大象传媒

When I was 16 years old I was working in a munitions factory.and lost a finger end when the detonators blew up. If the gunpowder jammed in the rubber chute, it was very dangerous as it blew up. One person I was working with was crippled for life wjhen that happened.

I joined the ATS on 12/5/44 when I was 17陆 and came out in 1946. A friend was going to join and said to me, 'Come with me for company.' So I did. Then the recruiting seargent said that even although I hadn't meant to, I should also join so that I could continue to keep my friend company, so that was how I went into the ATS. I was first of all sent to the Fulford Barracks in York for my uniform and then sent to Pontefract, also in Yorkshire. I went into the catering department as a cook. From there I went to a transit camp in Kettering. Conditions were somewhat basic there with no toilets, just holes screened by sugar sacking in a field, but I was only there for a couple of weeeks before being sent to Dovercourt, Harwich. We lived in style there because we were in a Warner's Holiday Camp which consisted of very comfortable chalets. There were 300-400 people there to be cooked for, and I started my first shift at 6 in the morning, finfishing at 2 in the afternoon. All the cooking wass done on coal, and the pans were enormous and so heavy that it needed 2 of us to lift,one of them. All the windows were broken when bombs were sent diving down but we were alll right.

My boyfriend was on the MGB (Motor Gun Boats) which went over to the Hook of Holland every night. I remember one winter there was a very heavy snowfall and, when I was off-duty, an officer took some of us out to sea ona hinese MGB to socialise with the sailors. The sea was very rough and it needed 2 sailors to get us up on to the boat because the waves were so big. We had a great time and I landed up with the captain and other bigwigs. I had 2 glasses of port which made it even more necessary for me to be to be helped back down from the boat by 2 more sailors! It was quite frightening because I had never learned to swim and the boat was rocking badly. We all felt very seasick!

I was transferred to Hillingdon where I was accommodated in a private house taken over by the Army. I was there with all the offficers although non-officers were not allowed into their section of the building. There would be real trouble if any of us were caught in the wrong part.

My mother became ill and I was posted home to Biddichall, Chelsey Street. Co. Durham in May 1945. I used to take the soldiers home which they thoroughly enjoyed because my dad had an allotment and Ken the Cookhouse used to slip me bread, butter and cheese, so there was always plenty of good food. I was then sent to Solihull with the 128 Regiment of the Royal artillary, and from there demobbed.

I had a brother who was in the Medical Corps in Belgium and taly, and another one who was Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy. Len was one of my brother's shipmates and we married during the war, but he was in the Mediterranean for 5 years so we hardly saw each other. I had boyfriends , as we all did, but none of them were serious.

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