大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Liz Andrew of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Irene Hardman and added to the site with her permission.

I volunteered in 1939 and got my Government papers in 1940 - I was seventeen and a half.

I did four weeks training at Lancaster Castle - it was horrible and very cold - we were in cells and there were four people in each cell - all sleeping in bunks. My Dad was a boss at Pilkingtons and my mother was a lady of leisure. I thought everyone had two bathrooms and a bedroom of their own so I was a bit flummoxed when I joined the Army. It was a real eye opener for me. I was a proper little snob but it was knocked out of me after the first four weeks.

My Father had been against me volunteering but he said - You've made your bed, so you'll have to lie on it - and he had one piece of advice for me - " Always be first in the Queue."

We did our basic training at Lancaster - square bashing and so on and then, because I said that I could drive , I was sent to Hereford Barracks where I learnt how to drive lorries. I did the six week course in three weeks and at the end of it I could handle a big lorry.

I was posted to Rookin Glen near Glasgow and worked there for 12 months on convoy work. I enjoyed every minute of it. I had been brought up in a very narrow way - I had been allowed to play tennis and badminton but always we had to be with someone OLDER - but now I had freedom. Driving lorries was Heaven - They didn't have power steering and you had to Double D clutch but I was young and healthy and I loved it.

I applied for a Mechanics course and went to Newcastle to do my training and then I was sent to London, to Purfleet Wharf and worked on the London docks. We were delivering food and compo - cigarettes and biscuits - and ammunition. London was going up in flames and I was driving through it - sometimes with a truck full of ammunition. We used to laugh at danger. I was scared but not frightened - If you're frightened, you freeze but if you're scared you just carry on.

I was most scared when we were posted to the Big House in Billericay. The Pioneer Corps had been staying there ahead of us and told us about a ghost. We didn't pay any attention and after we had unpacked, we went to the pub and came back merry - only to be greeted by the most awful noise. It turned out later to be a cow giving birth to a calf!

In 1944 I married a Royal Engineer. We had 48 hours marriage leave and then he was off to Normandy. I remember when I went home in 1944 my father told me to be home for ten o clock and I got home at half past ten - I said "I'm a married woman now and wearing the King's uniform."

We were bombed out a few times . If you were duty driver you had to take the Bedford Troop carrier out to take troops to dances and shows. I remember coming back one time and a Doodle Bug was coming over. We ended up taking cover in a ditch and we discovered all sorts of stuff that the Americans had dumped as they prepared to join the Invasion. There was fuel and blankets - so we gave the blankets away and flogged off the fuel to taxi drivers !!

After D Day there was a telegram for my husband's mother saying he was missing, believed killed on the Rhine. It turned out that he had been wounded not killed. He was sent home to recover and I was given a week's compassionate leave and I ended up becoming pregnant.

My husband was sent off to the Middle East and didn't even see his son till he was three years old. I managed to keep my condition hidden for seven months but then in 1946 I was found out and kicked out of the Army. They said it was "a self-inflicted wound!" I had to leave even though I was a trained lorry driver and ideal for going abroad!

I had a good war - My generation brought freedom to women - but I'm afraid it's been taken advantage of....

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