Duncan Barrett - Jessie’s Story - Heroism, heartache and happiness in the wartime women’s forces

Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperElement 2015

© Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi 2015

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Cover photographs (not representations of the women portrayed herein) © George W. Hales/Getty Images (WAAF officer); The Everett Collection/Mary Evans Picture Library (military officer); IWM Collection (WRNS officer); London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans Picture Library (background)

Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi assert the moral right

to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780007501229

Ebook Edition © May 2015 ISBN: 9780007517541

Version: 2015-03-17

For

Cathleen Alexander (ATS, 1941–1946)

Anne Barrett (ATS, 1943–1944)

and in memory of

Jane Bekhor (WAAF, 1941–1943)

Cover

Title Page Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

Praise forThe Sugar Girls Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

Praise forGI Brides Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher HarperElement An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by HarperElement 2015 © Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi 2015 Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015 Cover photographs (not representations of the women portrayed herein) © George W. Hales/Getty Images (WAAF officer); The Everett Collection/Mary Evans Picture Library (military officer); IWM Collection (WRNS officer); London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans Picture Library (background) Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780007501229 Ebook Edition © May 2015 ISBN: 9780007517541 Version: 2015-03-17

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Praise for The Sugar Girls Praise for GI Brides Copyright Dedication Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Moving Memoirs eNewsletter Write for Us About the Publisher For Cathleen Alexander (ATS, 1941–1946) Anne Barrett (ATS, 1943–1944) and in memory of Jane Bekhor (WAAF, 1941–1943)

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter

Write for Us

About the Publisher

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany. One by one, the other Allied nations – France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark and Poland – had all surrendered, and America and the Soviet Union were yet to join the war. But for all the brave talk of fighting the enemy on the beaches, the country was outgunned – and outmanned as well. The British Army stood at just over one and a half million men, while the Germans had three times that many, plus a population almost twice the size of Britain’s from which to draw new waves of soldiers.

Clearly, in the fight against Hitler, manpower alone wasn’t going to be enough.

During the First World War, all three branches of the British military had formed a female auxiliary service, but the new organisations had been mothballed soon after hostilities came to a close. In the build-up to a second global conflict they were hastily recalled to life, and it was now that the women’s forces really came into their own.

Initially, both the Army and the RAF were supported by the Auxiliary Territorial Service, or ATS, but two months before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) split off and became a separate organisation. Fulfilling an equivalent role in relation to the Navy was the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Among the women’s forces, the WRNS was considered the ‘senior service’, just as the Navy was among the three male forces. Its members – thanks to its unwieldy acronym – were known as ‘Wrens’.

In fact, settling on a suitable name for the organisation had proved quite a minefield. It came close to being christened the Women’s Auxiliary Naval Corps, until someone realised that the abbreviation ‘WANC’ might provoke jibes from the sailors its members worked alongside.