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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio Berkshire on behalf of Joan Smith and has been added to the site with his/her permission. Joan fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I joined up in 1942. I was in the RAF, Manston in Kent. I did square bashing and then went to wireless school at RAF Compton Bassett. It was a fighter station. I was wireless operator so I had headphones and a morse key.

First of all I did ground station to ground station in the 11 group. Later on the thing I enjoyed most was direction finding. It was sitting in a hut in a field with a big wheel. I used to get morse messages from damaged bombers who wanted a bearing / directions so they could get home as quickly as possible. We were between Ramsgate and Margate.

They would press their key so we had a continuous sound and when the wheel was turned to where it was the loudest we could send them the directions from the compass. You had to be very careful to makes sure you didn’t send them the wrong direction back again. They would come in and land on our runway. They built a big concrete runway for D Day 2000yards long. Before then it was just grass.

One day at tea time we looked up and saw a plane with an S on it. I said that’s S-Sugar I’ve just had him on the radio. The plane just sank and exploded. He was just about to land. He was just about to land. He was in the next door field, the ambulance and fire tender came rushing out. I don’t think he survived, we were never told anything. Not very long after that my husband (who I didn’t know at the time) he was in Fleet Air Arm, He called up for a bearing, but didn’t get one so Hugh and Crew ended up in East Anglia. A few days later I met him at a dance in the village and we got married three months later.

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