Wartime in London

In 1939 I was 14, at the start of the war- still at technical college. During the summer holiday that year the evacuation of the children began but I refused to go. We lived in Enfield, North London, which was a target for the Germans because we were close to a power station, small arms factory and gunpowder plant. These were all close to the river Lee and when the blizt started we had to spend a lot of time in the Anderson shelter buried in our garden. We were very lucky that we only lost windows from the house.

My father was too old to serve in the forces this time. He spent his war reporting any incidents to the air raid wardens. One example of this when I was with him; A'Molatov basket' (a bomb filled with small incendaries) fell on glass houses behind an 8 foot gate. My father pushed me to the top of this gate to report on the damage. I reported hundreds of fires and the bombers still overhead. As he realised the importance of this my father abandoned me on the top of this gate to hurry to report to the wardens.
There were many other similar events.

In 1942 I enlisted into the WAAF as a Barrage Balloon Operater. Basic training was in Bridgenorth, Shropshire. From there I went to Kidbrook Camp, Blackheath, London to learn the trade.
The purpose of the balloons was to keep enemy aircraft from the cities during raids. The balloon cables were meant to entangle the aircraft causing them to crash before hitting their targets.
When the V1 bombs started the female operators were replaced by men.

In 1944, during my time as a BBO, 6 days before D-Day I married John Orton in Enfield. We had five days leave before he left for France. At that time he was a corporal in The Rifle Brigade. My Wedding dress had been used for 6 previous brides as there were no spare clothing coupons. It was made of Maltese lace brought back from Malta by the first groom who was a RN sailor.

I ended my service career in 1945 as receptionist in the Officers Mess at North Weald Fighter Station in Essex.

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