成人快手

I was priveleged, as a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (the WAAF), to work as a 'plotter' in a front line Fighter Operations Room at Middle Wallop.

On the night of 5 June 1944 we were preparing to go on nught duty when we began to hear an increasingly loun droneing noise. We went outside to see the awesome and horrific sight of what appeared to be the entire sky filled with low flying aircraft towing gliders. Awesome, both for the visual impact, and because we knew that the invasion into france had now begun. Horrific because we were also aware that many of the men in those gliders would no longer be alive within a few hours.

We went on duty in our sound-proof underground Operations Room to 'plot' what was happening both overhead and beyond, and with the convoys crossing the Channel to the five beaches in Normandy. This by means of coloured Metal arrows and plaques on a large table map, the details of which were passed on to us through our head-sets via radar stations and the Royal Observer Corps. Thus our controller could take action against any enemy aircraft also plotted in the vicinity.

We ended our nine hour shift exhausted but grateful to have played a very minor role on such a momentus occasion.

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