大象传媒

In March 1943 as the war dragged on and wanting to do something for the war effort I cycled from West Norwood to Oxford sstreet and signed on to join the WOMANS LAND ARMY,In less than 2 weeks I received my uniform and had to go on the train to Kettering , We had to go to Burton Latimer and stayed in a large old house that used to be an orphanage.

There were 25 new recruits some from London,and there were 6 of us to a room sleeping on bunks,there were 3 bathrooms so we had to manage and get in the queue.We had a supervisor who arranged with the farmers where we should go,she drove a small van for those going on long distances but most of us had to ride our bicycles to the farms, these were provided by the War Agricultural Committee. We worked a 48 hour week,half day on Saturday, and had to prepare our sandwiches to take with us. There was plenty of margarine but little butter ration,Ive always disliked margarine since then.We received 拢2-8-0d for a weeks work and 拢1 was given to the hostel for our board and lodging.

The first job I had was threshing and I had to rake out the chaff and shavings under the machine,it was very dusty and if it was barley the "horns" got stuck in our clothing and irritated. As time went on we were allowed to work on the straw stack also stand on the machine and cut the bands of the sheaves and feed the straw into the drum to produce the wheat which was collected in sacks.We had to do a variety of jobs,hoeing and singling sugar beet which was harvested in autumn and sent to Peterborough for processing into sugar for the rations. A lot of potatoes had to be planted the tractor would prepare the long grooves and we would walk up and down planting potatoes about a foot apart. After that the tractor would cover them in. In time we would go and pick the new potatoes and grade them on a machine. Some of them were stored,covered with straw and soil for the winter. We had to muck out the cow sheds which was a smelly job and then later the manure was spread on the land.

When harvest time came the machine would cut the wheat and make a sheath tied with string. These had to be set into stocks so the wheat could dry. During harvest I could work until 9pm a vey long day.

As there was a prisoner of war camp near by we often had to work with Italians who were friendly and would always sing while they were working.

We had a limited bus service into Kettering and would go in Saturday afternoon to the Shops and Pictures. The Bus came back at 9pm so if we missed it we had a long walk in the blackout,about 4 miles.There was a YMCA canteen and a lot of soldiers would go there including Americans, Czechoslovack and Polish.
We did ask some of them to come to our hostel for a dance evening. we were also invited to an American airbase at Grafton Underwood sometimes for a dance, we were served excellant food a rare treat because of rationing. While we were working we would see the 'Flying Fortresses' flying in formation to bomb Germany. During the afternoons they would return and we could see the damage e.g. broken propellers.

In 1944 a lot of troops,tanks etc disapeared from the district, obviously going somewhere for the D-day landings, we heard about it on the radio. I saw one of the czech soldiers when he returned from Paris and he said some of his friends had been killed in the Tanks and he had found out that most of his family had been gassed in the concentration camp, only his sister had returned and she had a number stamped on her arm, he was Jewish.

There were not many celebrations for D-day in Kettering but we were all very pleased the war was over. I eventually returned to London in October 1945 with many memories of the Womans Land Army. I wouldn't wish another war to happen, but it certainly changed our lives, and we all had to do our bit to help our country, we were all in it together and there was a lot of comradeship.

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