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I was 15 when the war broke out, my father was in Dad鈥檚 Army, in the Home Guard and I volunteered for ARP work, I didn鈥檛 like going on the telephones when the air raid sirens went off. Then in 鈥�42, when you were 17 you had to register for war service or you were put on the services or munitions, so I decided I鈥檇 join the ATS. I went in in January 43, I was in 鈥�43, 鈥�44, and until the beginning of 鈥�46. My first training was in Lancaster, doing basic training. There was a camp there and from there you were sent to various regiments, and I applied to go to Dryburn. They put me on what鈥檚 called 鈥淩adio Location,鈥� which was RADAR. I did a course, then they took me and said I was going on an instructors鈥� course to become corporal, and I started teaching the young girls who were coming in. When they stopped recruiting girls for the ATS I started teaching men.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I had lots of experiences. One time I was sent down to Salisbury plain with twelve other girls to do RADAR experiments for the war office. That build up was for Arnham, not D-Day. If you climbed the ladder you could see for miles, men, troops, planes, and we had to always go out with an armed escort because there were so many troops around! That was a very interesting experience. We also worked on American equipment, and then when we had finished learning about it we had to give the people who were using it instruction. We did that, and then when the war was over in 鈥�45 we were sent back to base. I wanted to remuster, but because I had had training experience I had to keep on training other people. I wanted to be a driver, but I think they had plenty really.
At first I was a bit worried about instructing men, but we were quite accepted. Young men were happy to be trained by young women, but older men wouldn鈥檛 be trained by younger men, as they hadn鈥檛 seen any military action. But we were accepted and I never had any trouble.
We used to set all of the equipment up and work with the Royal Artillery to show them what RADAR could do and how to use it. We had to go into fields, and we usually used to go up to the farms to ask for water or milk 鈥� everybody was obliged to help. This particular time I was about to go on leave, so I went up to this farm to ask for water. The lady said that it was no problem, when I noticed there were chickens running around. I asked if there were any eggs, because there were no eggs in those days. He said 鈥渉ow many do you want?鈥� I said 鈥渁s many as you can give me!鈥� I only had ten shillings, which was about a week鈥檚 wages in those days, so I asked him what I could get for that. He said 鈥渙h it doesn鈥檛 matter.鈥� He found me a biscuit tin, an old-fashioned biscuit tin, about eight inches by eight inches, ten inches deep. He filled it full of eggs for me!
I carried it really carefully on the train. When I got home, I was greeted by my mother and she asked what I had in the box. I said, 鈥淵ou鈥檒l never guess!鈥� I opened it and she went berserk! She called all the neighbours and gave all the eggs to all of the children in the street, it was amazing. Everyone shared in those days, and used everything. The eldest child鈥檚 clothes were cut down for the youngest, shoes were worn out, everything was used.
I knew my husband during the war, but it was only afterwards that we got together. He was always around. He served for six years, he trained as a pilot but was a mechanic originally. By the time he qualified, they didn鈥檛 really need any more pilots. I think I saw more action than he did.

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