I was made up to Chief Wren and then I went back to Scotland.

I used to cycle everywhere. My bicycle was put on to a train to the nearest station to the camp on which I was serving – it was insured in case it ever got stolen. I had a kitten called Spats, because of his four white paws. He went missing, but one day as we were driving along, I saw him. Some children had found and adopted him. They had become so attached that I said they could keep him.

I went home to be married on 16th June 1945.

VE Day was unforgettable in Camp. It was hard work but I enjoyed my life there.

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