Memories of World War Two

I was 18 Years old when WW2 broke out and I was working for a well known laundry in Low Fell at the time. Because of my job I was exempt from the forces so had to stay there until I was married at 21 years.

The soldiers came to a camp a few miles away and we then washed their clothes at the laundry every week. As different troops came to replace the ones that were sent overseas, I would open the parcels to find letters and photos in with their clothes as they wanted to be friendly.

At night two of us took turns as fire watchers in the factory taking our food to the canteen to have for supper, then after breakfast went down to work for another shift.

The soldiers came in their lorries through the day and we soon made some lovely friends.

I organised for them to come to our concerts for a night, which I produced being as I could sing and act. At the end we would have a cup of tea and sing songs such as “Roll out the barrel” “Johnny comes marching home” “You are my sunshine” etc and they all joined in at the end.

This occurred while they were in the same camp then when they went to the front another group would take their place and we did it all again!

Then when I was at home I went to our village hall in Birtley to teach the British, Yanks and Polish soldiers to dance, we had a great time. My father made me invite some of them to tea on a Sunday as he was very strict and wanted no trouble which there never was.

My father was too old to join the forces so he joined the home guard and after he had worked a full shift down the mine, after his meal he would don his uniform and with his gun and tin hat went out on duty patroling the streets of Birtley. No street lights then, everything was blacked out so we all had to take torches when we went out.

My father had to dig a huge hole in the back garden to build us an Anderson shelter with corrugated metal which was supplied by the council.
The sirens would go and we all had to go to the shelter, the planes roared overhead but when “BIG BERTHA” gun went off they soon turned away. We would come out of our shelter when the all clear sounded and roll into bed tired out.

I married my school friend Les who was now in the air force and travelled all over with him.
During this time I worked as a “Clippy” on a bus that went from Lincoln to Boston picking up airmen and passengers enroute through the waterways from their small cottages on the sides of the rivers, we only ran on a Saturday for them to do their shopping.

These are some of my WW2 memories, some sad and others enjoyable, I had hoped never to see war again, but it appears that nothing is learned after all……..

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.