91热爆

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When war was declared in 1939 I was 18 and had lived at home with my mum and dad in St Genny's near Bude, Cornwall until 1941.
I was then called up for service in WRAF, ITW squadron, as ACW, after one and a half years I was promoted to LACW.
In November 1941, I left home early in the morning to meet up with two other girls from the village, Alice Gliddon my cousin and Gladys Sutton a friend, a taxi took us to the railway station at Bude some 14 miles away. At Exeter we changed trains for Gloucester.
At Gloucester we meet up with several other recruits, from there we went by RAF transport to Innsworth camp. In the later part of the day we were taken to the clothing depot to be kited out with our uniforms, tin hat and gas masks etc.
The next morning our civvies clothes were taken to the post office to be returned to our homes, cost being made by our selves. In the afternoon we all saw the Medical officer for injections, this was followed by a cross-country run.
After spending a few weeks at the camp we went by train to Morecambe and were billeted out to families.
More injections took place, as I was not vaccinated at birth I became ill with vaccine fever and was ill for several days.
In the first weeks we did parades and drills on the sea front, with cheers from the workman, who were repairing damage to houses. Our PE took place in a large garage. Cross-country runs took place every day; in many instances the weather was very cold as the snow lay on the ground. We had to change into PE kit by the side of a hedge. Many of the girls were glad to return to the billets as they had blistered feet and could hardly walk.
Following the induction I was transferred to Wandsworth London to the technical college for six weeks training as a cook. I was billeted out at that time to a Mrs Webster who was like a mother to me. While there we had a few scares with the area being severely bombed with the planes coming at night, at that time we would go down to the air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden. From the streets we would hear the ack ack guns shooting at the German plans.
At weekends we would travel by underground to see the sights of London, if a raid took place we would have to stay in the underground for protection. London used to have very bad pea soupers (fog), which at times made us lost, as there were blackouts.
After leaving London we were posted back to Newquay Cornwall in hotels were we cooked for the boys in the RAF. Lucky for us we were not bombed but could see the skies of Plymouth alight from the bombing which was frightening knowing the damage and loss of life.
On our days off we would go by train to Plymouth to see the damage that had been done to the city, the stench and devastation was heart breaking to see.

I had one more posting to Wales before being demobbed in 1945.
Through what was a traumatic period of my life I meet some great people and can say that in the main they saw through the war years and was able to keep in touch with them.

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