大象传媒

Shortly after hearing war was declared by Neville Chamberlain I was evacuated to Wiltshire from my home town in Hastings on the South Coast of England. At the age of 16 years, I remember being out with my mother and sister aged 9 years old, watching a film and it suddenly flashed up on the screen, that all women and children had leave Hastings and evacuate to Wylye in Wiltshire near Warminster, in case we were invaded by the enemy.

Father stayed behind as he was in the Home Guard. The invasion scare soon came and went. When we arrived at Wylye, I was separated from my mother and sister in the village. I took a job as a Parlour-maid to the local squire. I hated every minute of this, as I was not prepared for service, it meant that I had to do chores such as waiting on table, making the beds, and dusting and cleaning. Although they treated me with respect I was not prepared for their world. I was there for six weeks, and purchased a maids hat and pinafore outfit for the job. I shared a bedroom with another maid who could not understand why I was not happy with my lot.

During the era of 鈥淭he Phoney War鈥� as it was known I went home and worked as a shop assistant in a general store until I joined the WRAF at the age of 18.

I went to Morecombe to do my general training at Christmas 1942, and then I went to Hull in Yorkshire to do my Barrage Balloon training. I was sent out to a site known as Pearsons Park in the centre of Hull. We had quite a bad time there because of the constant bombing.

A barrage balloon is tethered and put up into the air filled with Nitrogen gas brought by lorry. This is to stop aircraft from dive bombing and killing people. I was constantly on alert day and night because of the air raids. Then I was moved to Manchester which was relatively quiet and peaceful. People were kind in Lancashire, but I remember one man brought us tripe and being southern girls we used to bury it in a field.

Still putting up the Barrage Balloons

Then we went up to Coventry, another large city just after the blitz that had flattened it. Because of this when we arrived there was no water, but after a while we settled in, I was not there very long when I received a telegram to say come home as we have been bombed out. Our home had been hit by an oil bomb.

In Hastings we saw lots of enemy aircraft, we were even machine-gunned by them going on our way to the pictures! My father was machine-gunned one day when he was working in his allotment. This was owing to the proximity of the coast and the German aircraft were able to fly over to us quickly. They particularly liked to come over on Sunday lunchtimes I recall. The Queen Victoria Statue has still got the machine bullet holes to prove it. I helped my family salvage what we could from our home, and we were rehoused by the council.

I went back eventually to Coventry, and that is where I met my husband. Three weeks before we were due to get married in Lancashire I was posted to Bristol, this was because of the Buzz bombs in the South coasts. A Buzz bomb was a bomb that was sent over by the Germans to bomb the south coast and then it would suddenly stop and then drop down. It was quite eerie when it stopped.

My husband to be was already stationed in Westbury-On-Trym in Bristol, and I was stationed at Filton at what was then known as the Bristol Aircraft Corporation, in Golf Course Lane, which was also the site of The Home Guard. They were most kind to us by bringing tea and buns because we were putting up the barrage balloons in all winds and weather.

We worked day and night on guard duty. Or we would cook for ourselves in our Nissan hut and a separate cookhouse and if the balloon was out of wind 鈥� which meant that it was facing the wrong direction we had to go out and move the balloons so that they faced the wind.

The men could not believe that women could do such hard physical work. The balloons were huge and took some handling to be 鈥減laced鈥� in the right direction in all the winds and weather that occurred, and you can imagine how windy it was on an airfield.

The lady I lodged with became a second mum to me. The community of Bristol were very kind and warm and I think in the face of adversity people pulled together.

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