War-time Memories of Leicestershire.

I was 19 when war broke out, living with my parents in a small Leicestershire village and working in the office of a factory producing elastic & ribbons. Contracts for these were very quickly changed to supplying Government contracts for garments for the forces.I joined the Red Cross in my spare time as a volunteer.After a time when women were re-directed into labour to suit the government, I was offered a job as an auxiliary Police Woman, replacing a man who had been called into the Army.This was much more satisfying as it combined working for civilians and war work.It was very varied - being a small section station I was alone in the office and dealt with everything that cropped up.There were two training aerodromes within a couple of miles, an Italian P.O.W camp, an army camp(later to be taken over by the Americans) and a staging camp containing a permanent staff and nightly accommodation for up to 1000 men of all nationalities on their way North or South.
During the day I would make out reports and detail everything that happened - for example, a road traffic accident, usually involving a military vehicle which meant liaison with military personnel on behalf of a civilian involved.If it was a fatal accident, I would arrange for the next of kin to be informed and if it was a service man, this usually meant arranging for his family to come from a distance.
We were in the flight path for bombers attacking towns in the West Midlands - Coventry, Birmingham etc., and I would get telephone messages as they approached in various stages, to notify camps, aerodromes and particularly a highly secret factory where the jet engine was to be tested and eventually produced.The final warning meant I pressed the switch that alerted the whole district that a raid was imminent and of course sound the "all clear" when it was over.
When an Italian escaped from our local P.O.W camp I just notified our men for them to keep a look out. They always escaped in a crowd and would give themselves up by nightfall.If a German escaped anywhere in the country we were immediately informed and notified all aerodromes, military personnel etc.One day when the men had gone to Divisional H.Q for pay parade, I received a 'phone call from our nearest aerodrome to say that they had the German P.O.W that I had earlier reported to them as escaped. I told them to bring him in with an escort as I was alone at the station.I contacted D.H.Q for some of the men to come back at once and when the Army turned up to take him back to prison, they had 4 men on either side, sitting with fixed bayonets in the Army lorry and the prisoner sitting in the middle.
There was also the civilian day to day jobs - lost property, a mother-to-be threatened with eviction whose husband was overseas, women who found the wealth of the Americans too much to resist and would leave home and family.Foot and Mouth would throw the whole of the countryside into chaos - notify Ministry, issue licenses etc.

One of our men covered a most unfortunate area.He had to deal with a plane crash where he cradled a badly burned airman until he died and when an army lorry hit a tree, he had to cut off the driver's leg with his penknife as it was only attached by the skin.
Other very distressing things happened like a young girl cycling in the black-out hit a lump of mud left by a farm tractor.She was thrown onto her head and killed. Two young army officers took 4 girls for a night out in a small, soft-top car which overturned killing all four.My involvement in these incidents was only to make out reports and inform the Coroner's office but these memories of lives lost in war-time stay with you.
There were of course things like burglaries but being a small community we knew all the villains and they were soon cleared up.Women prisoners were taken to Winson Green, Birmingham by me.
I was allowed to stay in the Red Cross as well as the Police Force, although that was chiefly helping out at the local Cottage Hospital in the evenings and/or weekends.I also helped at the local W.V.S Canteen at the Staging Camp, also in the evenings and at weekends.In fact this is where I first met the man I eventually married, but that is another story!

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