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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Joan Gee , and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

During the war I was in the RAF stationed at Wittering near Peterborough.

I had met my boyfriend when we were both 12 years old when I went to his father’s farm to pick Victoria plums. He really wanted to fly but because farming was classed as a reserved occupation in wartime he was unable to fulfil his ambition.

We had decided to get married on 7th June, 1944 but little did we realise that something very big had been planned for 6th June — D-Day. I was on duty right up to that day — I worked in an Operations Room, plotting the hostile aircraft and did not know whether I would be able to get leave to get married. However, in the small hours of 7th June I was able to catch a train to Boxmoor Station (Hemel Hempstead) to be met by my future husband. We were married at St John’s Church, Boxmoor at 10 a.m. — no brand new wedding dress for the occasion but one borrowed from a friend, a very different scene from today. We had our honeymoon planned to go to the West Country but with the threat of imminent invasion that had to be postponed — we spent our honeymoon on our bikes cycling around Hertfordshire.

We were happily married for 55 years.

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