蜜芽传媒

I left home very excited to be joining the RAF. A colleague from the office was also joining the same day and our friends all came to see us on our way. After a day spent changing trains I arrived at Wilmslow for four weeks initial training. I had always been used to privacy, but found myself sharing a hut with thirty other girls of all assorted shapes and sizes. Most of us were away from our families for the first time and when we settled down for the night it dawned on us that we were alone, and the night was filled with assorted sniffs and snuffles as we tried to come to terms with this and get some sleep. By the morning we had recovered and were looking forward to the day ahead. Firstly we had to have inoculations against all manner of weird diseases. The medical staff had this down to a fine art. We stripped to the waist, put our hands on our hips and walked down a double line of orderlies who jabbed us on both arms as we passed. Not very dignified, but very effective! After this we had to be kitted out with everything we would need, from gas mask and tin hat to sewing kit and button polisher. As I had joined up in a technical trade I had to have battle dress as well as tunic and skirt. I recall it was difficult to find slacks that would fit, as in those days I was very slim. All this took several days and when everything was complete we started training in earnest. We all had to take maths and aptitude tests; I decided to make a mess of the Morse, as the last thing I wanted to be was a wireless operator. The maths test was easy and I was accepted for training as a wireless mechanic, the most technical trade open to WAAFs. The next three weeks were spent learning the history of the air Force and a good deal of marching on the parade ground. We finally passed out and I was sent with several others to start technical training at the Heriot Watt College in Edinburgh. This was the furthest I had been away from home and I was looking forward to the experience.




When we arrived in Edinburgh we were billeted in an old house overlooking the Rugby ground at Murrayfield. I was sharing a room with two other girls and we became great friends. Our transport to the college was by private tram. This was quite new to me; trams had never featured in my life and to start with were a novelty. Another new experience was the sight of men in kilts. Rumours were rife about the existence, or otherwise, of nether garments. There was a poor little Scot who followed our tram on a bicycle and wearing a kilt. He was a very careful rider, and we never found the answer.

Surprisingly, Scotland was a restricted area and all our letters were censored. Exports also were certainly restricted and we enjoyed foodstuffs, which were off the menu in England. We had always been led to believe that the Scots were inclined to be a little tight-fisted, but actually if you were in uniform the opposite was true. We often found our tram fare into the city had been paid by someone we had never met, and almost every week-end there were parties, organised by different groups and churches, all free to the Forces. Edinburgh is a beautiful city, and even in wartime, the gardens in Princes Street were beautifully kept and everything was clean and tidy. The city authorities had erected a stage in the Gardens and every afternoon there was either a show or dancing.

Training at the college was comparatively easy and quite enjoyable, but we were not allowed to forget that we were in the RAF. One morning each week we had drill instruction on the parade ground, or if wet, exercises in the gym. After all the activity we were allowed in the local caf茅 for coffee and cakes. It was there that my friend and I met two RAF lads on the same course, although several months ahead. We became firm friends and spent all our free time together, exploring the countryside and going to the cinema and shows. We were in Edinburgh when the blackout was lifter, and with other friends climbed Arthur鈥檚 Seat to watch when the lights were switched on. It was an amazing sight, after years of darkness, to see the city like a map of lights.

My boyfriend and I were soon parted, he left for Birmingham to continue training and I stayed to finish my course. It was lonely at first, but I soon made other friends and worked hard until it was time to take my final exams. These were to be taken after Christmas. The Scots do not celebrate as we do. They only have Christmas Day as a holiday, but they make up for this at New Year when they have four days off


I decided that I would go home to see my family, even for so short a time. This was a big mistake. The trains were un reliable and I ended up spending New Year鈥檚 Eve in the waiting room at Oxford station. By contrast my friends spent the time partying. I will know better next time!

Exam time came, and luckily I passed with no trouble and with another friend I was posted to Bolton Technical College to finish my training. I didn鈥檛 like Bolton very much. We were billeted I a commercial hotel 鈥� the all-pervading smell of cabbage and no hot water! It was doubly off-putting as the RAF lads were in civilian digs, well looked after and no restrictions. On our first day at college we met the rest of the RAF intake, and as girls were wont to do we looked them over to spot any likely 鈥渢alent鈥�.
I was rather taken with a dark good-looking airman and decided that I would follow him up. This was quite easy to do. At that time a favourite word was 鈥減esky鈥�, used to describe anything and everything. It was very easy to tell this particular lad to 鈥減ut your pesky tie straight鈥� and suit action to words. Having started it was a short step to cinema visits etc. and to the NAAFI club in Manchester.

We were not in Bolton long, but long enough for me to fall foul of the law friend and I had been to Manchester for the evening and had left it rather late for the last train back to Bolton, so a very kind porter took us across the railway lines to the correct platform and saw us onto the train. When we gat to Bolton we of course tried to pay our fare from Manchester and all hell broke loose. Apparently Manchester was a 鈥渃losed鈥� station and no one could get on the platform without a ticket. The RAF police were called and after a long argument we were allowed to leave. If we had not been honest and given the name of any other station on the line there would have been no trouble. Our own WAAF officer also lectured us next day and left in no doubt that we could have been in very serious trouble.

It was decided by the 鈥減owers that be鈥� that our training would continue at the radio school at Cranwell and we were accordingly sent off in two batches, WAAFs first and followed the next week by the RAF. I had only been there a few days when I had to go sick with tonsillitis, and was put in sickbay. Only the RAF could make visiting time coincide with treatment and my boyfriend found me in my striped pyjamas with a towel over my head inhaling a foul-smelling substance!


Thank goodness it didn鈥檛 put him off, and he was waiting when I finally got discharged. We spent a lot of our free time together, although our interests did not always coincide. He was into sport, whereas I was very much into dancing. He had two left feet and didn鈥檛 have much of an idea what to do with either. We were, however, very much interested in each other and spent a fair amount of time proving it!

We hadn鈥檛 been at Cranwell long when the war in Europe ended. We were given several days off and while my boyfriend went off to Birmingham to see his old friends I stayed put. The feeling of relief was overwhelming and those of us left on the station went completely mad. There was no discipline whatsoever, and a steady supply of drinks came through the window of the Sergeants mess to us lesser mortals outside. We took the bus into Sleaford and marched up and down the main street singing rude RAF songs and frightening the locals to death. Back on camp we set fire to the flagpole on the parade ground (scene of many miserable parades) and then disabled the fire engine when it arrived to put out the blaze. I think I must have been paying barrack damages until the day I was demobbed.

After all this celebrating we got down to studying for our final exams and gaining our 鈥渟parks鈥�. Sadly this was the parting of the ways for my boyfriend and I. He was sent to Hampshire and I to Upavon in Wiltshire.

Once settled in Upavon I found out what my training was for and how I was going to put it to good use. The first time I had actually worked on aircraft, and even though it was a lowly aircraft it exciting. My friend from training was posted with me and we ended up sharing a room in one of the peacetime married quarters- so much nicer than living in a hut with about thirty others. It was sad that at that time there was not a lot of work for us and a considerable time was spent just sitting around doing nothing but reading and writing letters. I was writing to my boyfriend in Ringwood and he asked me to meet him in Salisbury. The RAF with its usual sense of romance chose that particular week-end to send me back to Cranwell one course, so I didn鈥檛 get his letter until I returned a couple of weeks later. In the meantime he had been sent off to the Middle East. Sadly I didn鈥檛 see him before he left. He took a lot of convincing that I hadn鈥檛 stood him up deliberately!

After a few months it was decided that the WAAFs were superfluous to requirements and we were once again shipped out, this time to Little Rissington. Same format as before, working on the aircraft, and this time there was sufficient work for us to do. The station was used to train future flying instructors; so all the pilots were either Battle of Britain or Bomber Command veterans. As I worked on the radios in the planes I was allowed to fly on air tests before night flying and I took advantage of this. The actual air testing did not take long, and as soon as it was certified OK the pilots get together to have a mock dogfight. Very exciting and possibly dangerous, but most enjoyable. It was sobering to think that the pilots had not so long before been in deadly earnest, fighting for their lives and our safety.

There was plenty of entertainment on the station. We had a very good cinema, with first class new release films, a different one each night. One night a week we had a station dance, and there was always the NAAFI open all the time. Weekends were quieter, as we were allowed to go home if not on duty.

I was still corresponding with my boy-friend in Palestine, and thought quite a lot about him, and was astonished to get a letter from him telling me that he was also thinking of me and that he had some very deep feelings for me. I realised then that what I thought of as friendship was much more than that. He replied at once and asked me to wait for him and marry him when he returned. I couldn鈥檛 have been happier and wrote to me father to tell him the glad news. He wasn鈥檛 quite so enthusiastic, pointing that it would be a very long time before I could marry. I was certain of my feelings, and settled down to wait out the months, or as it turned out, years.

Once again I was on the move, firstly to Hullavington and then after a couple of weeks, to Shawbury. Still working on aircraft, but here they were Wellington and Halifaxes so the radio equipment was different. The transmitter was quite large with big red, blue and yellow knobs. These have often been seen in films and on television, and are instantly recognised by anyone who has worked on them. All good things come to an end and once again I was posted, this time back to Cranwell, but this time to the College and more Harvards. I was also back living in a hut with twenty eight others and it was here that I became friends with five other girls. This friendship has survived the test of time, and we are still in touch fifty-five years on. There was still plenty of entertainment on the camp, and the time passed quickly.



I was very upset to learn that the RAF had no replacement for my boy friend and that it would be almost a year before he would return to England. We had planned to be demobbed at roughly the same time, so I signed on for an extra six months and volunteered to go to Japan. I was looking forward to this, but when I was told that no way would I still work on aircraft, but would have to go in an office I said 鈥渘o way鈥� and stayed here in England.

Soon all my friends left and I had to wait to be re-united with my boy friend. He actually arrived in England a few days before I was due to leave the RAF and he came to the NAAFI club in Sleaford to meet me. I was coming down the stairs as he walked in, and I knew in that instant that he was the one for me. That was when my war ended. The six years of war had shaped my life, although I had no experience of the horrors endured by others. It also shaped my future, as we married and had fifty-five years together.

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