大象传媒

I was born in Clacton on Sea and during the war I worked at a Riding Stable in Norfolk as an Apprentice. When war broke out I went into the Land Army in Norfolk to a very big farm and it was very hard work. There were about 6 to 8 of us, it was very heavy manual work and ploughing with horses. There was a team of Irish men who dug up the sugar beet and made them into heapes and we had to load them on to the carts, this was very heavy work, we used special forks for the job and we also did muck spreading as well. The farm was about 50 or 60 miles from the stables. We lived in a sort of Manor House there with bare essentials, although we had a housekeeper to look after us. I stayed there for 6 months, at the time it was a very cold winter and we were snowed up for about 6 weeks, we couldn't do any work at all, it was very bad the first winter of the war. I then had a year off and went home to our house in West Wycombe in Berkshire and stayed there with my brother. My father, who was an actor and worked with Stanley Holloway, was away a lot of the time. My father bought a cow during the war and I use to milk it during the year I stayed at West Wycombe. I then joined the Women's Air Force where I met my husband. I was a driver in the Royal Air Force and so was my husband. We were stationed at the time in Norfolk, there were about 1500 people there. I stayed there until they opened up Homesley South near the New Forest. My husband was posted overseas and I took over his driving job which was the CO's driver. I had learnt to drive two years before the war, whereas most of the girls that joined the WAF couldn't drive and I was ahead of them, although they were then taught by the WAF. I stayed as an MT driver with Coastal Command and then they moved us all out because Tactful Airforce took over because it was near where the Operations were and I was posted to Wales.

While I was in Wales, one day I went to go into the girl's quarters, as we were kept separate from the boys, and the MT section had their own hut and they said that I couldn't go in to that hut as it was already full so I had to go into another one. That night an aircraft trying to come into land mistook it and had its wheels down and crashed onto the MT hut and there was a girl killed. It was terrible really because it was 11 or 12 at night and she was asleep, and if there had been room for me I would have been in there too. A lot of the girls were hurt. She was the only one that was killed, she was a local girl.

My elder sister was in the WAF by this time and you could apply for your younger sister on compassionate grounds. I was in a pretty bad state of shock at this time and she applied for me to go back to Norfolk again. I stayed there for the rest of the war and then went to Wilmslow to be demobed in 1945. I was always on driving duties, driving the Officers and all sorts of vehicles, lorries, coaches etc. we had to drive everything. I had to go one time to Wales to collect an engine for a plane and then take it from the Aircraft factory in Acton and take it back down to Wales.

Another time, the rear gunners on planes didn't stand a chance because they were shot at and there was no escape so the Coastal Command wanted everybody, all the stations, to submit an escape route for these tail gunners. We had to go to High Wycombe which was Bomber Command and we all had to submit our escape and my camp won the contract so we had to go straight from High Wycombe up to Acton where they were going to make it, then back to Norfolk again.

We were on the road for some time really, on this particular day we got up early and drove up to Acton, put the escape route into the Aircraft factory, and then drove all the way to Norfolk so by the time I got to Norfolk it was about 1 pm in the morning, quite a lot of driving. Although there was no one on the road really as they couldn't get petrol. Now and again you may be stopped with someone in the middle of the road with a hurrican lamp enquiring what you were doing.

I quite liked my job because if I had to take the band somewhere I would drop them off and then go to the pictures, I was mad on the pictures at that time, and then I would collect them and take them back to the camp.

We didn't really drink in those days.

My rank at the time was Corporal and my husband also was a Corporal, normally when you were a Sergeant you went on to office work. I was quite happy with my position although the discipline was quite strict.

When they first recruited people that couldn't drive they put all the very new drivers on to us and we had to try and employ them and it was very difficult because they were very raw and the Officers didn't want the new drivers to be given to them as most of them couldn't reverse, it was very bad and a lot of them went to another trade because they didn't like it. They use to have to drive big lorries and would often come back with dents in them.

The headlights were Hartley lamps which had a metal plate which took the glow of the headlights down instead of up. There were several slats which directed it down. It didn't make driving too difficult as there wasn't much traffic about, especially in the country.

I also drove the Duke of Kent, just before he died in an aircraft crash. He was at the camp about a month or six weeks beforehand in Norfolk. Also Prince Bernhard. We had a Dutch Squadran who had had a very tough time so they came over here to have about six months rest and quiet and he came over to inspect them and see them and as I was the CO's driver I drove him. He was a jolly nice chap, wheras with a young Pilot Officer newly commissioned you had to get out of the car and open the door to him, Prince Bernhard would say don't bother he was nothing like them. The higher they were the better they were. I use to drive Air Chief Marshall Sir Philip Shuber who was head of Coastal Command and he use to come down to Homesley, fly his little Tiger Moth thing down and he had a house somewhere near New Milton or Barton on Sea. He use to fly down and as I was the CO's driver I use to take him to Merle Wood and one day he couldn't take off to go back to Hendon because the weather was bad and I don't think he had any wireless, so I had to take him up to London. We got into the car and I strictly wasn't suppose to let anyone else drive the car and he said, "You go into the passenger seat, I'm driving" and as he was an Air Chief Marshall I didn't quarrel with him, and he chatted all the way up to London as if we were on equal terms, me being a Corporal and he an Air Chief Marshall, he was such a nice chap and he wouldn't leave the Camp until he was quite certain that I had got accomodation for the night and everything, such a nice chap. He was telling me all abount the famine in India etc. He came down about every three months. I often wondered what happened to him. He left his hat in the car one time and I wore it round the office and everyone jumped to their feet and then fell about laughing at me.

We use to go to the Cat & the Fiddle pub a lot and the Americans used it when they were over. They use to have recreational runs into Bournemouth whereas we didn't because of the petrol and they use to say, "Anyone want to go to Bournemouth", we use to all get into these big lorries and they would take us there. They use to say, "There's Bournemouth, there's Bobby's", (Bobby's is where Debenhams is now). We didn't drink in those days and you couldn't get whisky in those days so they use to always be saying, "Where's the Whisky, Whisky, Whisky, Whisky, Whisky, always five times, they made us laugh. The American Squadron was only there for a short time though.

Homesley was only just built, if you didn't keep to the concrete paths it was all mud, this was about 1943. We all got posted from the pre-war camps to make a nucleus of experience to a brand new camp there, we were Corporals, etc you see, but it was hard going as it was very new. We had nissen huts and all the red squirrels were there in those days running about. You had a long way to go down to your meal and the camp was kept separate from the admin part. We had a gymnasium where we could play squash and badminton and all that. I think it is now a School for the local children. We use to do the ration run into Southampton to collect butter, bread and all provisions, it was a regular thing. We use to take a ration lorry in and when we were in Norfolk we use to go to Barnham, which was a bomb dump to collect bombs, and when you got to the gate they had to make sure you had no matches or anything inflammable. We use to drive a 3 tonner.

When I first went to Norfolk, they sent us on a course as women could only drive 30 cwts, and they knew we could do better than that so they sent us on a course. When we got there they had a lot of Crossley lorries all lined up for us which are big lorries, one was a very big lorry called a Queen Mary. The Queen Mary lorry had a front part of a lorry where the engine is and then was about 60 feet long so that it was able to carry wings of planes. The man that was conducting the test was my first MT Officer. Everyone else did their test and I was left with this Queen Mary and I had to drive this Queen Mary all down the Gloucestershire lanes which was were the course was held. I was driving the lorry which was 60 feet long and I was going round a corner and saw an army lorry coming towards me and he nearly got caught by the back end of the lorry. The man who was teaching me realised he had taken me the wrong way and it was hilarious when I tried to turn the lorry round. The women then finished up by being allowed to drive anything. I never drove a Queen Mary after that, although we drove the big Crossley lorries and you had to start them with a starting handle. The Queen Mary was the only one that was a self-starter. We had to use double-d-clutching as a rule, the gearbox was quite difficult on the lorries. We use to drive tractors as well because they used tractors for pulling the aircraft around. You use to have a salvage lorry, a coal lorry and a dustcart and you had to take your turn on all of them. On the coal cart they had what you call carrier bantums they were low loaders and they had buckets of coal on them, but if you were bad at anything, say you were caught with more than two people in the front of your cab they would make you drive a coal lorry and everyone would know that you had been bad. Sometimes we use to have to drive to a camp that just had men and they wouldn't know that there was a woman driving the lorry and sometimes you would see the men come out of the shower without anything on! We all had a good time as we were all away from home, there were cinemas there, entertainment, you would get your shoes repaired anything you needed would be provided for you, even women's personal hygiene things. Lord Nuffield did all that. I stayed in Coastal Command where I was posted you usually stayed where you were posted. Although before going to Coastal Command I was in Fighter Command for a month and I had to take an engine for a fighter plane. The pilots were very young only about 18 and 19 years old and they only had about a 10 to 12 hour flying lesson before they went up. When you went to camp dances, obviously the pilots went but they didn't want anything to do with the MT section they only wanted to know where the cook house was so they could get a decent meal. The atmosphere was always very good. As MT drivers we use to have to take the pilots out to the planes because some of the airports such as Bircham and Ayewick were grass not tarmac. There was a 1000 bomber raid from there, with the Lancasters etc. A lot of Czecoslovakian and Polish pilots came down and took off from our place.

Some of the pilots didn't come back as we took them to their planes and then we didn't have anyone to collect, very sad. Being a Corporal we were mainly there at night in the office and now and again we use to get the odd plane land at our airfield as the pilot may have been hurt or the planes were damaged or running out of petrol, they were diverted to us. Some times there was a real carry on as we often didn't have enough transport for them and had to sweep out the coal lorry in order to get them from the plane to the de-briefing.

At Homesley I remember we had an Irish Squadron stay with us. Homesley station, which isn't there now, was about a mile from the camp and we use to send lorries down to pick up people and their baggage. On this particular occasion the Irish Squadron said, "We don't want anyone to pick us up", and the whole squadron marched from Homesley station. They had a piped band and they marched along the main road, all the lot of them marched, every trade, there were drivers, store keepers, parachute packers etc and everyone came out of their houses to see them, it was quite a sight. They were a Northern Ireland squadron. They came I think from Aldergrove, there were a couple of camps in Northern Ireland and that was one of them. They mixed very well with everyone. There were a lot of Northern Ireland people in the Airforce anyway who were already living over here. The DRLS which was the despatch rider letter service, had to get letters through, no matter what the weather or anything so rather than sending it by telephone or teleprinter they use to have this service which these drivers had to take all the messages to various parts of the country. It was completely separate from the MT section. They used standard box vans, and wore flying jackets and they were quite something, quite sort after. They had to make sure they got through so they had to be very experienced drivers and had their own Command.

We had a few Czecs at our base, they needed everybody they could get to help in the war. They would take off from our base and they use to be very loaded down with bombs and could hardly take off. At the end of the grass run there was a hut and we all use to watch as they only just cleared the hut when taking off. Possibly about every few minutes they took off. I think we had about 100 for this special raid, it was all very scarey.

When we went up north, and at one time were stationed in Stafford, the people were very good they wouldn't take your bus fare or anything. We use to go to the Methodist Chapel and they would give us tea, because we were in uniform. The Church Army were absolutely marvellous. I had to take six drivers from Homesley up to Rugby to pick up these tiny, what they would call, Beaverettes, they were standard cars built up into sort of small armoured vehicles. We stayed on Rugby station, right on the platform, they had a Church Army place and they charged an old shilling a night to stay there. These people were up all hours because people were coming all through the night to stay, or leave.

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