“I started off as a telephone operator in Admiralty House...One night during a heavy air raid a bomb fell in the next room to us and didn’t go off. It was actually sticking out of the ground a good four feet. It was huge, but the strange thing was we never heard it. We didn’t even know it was there until one of the workers came and told us...After that I changed over to boats.
“(Night patrol) was nice in the summer. You didn’t go out until it got dark and you came in at dawn. In the winter you would be out quite early. There were four girls running the boat and we used to take a naval officer and two sailors. You had to go continuously around the harbour making sure no lights were showing anywhere. If it was a ship and you couldn’t get their attention then the sailors would have to shoot the light out. “I think what affected people most during the war...When you left home in the morning, you never knew if you were going to be a family at the end of the day. The air raids would come, you’d never know where...you lived for the moment. “When there was an air raid...if there was a lull, they’d say ‘quick there’s one on fire’ and we’d all dive out (of the shelter)...to see the plane coming down in flames. Great excitement. “There was a plane, he must have come in low, a German plane and he was machine gunning. He was going right down the road. We were stood under the shelter of a pub doorway...the publican opened the door and pulled us in...” |