大象传媒

In August 1997 I decided to interview my Nana, Mrs Elsie Church, for a World War II topic I was teaching in school. I knew a little of her war time experience before hand, but not the real details.

She lived all her life in Derby, and as a single mother she found herself having to support two young girls throughout the war. As you鈥檒l see from the transcripts that I kept, she was one of those celebrated women who went into the factories; her job was to check the parts for the Merlin engines that powered the Spitfires.

Nana passed away in 2001, so I made sure that the original tape recording was soon put onto CD. I have only included excerpts, but have not edited any of the wording:

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 fancy working on a farm so I went to work for Rolls Royce on Nightingale Road in Derby. I was there all through the war. I was on inspection. We women were in different sections, of about twenty girls. We were trained, taught how to read micrometers, and all the stuff that goes to examine planes. It was very, very interesting, absorbing work. For myself I loved it and we were all issued with a stamp, and every part that we examined and passed was stamped; for girls at Rolls Royce it was RRG 鈥� Rolls Royce Girls, and for men they missed the G off. We were responsible for everything that had our stamp on, which of course made you more careful than ever.鈥�

鈥淭hen of course came the nights! Oh dear those dreadful nights! We had the bombers over so much. The Germans knew every move we made, we were definitely a target for the bombs. Good Lord, it was every night, they just wanted to stop production. At first when they came over it was terrifying.鈥�

鈥淭here were three lights: amber, red, and when it went to purple you went! Because in the first place you had to wait until it went to red. But whenever it went to purple, they were there, the bombers were overhead! Every light in the factory then went out and you were plunged into complete darkness!鈥�

鈥淲ell of course they provided for this in respect that they had air raid shelters in the cellars. We could stop down there for hours and it was cold, bleak, we were frightened. But we got so used to these cheeky blighters coming back night after night, stopping production. So one night I had the idea of taking my portable gramophone, and it was allowed 鈥� I had to ask for permission of course because of the noise 鈥� and everyone welcomed it. And we used to sing and dance and we completely forgot the raiders. We came back up when the 鈥榓ll clear鈥� sounded and just got on with our jobs, still singing 鈥楤low the Germans, we were going to get on with our aeroplanes鈥�.鈥�

鈥淲e knew our work was very important. The boys, we called them the Boys in Blue, that鈥檚 why our work had to be accurate because their lives depended on us being careful. The Boys in Blue were the Air Force, marvellous set of men. We had to work like Billy O to get the planes up. We were all very proud, I was, and all my friends were, well it was England that we were fighting for. Not just an army, were fighting for our own existence.鈥�

鈥淟ife in the war, in general, on the streets, in shops, or in your workplace, people seemed to smile more than they do today. We made the most of little. You never heard grumbles, swearing or anything like that. Everybody seemed to be happy and that鈥檚 the truth.鈥�

鈥淚n Derby when the Americans came, the black Americans came and the white Americans came. In Derby they had separate nights for them both to be out. They never let both the black and the white Americans in town together, because there was still a bit of tension. They were lovely boys the black boys were, you had nothing to be afraid of, they were good lads.鈥�

鈥淭he end of the war was glorious! People just came out in their thousands, for VE day, which meant as far as we were concerned the boys would soon be home.鈥�

鈥淎fter the war I kept my job at Rolls Royce for quite a time afterward because there were still quite a lot of orders to clear up and I鈥檇 been there quite a time 鈥� I knew what I was doing. I was made a shop steward. Believe you me, the girls needed a shop steward. You had to speak for them, see the foreman or above them if necessary. I had quite a few wrangles with them, in a nice way, I learned it was always best never to be cheeky to people or rude to people. Speak nicely and plainly and put your case before them. And I won, I never ever lost a case and I was very proud of myself. The girls looked up to me to look after things so I think that was really why I was kept on a bit longer to sort things out.鈥�

鈥淭he heartbreak part was, in fact I鈥檝e still got my 鈥榥otice鈥� somewhere, we were going to be given our notice, the sack. All the women, married women first which I agreed with, because the men had got no jobs to come home to, and it was a man鈥檚 factory. We took their place you see while there was a war on, and they were very proud of the women, they did a damn good job. And from the highest to the lowest bosses at Rolls Royce they had nothing but praise for the women. They said we worked a damn sight harder than the men ever did. It鈥檚 true that is. I was praised 鈥� what good work we women had done. A lot of the women said 鈥榳e should be considered鈥�, but listen they [the men] had been fighting for us, dying for us, nice young lives were being killed off. You鈥檝e got to consider the ones coming back wanted a job. Mind you they didn鈥檛 all get their jobs back, because they had to be built up.鈥�

鈥淭hings change in six years like that, methods change, people鈥檚 attitudes change. Now the men鈥檚 attitudes to us at Rolls Royce when we first went there were 鈥榳omen鈥� you know, but gradually they came to respect us and they didn鈥檛 want us to leave. But a lot of women, say divorced women or those who had lost their husbands in the war kept the job on. But the married ones with support had to leave the work. We were all very sorry, because we didn鈥檛 get a lot of money for stoppages, redundancy, but I was quite happy to leave because it was for a good cause, for the boys to come back to.鈥�

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