Joan, a widow who was 11 when war broke out, describes her experience as an evacuee during the war. She remembers the day that war was announced, and seeing all the mothers in the town crying, although she didn't understand why at the time. Joan was evacuated from her home in Gillingham with 3 of her sisters. This was a painful separation, especially since they were not treated well by their two carers in their new home in Chartham. Joan later fell ill with scarlet fever and was put in an isolation hospital for 6 weeks, after which the sisters were taken home to their parents.  Joan recalls her experience being much improved after the family was reunited. She talks of the ‘happy days’ of ‘Digging for Victory’ and sourcing items for the local barracks. Although food was rationed, Joan remembers her mother reserving her meat ration so the family could have a Sunday roast. She also recalls using condensed milk instead of jam to make a tasty sandwich, and the jubilation on the days when boats of bananas and oranges managed to get through. She also speaks with fondness of the time spent in the Anderson air raid shelter in their garden, where they spent most of their nights. She relates happy memories of sing-alongs with their Irish neighbour who often joined them, and recalls often staying up all night talking and laughing- ‘I can’t say they were sad days… we were a community really.’ Although she doesn’t recall being scared of the bombing, the memory of Gillingham bus depot being bombed and setting the sky alight has stuck with her. Joan talks about the pub her father took over in 1942, where she worked as a barmaid. She recalls the celebrations of VE Day, when people sang and danced all night. It was shortly after this that her future husband walked into the pub after being demobbed from the Navy. They married and moved to Scotland, but he re-joined the Navy after 9 years, and she fondly recalls her years as a Navy wife.  Joan’s story reminds us of the often painful experience of evacuation, as well as the spirit of community inspired by the Blitz.

Born in Farnborough Hampshire, with relatives in the army and air force, Paddy was keen to enlist in the services. Told with much humour and affection, she recalls her time in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) from age seventeen in 1942. She began her two-week training to be an orderly at Overthorpe Hall in Banbury but was then asked to sign the Official Secrets Act. When asked about her hobbies she mentioned crossword puzzles and was sent to Grendon Underwood to work in the cipher office. Paddy volunteered to go to North Africa where she worked on Operation Monkey, coding and decoding messages from Italy to be sent to London about the Italian armistice. At Massingham in Algiers, a training centre for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she decoded sometimes unclear wireless messages, working until they were deciphered. She recalls her satisfaction in making codes understandable, gaining writer’s cramp in the process, and tells anecdotes of her comradery with the other women working there. She returned to London where she worked as a coder on S.O.E Operation Periwig with Leo Marks at the Baker Street headquarters. Paddy arrived in Bombay on V.E Day. She witnessed servicemen returning from Burma and malnourished prisoners returning from the Siam railways, and laid on a reception for them as the war came to an end.

After being demobbed, Naval man Len Hurst took to post-war England in search of a suitable new job. When promises of employment within the Merchant Navy fell flat, Len found luck in the field of aviation, gaining his Civil Aviation licence and beginning work as a Radio Officer.  In this interview he recalls his time with Southend Airways, coinciding with the start of the Berlin Airlift. He describes his own experiences flying with different crews, as well as some pilots who were almost certainly more than three sheets to the wind. Len’s anecdotes include one hair-raising flight, when a problem with the control locks forced his plane to fly at a scarily low altitude, and another lucky escape following a crash caused by the collapse of his plane’s undercarriage. With Hamburg flattened, Len and his crews helped to deliver goods like butter, coal, and flour. When considering the initial resentment from many Berliners, he reiterates that the Airlift was to “feed” people, something which otherwise might not have happened.  Similar to many, Len has no regrets, and recalls the Airlift as “a very interesting period” in his life. He has since written a book, detailing his experience.