大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Dorothy McCandless, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I was a WAAF.

[When did you join up?]
When the war broke out. 1939.
And it was compulsory for us in England. I wanted to stay on father鈥檚 farm but the 鈥� you see? So I went on to the room Command. I was in Coastal Command. I was also in Bomber Command. And Surrey 鈥� Southampton, in Southampton. And I was in [Cardiff?] the time the school was bombed. The Germans, the command for the blue straw with feathers. And it wasn鈥檛 out English Command 鈥� it was the Germans that done it. They came over and bombed London to pieces, hit a school 鈥� killed 36 children. So after that we were not recognised, because the balloon operators hadn鈥檛 had the balloons up. But we had the balloons up, and we鈥檇 had orders to bring them down.
So then after, they decided to bring the big blocks in to bed the balloons down, instead of sandbags. So they had to be mustered on. And then I went to be an AT driver with Bomber Command in Cranwell.

And then we just moved around and did. One night I was in Hyde Park at the time of D-Day. We all gathered there. I was at a lodge station down in Duncan. And I was, I went over to Hendon, at invitation of the Queen, for having been a Balloon operator, and she was v v sorry when they were abandoned, the balloons. They used to guard Buckingham Palace too, you see. And then 鈥�

I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the 鈥� Everything was equal. There was no agravation. They were happy days. I know it was hard, but they were happy days.

And the Queen was very impressed with my stories about the balloons. We lost some of them, and we lost some of the German planes 鈥� we brought them down. And 鈥�

[You got leave every few months?]
Whenever I got leave I was nearly always recalled by telegrams. Five telegrams for when I was recalled. I鈥檇 probably just be home a night, and I鈥檇 get a telegram to return to the unit.

[They couldn鈥檛 do without you?]
It wasn鈥檛 a matter of that. It was just the girls 鈥� One particular time our sergeant had been killed.
We were all equal. We all did our bit. And I enjoyed it to the full.

And then I married a pilot, and I came over here to live, and I just lived here.

He was from here.

I鈥檒l tell you honestly, I was to be stationed in Ballyhalbert. And I deserted because I didn鈥檛 want to live in Ireland. I wouldn鈥檛.

[were you Court-martialed?]
Oh yes. I was on the list. I had to do duties, cleaning bathrooms and toilets and whatever.
For 7 days. They understood. It wasn鈥檛 a very bad offence, you know? It was just that I didn鈥檛 want to come over to here.

And then there was once one of the pilots at Cranwell was going up on a test. And he said to me 鈥渨ould you like to go up for a flight?鈥�
And I said 鈥渙h yes, certainly. I鈥檇 love that.鈥�
We went up, got into an air pocket. The plane started bouncing down. And the pilot says 鈥測ou all right, driver?鈥� - I was his driver.
And I says 鈥渙h, look where you鈥檙e going!鈥�
It was all good fun, though it was sad times. But still 鈥�
We did v v well, the ground-crews.

[How did you meet your husband? Were you his driver?]
No, that was 鈥here was I when I met him? Rosskirby. I was leaving some of the pilots that had probably lost limbs, or some of the aircrew, to Rosskirby. To get their limbs fitted, and that. In Chinatown in Liverpool, just outside Rosskirby. And that鈥檚 how I met him.
But he鈥檚 dead and gone by.

But I just love this country [Northern Ireland].

[did you work with the Yanks?]
Americans? Oh yes. The pilot who took me up for the weather test, he was from New Zealand. And then I would have probably seen him occasionally, and he would have shouted at me 鈥渓ook where you鈥檙e going, driver!鈥� because I told him to look where he was going in the sky.

Yes, you got around during the war. You always got through.

[Since you were in the WAAFs you weren鈥檛 too badly affected by rationing]
We were still on rations. Even in the services. You only got so much allocated as far as clothes went. Like tights, and that sort of thing. You wouldn鈥檛 have had the coupons for them or anything like that. I still have the ration book. I didn鈥檛 bring that with me.

It鈥檚 always something to show about the way we were. My family don鈥檛 realise what ... They鈥檙e amazed when they hear my story in the WAAF club. I just didn鈥檛 鈥�
My family have the photographs. Mummy and daddy are dead now, but I have ones of myself with the Queen when I went to Benson. And 鈥� the story in the book.

[issued with dog-tags?]
Oh yes. You had to have military identification disks. And a tin helmet. And your mask. You carried those all through the war. Especially in London. And we had need to use them, too. The gas masks. At times.

[just tests? Or did they actually have a gas leak?]
Oh, they did. Oh, they did start using the gas. The Germans. It was like a spray from the planes.
That there was more or less down south 鈥� Southampton way. At first. Then it wasn鈥檛 used so much. At least, not to my knowledge. But we did have to use it 2 or 3 times. I think they were more or less aiming at the naval 鈥� at the ships coming in.

[Did you ever find out what type of gas they were using?]
Oh no.
It was just the Germans using it. We never used it. Oh no.
We had a secret bomb on the cable of the balloon. There was a secret bomb. A beano, they called it. But they were only used down on the coast, on Coastal Command. So that the planes, the Germans, would hit that, which they did do, the balloon would drift away to sea. I mean, it wasn鈥檛 just an odd little balloon.

On D-day I was in Lincoln. I remember seeing all the gliders and all the boys were going over. And my brother was just in Sidcup, 3 miles from, and they wouldn鈥檛 let me down to see him. And then we got word that he got killed in the landing in France.
And it was a funny thing, yesterday morning I got in the post all the details about where his grave was, and all about him.

[What was the best kind of plane you went up on?]
I shouldn鈥檛 have been up on that flip. It was very very unofficial. The pilot just thought he鈥檇 like to take me up for a flip.
Oh no, we didn鈥檛. But we used to take the boys from Bomber Command. It was terrible when they didn鈥檛 return. Waiting for them to come back.
That was Lincoln, where Bomber Command was.
I did my training in Fartherington. I don鈥檛 expect you even know these places. Up in Salisbury.

[Is it near Gloucester?]
Probably not Farthington, no. Out Bedford way.
My son鈥檚 still out there. He comes over every month.

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