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Cranwell
July 11th 1944 I left for Cranwell. the trains were packed jam tight for the trip north – No Seats – scarcely no standing room. I found an empty 1st Class toilet (very classy) and sat in the basin with my feet on the toilet most of the way. It took about 3-4 hours to Lincoln.
I note my first day off was July 19th and I went into Lincoln to see the Cathedral. Most C of E churches
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of any size used to keep their churches open all the time during the war. There were also facilities for service – people to relax and sit in comfort in pleasant surroundings. There was usually a canteen etc. So I made my way to the Cathedral and found the amenities for RAF etc were in a part of the Bishop’s palace in a large walked garden. Very peaceful – very British – very wonderful!
When we got to Cranwell, we were informed that our group were the first to be given flying experience not as a pilot of course, but to get the “feel” of some of the accompanying crew members.
The “Par” in the newspaper reads, “WAAF Signals officers are to go to an airfield at the end of their training and fly like their RAF opposite numbers. This will help them better to understand the difficulties encountered by air crew”.
I experienced difficulties all right!!
I went up several times with a pilot in a 2 seater plane. My job was that of wireless operator and I had to reel out the trailing aerial and contact Base with the Morse key. Send and receive instructions and later use the R/T too. I wasn’t too good at any of that and on my ‘final flight’ indicated this to the pilot. The old set was squealing and whining away and I couldn’t hear a thing. So I reeled the aerial back in and he said we’d do a bit of sight seeing. So we flew out over Skegness and then made for Sandringham the King’s Residence in Norfolk. We
