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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Arrival in Columbo on VE Day

by helengena

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Contributed byĚý
helengena
People in story:Ěý
Joyce Glen
Location of story:Ěý
Wales, Ceylon.
Background to story:Ěý
Royal Navy
Article ID:Ěý
A4973259
Contributed on:Ěý
11 August 2005

This story is submitted on behalf of Joyce Glen, and is added to the site by Helen Hughes of the People's War team in Wales, with her permission.

I was fifteen and a half when war broke out and I can remember my mother and father the day it broke out on a Sunday September 3… a beautiful day …and they were so horrified. But we just thought it was great excitement — you know it’s a bit humdrum when you’re 15 and a half and still living at home — and we thought it was very exciting. But of course we couldn’t do anything about it. I eventually got my matriculation, left school and I went into the Civil Service. I’m one of twins, my twin sister went into Income Tax, but I went into what was the Ministry of Pensions. And I hated it. My elder sister was already in the WRENS so I thought — I’m not sticking this — so I volunteered for the Wrens. I went first to Plymouth. HMS Drake and I was on the C and C staff at Mount Wise in Plymouth and then I got drafted to an air station at Dale near Haverfordwest — HMS Goldcrest I think it was called — and there again I hated it. We were in nissen huts in the winter of 43/44 I think it must have been — and it was bitterly cold, and we were so cold in this nissen hut. And there wasn’t a lot to do except for the odd dances at the weekend and that…

My elder sister had gone abroad with the Wrens so I volunteered to go abroad. I had two weeks in London and then because my sister had gone to Ceylon, they sent me to Ceylon. I didn’t know where I was going but I don’t know why they did that. But I was sent to Ceylon. HMS Lanka. I was in Columbo for about ten months I suppose, and then I went later on up to Trincomalee HMS Highflyer. But we went by troopship out there. Herded in a troopship — terribly rough to the Bay of Biscay we thought we’d all die…then we got to the Suez canal and we nearly expired and of course by now it was getting on for the end of the war so we were going out and all the troopships were coming back. And going through the Suez canal we could almost touch the other ship and of course all the boys there were saying “You’re going the wrong way, you’re going the wrong way” and that was pretty exciting — I landed in Columbo on VE Day May 8th 1945 and we were drafted to different houses you know….I had made friends on the ship…several friends, but I was the only one who went to the house called the Durdens, lovely house it was. And as it was VE day we were allowed out that night. Normally you weren’t allowed out the day you arrived. But I asked if I could go with these friends — because I didn’t want to go somewhere on my own…so I went with all these friends from their house Hatton Court and we went on a ship. They came to fetch us by truck and we went on this ship we didn’t know anybody but we had a party — but we were told we had to be home by midnight. But the boys wouldn’t believe us…they just wouldn’t believe us so eventually they took us home at half past one in the morning . It was alright for the others they were a crowd but you can imagine how I felt. I’d had a couple of drinks too and here was an officer waiting for me….and I was on my own! But it was all corroborated in the end, I just told them they just wouldn’t listen to us, you know. So we had a whale of a time in Columbo, the war was virtually over by now. We had a great time in Columbo, we used to go up to the hills for our leave — a place called Diyatalawa and Bandarawela and it was lovely up there…there were a lot of tree plantations and of course it was cooler. But my sister was in Trincomalee and I was in Columbo, so for one leave I asked if I could go and see my sister. Now my sister was a Petty Office WREN and I was a Leading WREN. It was an overnight journey by a very rickety train to Trincomalee and at a dance, a couple of days before I was going, some Fleet Air Arm boys said oh you don’t want to do that — we’ll fly you there. I was as green as grass in those days and I went along with them…they said “its alright, we’ll pick you up, and take you to the airport”, which they did…When I got to the airport, it was a tiny little plane, minute, I’d never seen such a small plane, I’d never flown before…this tiny little plane, and standing by the plane were all these officers with gold braid up (their arms) here… If the floor would have opened and taken me I’d have been happy! But these boys, just before I got on the plane they said: “If anybody asks you say you’re on compassionate leave”. Nobody asked me…but when it was time I sneaked on right at the tail of the plane and didn’t move — I can’t even remember the landing, I was petrified. Apparently we had a very bumpy ride, but I didn’t know any better. Well, because my sister was a Petty Officer and I was a Leading Wren…as Wrens we slept in what’s called Bandas..great big huts, with open sides, no windows, open-air — and the Petty Officers had little ones, little cabin sort of things, they were still called Bandas but they just held two people. Now she was a Petty Officer and because I was a Leading Wren her First Officer would not let me sleep in the Banda with my sister….her oppo was on leave so there was a spare bed…but because I was not a Petty Officer, I was not allowed to sleep in with her.. And of course she’d had a battle with her First Officer about this and she wouldn’t budge…and then of course when Margaret saw that I was arriving by plane she nearly had a fit. But we had a lovely leave and I went back…. I can’t remember — I must have gone back on the train but I can’t remember that and eventually after my sister had been drafted home, I was drafted to Trincomalee myself. That was a most beautiful place. We would work in the mornings when it was cool and in the afternoons we’d have lunch and then we’d all have a kip under our mosquito nets and then we’d start work again from about four o’clock until about six. And the sea…we had a diving board right outside the camp and we were diving and everything…it was heaven. I was always going to go back, but my great friend unfortunately died. We were going to go together, but by the time all our children were off our hands she had died, so I’ve never been back, and of course Trincomalee now is in the wrong area and I’m sure its changed as much as Britain has changed. It’s unbelievable what’s available here now to what was available then. Before I went there I had one dress - civvy dress - and it had to do for every dance I went to and I hated it. It was terrible, I can see it now, it was green and had a criss cross pattern on it in stitching… but you couldn’t get clothes. It was incredible. It was nice when we arrived in Columbo because you could have something made up very very cheaply and beautifully made. When I came home I had a better wardrobe than anybody over here…summer wardrobe you know.

I saw Mountbatten out there…………..

When I came back I had to go back to Plymouth to be demobbed and I was demobbed in October 1946.

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