大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War website by CSV Storygatherer Jane Chanter on behalf of Margaret Scott. The story has been added to the site with her permission and Peggy Scott fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.
I joined the W.R.N.S. on June 16th 1947 and was sent to Plymouth where I became a coder, (I joined with a school friend and we remained together for most of the war). We had little training as things had not recovered from the Blitz. We worked at Fort Austin for about 6 months and then volunteered for overseas service. I was 18 years old and it then seemed like an exciting thing to do! We then went to Greenwich Naval Base for a few weeks, we had Christmas 1941 there. This was a memorable time, we had our Christmas dinner in the Painted Hall and a carol service in the church. It was all very awe inspiring as we joined with all the Naval personnel.
We were young and excited- it was the great adventure of our lives! One felt immortal at that age - death happened to other people. I can remember though, sheltering in the cellars during an air raid sitting next to hot water pipes and being very afraid of being scalded to death. I had to hold my knees to stop them shaking!
After 2 weeks leave, my home was Moretonhampstead, all the Plymouth based girls met at Newton Abbot Station and embarked for Liverpool. It must have been rotten for my parents to have to say goodbye knowing that I was going overseas at a time when the U Boats still 'ruled the waves'. We arrived eventually and joined the S.S Orontes. We had two months on board and as we went round the Cape we stopped off in Capetown. I had a fantastic 3 days there, I still have a letter written to my parents describing the wonder of the place - lights on everywhere, food galore and we were given a marvellous time by the South Africans. For the first 10 days of our voyage we had to sleep fully clothed and with an emergency tin of rations round our neck.
It was January 1942 and the sea was rough - I believe some of the ships in our convoy were torpedoed. In spite of certain hardships we did have a lot of fun and we made so many new friends- both male and female! There were plenty of georgeous young men on board but in those days we were all rather young and innocent!
We landed at Suez on February 7th 1942 and Alexandria the next day. Our quaters were in a convent- a bit of a shock for the nuns who were in charge. We worked at Ras el Tur several miles away, the watches were 8 hours a time with every 4 days off. We worked hard and played harder- we had a lot of fun as well as great heartache as so many boyfriends got killed. By June 30th 1942 Rommell was only 60 miles away and that night we could hear the guns and see the sky lit up with search lights. This period was known as 'the flap' and there really was chaos. Eventually we girls were loaded onto cattle trucks and were evacuated to Suez. We spent one night sleeping on the floor at tha Y.W.C.A. at Ismalia, the following day we were put on the S.S. Princess Kathleen and I spent a few days on it before going to a camp in the desert. Some of us worked in Port Jewjik. When things calmed down we went back to Alex and in 1943(Dec) I got married, soon after I was diagnosed with T.B.. After a few months in hospital in Jerusalem (the old Kaiser's Palace on the Mount of Olives) I was sent home to U.K. and finished up at Hawkmoor Sanatorium, Bovey Tracey. I spent V.E. day there in bed - we weren't told the war was ended until lunchtime - the staff were too busy celebrating! We had no newspapers or radio but I think we could guess by the noise what had happened.
I was allowed home after 8 months there and was officially discharged from the W.R.N.S. on the 28th Feb 1945. The day I was allowed home was perhaps the most wonderful day of my life. A taxi collected me, it was May 1945 and the hedges were full of bluebells, campions and stitchwort, the first I'd seen for years, it was heaven and I was on my way back to my parents who lived at Moretonhampstead. My husband came back from the Middle East and was in due course demobbed and we finished by farming in Devon for many years.

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