大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer on behalf of Barbara Weatherill and has been added to the site with her permission. Barbara Weatherill fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I served in the Anti-Aircraft Command and we were posted to a field in Suffolk. There were 200 women, we were the only ones allowed to serve alongside the men, and we've fought hard for 8 years to have the memorial put up in Whitehall.

Life was quite primitive. There were no toilets, baths or showers. We were given one dipper of water in the morning and evening to wash ourselves, brush our teeth and wash our underwear.

There were four heavy guns and one light gun in another field. I would drive around from 3am til 6pm delivering water to the fields. It was almost exhilarating seeing the planes fly over and the smell of cordite, though I'm afraid to say that now. One sad incident I remember was an American plane going down. We saw it as it was going over, and the bomb bays door was open and we could see all the bombs inside. The men in the plane were alive when they went over, but minutes later they were all killed.

There was no counselling in those days. You just got on with the job. There was no time to grieve.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.