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This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Marie on behalf of Margaret and has been added to the site with her permission. Margaret fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was in the A.T.S. and sailed on the Georgic with about 20 girls and a few thousand men in 1944. I would have been around 18/19 at the time and it took six weeks for us to get from Bristol to Naples in Italy.

We were very often dive-bombed but at that age you didn’t think of the danger — we all enjoyed it. My boyfriend was on board with me as well. We’d known each other before as we’d met in a social club in Hamble. When we arrived we didn’t get to see each other though. I was put in accommodation with the other girls that was a bit run down. There were bed-bugs and fleas and we had to put things round the legs of out beds to stop them biting us during the night! We got to travel around though — there was a leave camp at Mount Chasney that I got sent to a few times. It was beautiful, although I was meant to meet my boyfriend there both times and both times he couldn’t actually get away. In fact we only met up again after the war because he came looking for me and now we’re married!

I often think of those days though and I’d love to hear from any of the girls if they are still around. My maiden name was Taylor and my ATS number was 165623.

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