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{In the previous instalment. Eve had completed her basic training at Gloucester and was posted to Morecambe where she was billeted in a seaside boarding house.}

My mother had never bought cooked food, but had always made her own pies and pastries. In Morecambe we only had pies that had been bought for our meals. Our landlady never actually cooked for us. I suppose there was a certain novelty for me in this. One thing I can remember that surprised me was that my landlady had no idea what a dictionary was. My own family was far from wealthy, but education had always been considered important and if we did not know the meaning of a word or how to spell it, we could always look it up in the dictionary. On one occasion I wanted to know how to spell a word and asked the landlady to lend me her dictionary. She did not know what I meant but tried to be helpful and lent me a general reference book on stain removal, etc!

Whilst in Morecambe we were drilled incessantly, and when we were not being drilled we were being injected against this and that. I found that injections, though certainly not enjoyable, never particularly worried me, although some of the other girls fainted. It was also rather surprising how people seemed to become completely different when dressed in uniform. I remember meeting a girl I had once known slightly at work at British Drug Houses. She had been a copy typist, always dressed in the height of copy typist fashion with very high-heeled shoes which had tended to throw her posture forward. In the WAAF she wore regulation low-heeled shoes and was standing upright. I though she looked much better.

During my period in Morecambe, if I had spare rime, I would go for walks along the front on my own. I had never been in that part of England before and found it quite interesting, although most of the time, as it was winter, a mist covered the horizon. On one occasion I walked along to Heysham and had a scramble over the rocks and on another, I remember walking along the sea front when the mist lifted, and there, in the distance, I could see, across the bay, the mountains of the Lake District, a wonderland I had not known existed. Then the mist descended again, but I had seen the beauty that lay beyond. I had been made the senior airwoman of my billet.
This was solely because of my trade which was considered superior to some of the others. In fact, at that time, I was very unsure of myself and was not the right per-son to take the lead. However not much was required of me and I was able to cope.

The fact that I was quite happy to go for walks on my I own, was regarded as decidedly odd by some of my companions who could not bear the thought of being anywhere on their own. I am not sure how long I was in Morecambe, probably around three or four weeks and I do not remember any of the WAAFs I met there. None of them were Clerk SDs, so there was little likelihood that we would meet again and, in fact, we never did.

The drilling went on and on, but after three weeks we had our passing-out parade, which was quite an elaborate affair. By that time we had been taught the correct way to line up, take our distances, march (‘Get those arms up’), how to about turn in the approved manner, I whilst marching, to salute, and to respond to all orders immediately. Looking back over the years, it does seem stupid that we were subjected to this kind of training. It I may have made us more amenable to discipline, but I somehow I doubt it.

After we had ‘passed out’ we were told our postings. I, together with three other girls, was posted to Debden near Saffron Walden in Essex. This delighted me as it was much nearer my home. Debden was a Fighter Command station in II Group. Our billets were to be in Saffron Walden, a delightful town which I came to love.

When we arrived at Debden RAF station we started our Clerk SD training. I cannot remember a great deal about this now, but know it included some general idea of how the vectors, which were passed to the fighter pilots by the operations officers, were worked out. It was these vectors that guided our pilots to the enemy; aircraft. We would ourselves never need this information but it made us realise how important accurate plotting was. The main job of Clerks SD on fighter stations in 11 Group was plotting aircraft movements on a map of South East England and in this we had to become very proficient. Now the Americans were in the war, we had to learn their alphabet which was different from that taught previously to the British. As far as I can remember it went Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, etc down to Zebra. We had to wear headphones over which we received the grid reference of the aircraft, both hostile and friendly, given to us by RDF stations and the Observer Corps, and, by means of a magnetic rod, we picked up a little metal arrow and placed it on the grid reference we had received.

It was imperative that we were quick and accurate as the information we put on the map was used by the controllers on the bridge of the Operations Room to scramble aircraft and direct them towards the hostile aircraft. Eventually I and my fellow ‘rookies’ passed the course and became Aircraftwomen 1st class.

I subsequently learnt that, in the early days of the war, Clerks SD had been recruited mainly from girls who had been to private or public schools. However there had not been enough of these to man the Operation Rooms during the Battle of Britain, so the field had been widened to include grammar school girls. However among the WAAFs on the fighter stations the Clerks SD were considered rather snobbish. This, by the time I joined up, was not so, but it was certainly true that I did find myself among girls from county families as well as from families similar to mine. Occasionally I was conscious of the difference and felt embarrassed when my friend Anne invited me to her home as I knew I could not invite her back. Consequently I did not accept the invitation.

Debden was a station which was in the process of being taken over by the Americans, and these ‘Yanks’ definitely added a new dimension to our lives. My friend, Anne Sidebotham, and I went out with a couple on one occasion. I remember their names were Buzz and Duck! I also remember how annoyed I was when my ‘partner’, I think he was Buzz, casually said how the Americans would leave an army of occupation here after the war! I also remember wondering how easy it would be to get an American interested in me so, on one occasion, I went out of my way to flirt with one. I wished I hadn’t! I had a very difficult time trying to get rid of him. That taught me a lesson.

As a child I had signed the pledge not to drink alcohol. I did not feel bound by this but considered it wise to abstain whilst in the forces as some of the girls got drunk and in that condition were fair game for unscrupulous airmen, either British or American. Pregnant WAAF were dismissed the service!

Whilst at Saffron Walden I caught shingles and was sent to the sick bay. This was situated in a delightful manor house nearby. I remember that in the room or ward in which I slept were the markings on the wall showing the growth of the children who had lived there in happier times. The grounds were delightful, full of daffodils and primroses in flower and I was not too ill to appreciate my surroundings. In fact I was hardly ill at all, but got some sick leave out of it.

We were in Saffron Walden during the spring and early summer of 1943 and were able to explore the locality. I remember the wild flowers, violets and primroses, in the hedges and the delight they gave me. We were also able to visit Cambridge.

(Continued)

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