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I was 16 and living in London when the war started and for the next 2 years experienced blackouts, seeing dog fights the docks on fire and life in an Anderson shelter. My older brother joined the Navy only to be invalided out after a few months with a heart problem. My older sister had to work in an amunition factory which she hated, my younger brother was evacuated and my mother who was a widow went to work in an engineering factory.

When I reach 18 I enlisted in the WAAF and was sent to Bridgenorth to get kitted out etc. From there I went to Morcombe for square bashing, inoculations and generally being initiated into the WAAF. I remember being hungry after pounding the promenade and getting very little to eat(the landlady was not happy at having girls foisted on her, before she had airmen) and spending my meagre pay on fish and chips. From Morecombe I was sent to Leighton Buzzard, where we lived in a workhouse, to train as a "clerk special duties" which was the title for plotters etc working in an Operations Room.
After my training I was posted to Middle Wallop where I lived and worked for the next 5 years. During that time I helped plot raids on London including doodlebugs. But I think the greatest thrill was plotting the D Day invasion. As we walked from our nissen huts to the Ops Room we saw the Gliders and aircraft carrying the Paratroops flying overhead. On arriving at the Ops Room the atmostphere was unbelievable. The map was covered with plots all moving across the channel towards France.
I happened to be on a 24 hour pass on VE Day so my sister and I went to London, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalga Square and the Mall. Everyone was going wild a really unforgetable experience. We met a RAF pilot and a Naval Officer who had nowhere to stay so we took them home with us. (We had a very understanding mother) The next morning when I woke them with tea I realised they had only met the previous day. The next day we returned to London then went our separate ways. I often wonder what happened to them.

Just before I was demobilized I met a Spitfire Pilot who was sent to Middle Wallop to await his demobilization -
we were married six moths later and last April celebrated our 58th wedding aniversary.

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