Wartime Remembered

Wartime Remembered

Wartime memories from the first day were in Yorkshire when all four brothers and sister had left, one into the Territorials, another evacuated with his school, one a teacher evacuated in the same way. But after one winter and before I was called up in the first conscription of women by age group, army regiments were in occupation of our Yorkshire village and yes it was the red rose regiments, First and Second Manchesters and Seventh and Eighth Lancashire Fusiliers.

The two men I remember were the Noon brothers who had made their music name playing piano accordions in the then concert halls. They’d call at our house in North Hull and entertain us on Sunday afternoon. My mother would manage from the rations some good home baked meal. They always came again so it must have been satisfying.

Was it l94l or l942 when called up, I was given a choice between working at the Met office, refused because it was central London and so, dangerous, and in the A I D, the Aeronautical Inspection Directorate of the Air Ministry.

When last week the Queen made a public acknowledgement of women’s contribution to the war service, I felt very pleased to remember all those with whom I worked. My first location was Bristol — and of course in the blackout, arriving on a dark evening and expecting to be housed at a naval billet, I was relieved to be directed to a Salvation Army hostel. It was so comfortable and pleasant there, that when an official billet became available I was disappointed to leave. However, the private family house in Brislington, Bristol was near to the work location, Bristol Aeroplane Company, and they had a piano. First class!

Within one year I was working on R D F, Radio Direction Finding apparatus now known as RADAR and most of my inspection of the TR9L, the transmitter receiver, ninth attempt at low flight, some said the L was for Lancasters, was along the road at Lucas’s Electrical Specialists.

Why do I remember that? Well one day on the open factory floor, below the stern frame fuselage of a Bristol Brabazon, the works manager asked me had I any overalls. No of course not, I said but that was alright, because my work was mostly hands and clean. Oh no he said, see here.

“Do you see those two men up there” — about 8 feet above us, inside the open fuselage? Well tomorrow they will be down here and you will be up there. If you don’t want to wear overalls, that’s up to you.”

What he meant of course was trousers — no woman ever wore them then. But one of my colleagues leant me his and later I bought my first pair. I’ve had and worn trousers ever since. Now they’re acceptable dress for all except the very old and I can say that I’ve worn trousers for longer than any woman.

After an initial short stay - two weeks at British Power Boats, Hythe on Southampton Water I was posted to Dartmouth, l942 to l944. At Hythe, all the accommodation was held by men, so the Chief Inspector would not post me there. No, he gave me a new sixty-foot air sea rescue launch and provided all the service needs each day.

The A I D chief in Dartmouth, a Glaswegian, had been advisor on internal combustion engines at General Motors in the States. He was confused at my arrival. He’d never heard of a woman working in a shipyard, he said. He had no idea what I was there for. He didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Well we both knew a few weeks later when the first A S R launches were fitted with the TR 9L.

Within a few weeks he gave me the key of what he called the Wireless Room saying he’d never known anything about wireless. But then he said, my footwear was unsuitable for a shipyard and gave me some coupons to buy a suitable pair of shoes. They were his wife’s coupons. I bought one of the first of its kind; made by Clarks of Street, Somerset. They were wooden soled clogs with a metal hinge in front of the instep.

Within six months a new 60-foot A S R launch was being turned out every nine or ten days. They had a Perkins special six cylinder marine engine and tested at 30 Ks. When all the millionaires’ yachts were moored midstream in the River Dart, I had my own first class yacht at least every fortnight.

All the best academic minds were not in the universities then. They were in the factories and shipyards. I had the good fortune to be directed by some of them. I did my drawing office practice at a firm in Bath, whose name escapes me for the moment, with the electrical engineer who won the Design Centre award for his design of the first angle poise lamp.

There were of course some frightening experiences. Taking a refuelling launch out once to test its engine pump the forward tank would be filled with 500 gallons of fuel and then pumped from the forward to the aft tank. The supply ship was faulty and tens of gallons went into the river. I was held over two hours because the documents could not be cleared. On my return to shore the boss was standing by the riverside waiting and worried. I explained and asked “Who’s in charge her. What have I to do or say?”

“Ye inform the harbour master when you’re entering and leaving the port. And you may, if you choose tell the Commander (That was the commander of the Royal Naval College) of the General nature of your work and beyond that you’re answerable to no one!”

I’d only taken three strides away when he called me back and said; - “You realise Miss — don’t you — that if it ever comes to it, you’re in charge”.

It was a couple of weeks before it really dawned on me that no one knew what was going on and of course it was the beginning of the D day planning from the South West. There was a speedy manufacturing and testing process, the arrival of American troops, the CBs — Construction Battalion 2OO6 (they had made the successful landing in Guam) and a permanent and strong manifestation of the Royal Navy as the Senior Service.

I didn’t even know why, on the easily remembered fourth of the fourth Nineteen Forty Four, I was moved to the A I D office in 39 Pulteney Street, Bath. And again the boss didn’t know why I had come and what I was to do. I always say D Day was late but I was early! The silent news of Bath’s importance was that Admiralty HQ had been moved there but security kept it silent. After two weeks doing next to nothing, I was up at Bristol - was it the time I went to hear Myra Hess play at at the Coliseum? but made another mistake. The South Western A I D had a Principal Inspector and six divisional ones. My divisional one had what I now know was a Cornish name, Mr. Tordiff, and the principal had another Cornish name Mr. Jolliffe. I found myself questioning the principal by appointment in error.

“Am I supposed to be a monkey in a cage at 39 Pulteney Street because I’ve plenty of energy and nothing to do?” “I don’t know Miss. I thought you might have been able to tell me.” Well within the next two weeks the start of an assembly of equipment had begun. Engines, aircraft tyres, parachutes, anything and everything, which ought to have given us a clue, but didn’t, because silence of security was paramount. A backward view now known shows that the general movement out of military and air forces, quiet and unreported, was the best clue of what was to come.

And on that day early in June everything began to move southwards. Inspection and final assessment of all manufactured machinery and electrical equipment was carried on for twenty-four hours a day. We weren’t supposed to sleep, to eat, even to take a break. And then the good news of the successful landing came through as a blessing.

But the war wasn’t over for me. I moved to Parrett Works, Martock, Somerset where, although its wartime production was the cord for man-dropping parachutes, the walks as they were called, were housing all the goods for the relief of the Channel Islands. There was a suspicion that the Islands were housing a concentration camp and nothing was able to move until the time of the first General Election after the war. But that’s another story. I went back to my native city on 3lst Dec 1945 and began work as an assessor, Docks and Harbours with the War Damage Commission on 1st January l946.

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