大象传媒

There were about thirty girls in the one Nissen hut and just one stove to keep you warm. There was only the one brush to clean the whole billet. Everyone had a single bed with the mattress divided into three pieces called biscuits. Every morning those had to be stacked up at the top of the bed ready for inspection, that was the routine. Then that evening you made the bed up again. The space where your bed was positioned was your floor space and your responsibility to keep clean. Anne Kennedy who was from Dublin had quite a noticeable brogue used to say when someone else was using the brush, 鈥淚鈥檒l be after you with the brush鈥�. You would have thought she was going to chase you with the brush. When everyone had used the brush the whole hut had been cleaned. Once a week a night was allocated as domestic night, when you were responsible for giving the hut a really good spring clean. On one occasion which was supposed to be domestic night about eight or nine of us decided to go out to the village, Ellie McStay was one of the group. We had no pass to get out officially. We decided we would get our bikes and go as fast as we could through 鈥榯he gate鈥�. The office that we had to go past always had someone on duty and you had to show your pass to get out and report to the office when you were coming back. We thought if we had our bikes we could get out on them before we were recognised. But the guard squad waited for us coming back and we were caught. The Sergeant was standing waiting for us and as we all crowded together I who was taller than the others, stood out from the rest, Ellie who was smaller wasn鈥檛 noticed. The ones who were identified had to parade in front of the WAAF Officer and we were confined to camp for two or three night as punishment.

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