It was Double Declutch - no synchromesh then!

Kay Hutton
ATS Driver.

I couldn’t drive but they taught me at Gresford. It was before synchromesh gears - we had to double declutch! I had my test on market day in Wrexham, in a lorry, with about 4 other girls in the back - making rude remarks!

I’ve been driving for 63 years, now.

My husband (he was my boyfriend then) had joined the RAF. We worked in the same office in the Civil Service.
I got fed up of going down the shelter. Dad snored.
And I felt I should do my bit.

I joined up to the ATS. We had initiative tests and I chose driving. I enjoyed the drill.

The girls that were chosen for staff car drivers were given a further 2 or 3 months in the Lake District — Keswick — the finer points of driving.

After that I was posted to Shelton Hall, Shrewsbury (it’s been knocked down now)

We had one day when your car was off the road for maintenance (keeping it clean etc) and we had to do WOFLE TB every night. (Water oil fuel lights tyres battery). We had to check this (allegedly!) every morning

We had to dismantle the car every night — take the rotor arm off

Next morning we’d get a job to pick such and such an officer up and take him somewhere…I got to know Shrewsbury and bits of Wales well. Never thought I’d come back here to live. After 60 years!

After 2 years there the ATS officer (Junior Commander) called me in and she said “You’ve been posted to Harlech. You’re to pack all your gear and take an ambulance.”
I said “Do I get a map?” There were no signposts then — they’d all been taken down in case of invasion.
She said: “Oh you’ll just have to ask the way.”

I was alright up to Oswestry — and after that then everyone I asked only spoke Welsh!

I was very late arriving — they expected me mid afternoon and I didn’t get there til half past 8

It was D day. They told me the news when I got there. My co-driver (to be) told me when I got out. “We’ve landed in Normandy!”

It was the 7th Anti-tank range (Artillery) that I was posted to, and we had to be in attendance Platoons would come from tank regiments and practice their firing on moving bogies over the sand dunes (on rails) — and we had to be on call in case there were any accidents. One a week there was always a night shoot.

The majority of duties was taking sick soldiers (they’d go on sick parade) and we’d take them to a camp reception station. It’s a half way post. They weren’t ill enough for hospital but they weren’t fit for duty. One was at Port Madoc.

The seriously ill people we had to take to Bangor.

It was an interesting time I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the freedom — my father was a bit on the strict side. It was nice being in charge and feeling I was freeing a soldier for more active service. It was lovely being amongst all the men as well!

I wasn’t sad when it at finished. When I was demobbed my husband was demobbed at the same time and we were married the next year.

For us it was a good war.

'This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Genevieve Tudor of the BBC Radio Shropshire(CSV) on behalf of Kay Hutton and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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