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I was 16 and living in SE 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.
When I reached 18 I enlisted in the WAAf and was sent to Bridgenorth to get kitted out etc. From there I was posted to Morcombe for square bashing, inoculations and generally being initiated into the WAAF. I remeber 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 Morcombe 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 Operations Rooms.
After completing my training I was posted to Sopley GCI station, but as Sopley was not yet opertaional I was attached to Middle Wallop where I lived and worked for the next 5 years. I never did get to Sopley. During that time I helped to plot raids on London including "doodlebugs". But 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 paratroopers flying overhead, arriving at the Ops. Room the atmostphere was unbeleivable. 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 I went to London, Piccadily Circus, Trafalgar Square and the Mall. Everyone was going wild a really unforgetable experience. I met a RAF pilot and a Naval Officer who had nowhere to stay so I took them home with me. (I had a very understanding mother). I did not realise until the next morning that had only just met that night. The next day we 3 went up to Town again to celebrate then we went our separate ways - I often wonder what happened to them.
Just before I was demobilised I met a Spitfire Pilot who was sent to Middle Wallop to await his demobisation we were married 6 months later and last April celebrated our 58th Wedding Anniversary.

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