大象传媒

This story has been added by CSV volunteer, Ann Toomey, on behalf of the author Mrs. Kathleen E. Llowarch, who is aware of the site's terms and conditions.

Truro, Cornwall, where I was born in 1923 was a very quiet town where nothing much happend and really we knew nothing of what went on `up country`, anyone who spoke differently to us was branded a `foreigner`.

I remember listening to the wireless on the morning of 3rd September, 1939 and heard that a state of war now existed between Germany and Great Britain. Life seemed to go on much the same as usual although I remember a few sand bags appearing here and there and many windows being criss crossed with tape to lessen the risk if they were blown out. We also had a Morrison shelter delivered which was erected in our kitchen taking up most of the room. The shelter had a reinforced top which we had to crawl underneath. I suppose we had one because we lived on Richmond Hill, quite near the Railway Station. Some homes had an Anderson Shelter erected in the back garden. Most girls of my age did voluntary work so I joined the Fire Service and did night duty on the telephones. It was rather frightening walking at night in the blackout to the H.Q. in Malpas Road, about a mile from my home.

As the war progressed some evacuees came to Truro from West Ham in London, but I think the majority gradually drifted back - finding our little town too quiet. We had a bomb dropped in our hospital and I beleive a nurse was killed. My Uncle`s brother was also killed by machine gun fire whilst he was loading his Royal Mail van at the Railway Station.

My brother had joined the RAF and trained as a navigator with Bomber Command but his plane went out in December 1942 and was lost with all the crew whilst mine laying over the Keil canal - his body was never found. I volunteered at the end of 1943 and joined the WAAF where after training I became a wireless operator and eventually ended up at the Chicksands Priory, where we listened in and took down the messages being sent from Germany (we assumed). We were not allowed to transmit - the keys were all shut away and we had to find the station by listening for it`s call sign, it was all in code so meant nothing to us. Our papers were then collected by the Duty Sergeant and given to the D.R. to be taken to Bletchley Park to be decoded. It was only last year that my friend Mary said that it must have been the Enigma code that we were taking down, but we were never told anything. I can`t remember much about the end of the war in Europe but Mary and I knew that our demob would not be coming up for a while as we volunteered to go overseas to replace some of the `boys` who were `time expired` in Egypt - so for nearly two years we ended up at 216H.Q. in Heliopolis just outside of Cairo, so we did see a little of the Middle East.

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