Joan was accepted into the ATS and called up in February 1942 aged 21. Originally she had wanted to be in the WRNS but they were only excepting cooks and she wanted to do something more exciting. She was sent for her initial training at Glen Parva Barracks in Leicester where she was issued with a khaki uniform and stayed for 3 weeks.

Joining up

Joan describes the uniform they had as 'horrid'. With elasticated long pants that they called 'knee grippers' they were not the most fashionable clothes around! Although Joan does explain that the shoes were very comfortable.

Uniform

During their intial training weeks, Joan remembers they were taken in route marches and being encouraged on by the NCOs...

Route March

Initially all of the route marching was a shock to Joan and although she was a keen walker the amount of walking was hardgoing.

Hardgoing

After the initial three weeks training all the girls got a weekend leave before they came back and were posted. The ATS were dispersed all over the place, but Joan was sent to Hertford where there was an ATS Platoon. Here she used her clerk skills and took minutes for the meetings. Although she had already passed many tests in her profession she still had to take them in the ATS.

Leave and Postings

Joan shared a room with 5 other girls. Every morning they had to take down the bed, fold the blankets and lay out all the belongings, including their own cutlery, for inspection.

Accomodation

During her time at Hertford Joan was promoted to Corporal and was put in charge of some of the girls, this included being responsible for the girls (Privates) that she shared a room with. With the position of Corporal, Joan had to take the drill (on the road, as they had no parade ground) and she remembers her Sergant Major on the first occasion she took a drill..

Promotion to Corporal and Taking Drill

There was entertainment for the ATS girls to keep them occupied and Joan recalls the food was quite 'stodgy' although very wholesome!

Entertainment and Food

When D Day came all troops from the surrouning area were posted to different areas and Joan was posted first to Cambridge and the Bridlington.

D Day, and new Postings

In these sound clips Joan explains the routine she went through to get to work and what she did - dealing with correspondence, taking minutes and part of her job was decoding cypher messages that came in.