大象传媒

My Nana served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (W.A.A.F.) during World War Two enlisting on the 11th March 1942 until being discharged on the 21st November 1945. When she entered the W.A.A.F. in Bournemouth she was 17 and only two months earlier her brother Eric had been killed returning from a bombing mission on Hamburg.
See:
Manchester Bomber Crash in Holmpton, East Yorkshire 14th January 1942 - Part 1
and
Manchester Bomber Crash in Holmpton, East Yorkshire 14th January 1942 - Part 2

Joan's first port of call was on the 12th March 1942 at No.2 W.A.A.F. Depot, Innsworth, Gloucester where she arrived to receive her kit. After a very short stay at Innsworth she was posted to No.7 Recruit Centre at Morecambe where she did her square bashing. On enlisting in the W.A.A.F. Joan had requested to train as a driver but was told that there were no vacancies. However she was told that she could train as a balloon operator and if any vacancies for drivers arose she would be transferred. So after about five weeks in Morecambe her balloon training began on the 16th April 1942 at No.4 Balloon Centre, Chigwell. At the end of her training at Chigwell the recruits were required to sit an exam. Joan passed this successfully and did well enough to be promoted from ACW2 to ACW1.

Following the four months of kitting out and training it was time for Joan to join her first operational unit. This was on the 2nd July 1942 and with 926 Squadron (East Lancashire) located in Manchester. 925 and 926 Squadrons were attached to No.10 Balloon Centre, Bowlee, Middleton where in 1940 they had 40 barrage balloons. Joan and the rest of the crew were based in a field on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in the Irlam, Barton and Eccles area near to the large industrial area of Trafford Park and Salford Quays. She would spend the next nine months through the winter of 1942/43 on the balloons until in 1943 the amount of injuries to WAAFs working on the extremely heavy balloons resulted in them being reposted.

On the 15th April 1943 Joan was posted to No.12 Operational Training Unit at Chipping Warden where she began her training as a Flight Mechanic (Engines). It was only five months at Chipping Warden before she would join her second operational unit. This would be No.7 Flying Instructors School at RAF Upavon.

Joan arrived at Upavon on the 22nd May 1943 and would stay for the remainder of the war sevicing the engines on Avro Anson and Airspeed Oxford aircraft which were being used to train the pilots. The pilots attending the school had all finished their tour of operations and were now being re-trained as flying instructors. It was at Upavon that she met her husband Morris Mack who was a musician leading a band that entertained at a number of airfields. Their marriage at Ploughley and Bullingdon, Oxford on the 29th August 1945 helped in their application to leave the service. Joan was officially released on the 21st November 1945 after attending No.105 Personnel Despatch Centre (W.A.A.F.) at Wythall.

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