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Gwen Bell from Culcheth being interviewed by John Reid about her experience during and after the Second World War whilst serving in the ATS in the London area. Gwen talks about returning to her home town of Leigh from London. Recorded on the 29 October, 1981.

Audio description below:

What picture did you have on the Radar?  

What picture, oh just little lines going up and down, a thin green line came across the cather ray tube and of course when you were on target you  had a break in the green line, which the bigger the break the nearer the target was.

Can you remember anything about the air raid shelters?

The air raid shelters.  Well we had one in our back garden at home, an Anderson shelter, but it was never used of course, fortunately.

What were they like in the army? 

Well we didn’t have any We didn’t have any on a gun site, you see you were operational.

Did you ever use the tube stations? 

Oh thousands of times, we used to see people sleeping in the tube stations, there were lots of people used to go down  to the tube stations and sleep.

What was your attitude to the war? 

Well war isn’t nice is it any time, and I think the sooner it was over the better for everybody.

Did you have to wear a gas mask? 

The respirator.  The Sergeant Major would have gone mad had you said that.  No we only used our respirators when we were having drills.  We used to have gas drills you see, obviously.

When you say a drill... 

Well everything was a drill, everything was a drill, exercise if you call it, but, you call it now but that was the drill.

Did you like army life? 

Yes I did.  I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed I wouldn’t say every minute of it but I did enjoy it, broadened my outlook on life and I met some very very nice  people.  One person who I still keep in touch with.

Who's that? 

Well her name now is Mrs. Hall but she was a Toni Burton.

Where does she live? 

Where does she live now, she lives in Cambridge now.

What did you do for entertainment? 

Well on a gun site it was a little bit different from an  ordinary unit because you  had to have a manning team, a standby team, a team on fatigues and a team who were on, out on pass. Everything was done on twenty four hours, twenty four hour basis, so you were either manning the equipment, standby for the equipment which you couldn’t go out, half day pass when you were on fatigues and of course the other was your twenty four hour pass.  Entertainment we used to go to the NAFI in the evening, being self contained units, you see, you were only small self contained units, everything, they used to play bingo, used to have ENSA  shows.

What does that stand for? 

Oh now then, do you know I can’t tell you it’s completely gone.  ENSA entertainment something.  All the stars were in they used to go round.

Do you remember any famous names? 

Do I remember any famous names.  No not in the people that came to entertain us, I can’t remember any famous names.

What did you do on fatigues?

Oh peel potatoes, peel carrots, shells peas, that was one section.  If you were on the dining room section you cleared the dining room, wiped the tables down, put the salt and pepper on for when it was the next meal time.  The other was washing the dishes for the cooks, washing the pans and the plates.

Did you ever go abroad with the army? 

No, I didn’t.  The battery went abroad, but our junior commander wouldn’t let us, well she said we were too young to go.  That was after D Day.

How old would you be then? 

Well I would be about nineteen, because I only went in towards the end of the war.

How long did you stay in the army?

Almost three and a half years.

What rank did you reach? 

Corporal.

After the war was over, can you tell me anything about that please? 

After the war was over?  After the war was over they disbanded the batteries, which of course were no use and I just drifted, I was posted to the Royal Army Service Corps, which was a clerical job, nine till five job which was just going to work like you would normally do.

Did you prefer that to working on a gun site? 

Oh no, the gun site was, it was great really, we were outside, we had to do our own maintenance on our sets, you know, we had to make sure that everything was in working order, everything was greased and oiled and cleaned,  we had to clean the aerials and all that we had to do.

What was the atmosphere like? 

Oh great, grand set of girls and we’d no very young men with us because they were all the heavy artillery as we were, the heavy AKA.  They  were people who weren’t fit for the fighting line or people who’d been out and been injured and they came back to the gun sites but they were a grand bunch, a grand bunch.

Did you miss the army? 

Mm I did.  Well then you came back after freedom, what you might say to trying to pick up the threads of a village life which, you know, it’s difficult.

How did you feel when you came back? 

Penned in.  Penned in, I remember my father told me when I came out of the army that my place was inside the house at ten o’clock.  There was no good out on the streets after ten o’clock.

How did you respond to that? 

Well you couldn’t argue with father, you sort of told mother, who went to father.  But I mean I never was a late ………….Basically you couldn’t stay out, the last bus was twenty to eleven and my friends were in Wigan and that was the bus I had to catch to get home.

Where were you living then? 

Still in Springfield, still at Nelpan Lane.

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