Socialising, The Americans and Dancing...

The Americans also held dances, I don't remember going to any, but I do remember being woken one night by a WAAF friend returning with slices of chocolate cake, and half a large tin of ice-cream which we all ate before it melted. It was the first we had had for several years and was delicious.

Pres, Eisenhower visited Swanage while I was there- we wondered why all the Americans were all so smart on a Sunday morning until we saw him drive by. The course lasted probably about six weeks, it consisted mainly of day and evening lectures and practical work, and the classrooms were away from the other radar sites and we had no contact with the staff there. There was no NAAFI at Worth but at morning break we all went to nearby Renscombe Farm where in the large old farmhouse kitchen tea and buns could be bought.

While at Swanage I was able to go home twice on a weekend pass. My parents lived at Sopley and had WAAF from the nearby GCI station billeted with them. The course at Worth ended in late March 1944 and I was posted to Winterton in Norfolk.

This site was right on the coast between the villages of Winterton and Hemsby and we lived in pre-war timber summer bungalows on the land side of the sand dunes; the valley of the dunes was mined and stray dogs were often blown up.