91Èȱ¬

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by CSV/91Èȱ¬ Radio Nottingham on behalf of Tania Bowley with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I knew that war was inevitable when I queued for a gas mask, this had to be carried at all times, we all expected to be gassed luckily this never happened. I was 19 working at a large store in Nottingham city centre. In 1940 I decided to volunteer to join the WAAF but had to wait some time before being called up. In the meantime I enrolled with the Red Cross nursing auxiliary and after training helped out every evening after work at a military hospital on Porchester Road in Mapperley. I was in Nottingham on May 8th 1941 the night of the big air raid, my father refused to have a shelter in the garden so foolishly I watched from my bedroom window as bombs rained down on the city, the council house dome was silhouetted in flames, the whole city seemed to be alight. One of my neighbours was killed, he was working the night shift at the Co-op bakery on Meadow Lane which took a direct hit. Catching the bus the next morning and not knowing if I had a job to go back to, the bus took many detours to avoid bomb craters and people were sweeping up glass in front of their shattered windows, luckily our shop was intact.
In July I was called up and after training as a mechanic was posted to RAF Syerston where I spent much of the time cleaning and testing sparking plugs there were 96 on each Lancaster Bomber. A Canadian squadron 408 were operating daylight raids over the Ruhr, the losses were horrendous, I made and lost many friends. In 1942 two new squadrons arrive, no’s 61 and 106 Guy Gilson of Dam Busters fame was the squadron commander of 106, these squadrons took part in the first 1000 bomber raids over Germany and later Gibson and crew dropped the first 8000 ft bomb. We had a visit from Richard Dimbleby who was a war correspondent he flew with Gibson over Berlin, I don’t think he enjoyed the trip.
In 1942 I met the man who was to become my husband, he was an electrical engineer working hard to keep the aircraft in good flying order, Gibson recommended him for a commission so he left Syerston for officer training, we were married at Christmas 1943 but couldn’t get leave for a honeymoon till the following March, we spent a week at Scarborough but the beaches were covered with huge rolls of barbed wire and we were awoken each morning to the sound of new recruits being marched up and down the prom.
Later in 1943 Gibson and his crew along with three more crews from 106 left Syerston for Scampton to form 617 the Dam Busters Squadron.
In June 1944 I left the WAAF as I was pregnant and my son arrived in January 1945.
On VE Day my husband was still in the RAF, stationed at RAF Breighton in Yorkshire and as an officer was allowed to live ‘off camp’ he took the day off as hostilities has ceased and we spent the day quietly in the countryside. He was demobbed in 1946, we were married for fifty eight years until he died three years ago.

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