Jessie’s Story: Heroism, heartache and happiness in the wartime women’s forces. Duncan Barrett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Thanks to her dancing experience, Jessie found it easy to keep in time, and to make sure her arms were swinging alternately with her feet. But not all her colleagues were finding the training so straightforward. The basic marching movement was too much for some of them to grasp, and they were waddling forward with arms flailing out randomly.

      Their posture didn’t exactly match Jessie’s straight-backed bearing either. ‘Stop slouching, and keep your legs open,’ the sergeant bellowed at the group. ‘What are you, a bunch of pregnant virgins?’

      In the face of such a nonsensical insult, the new recruits struggled not to laugh.

      When they weren’t drilling, the girls spent much of their time at the training camp in lectures, scribbling down notes in little exercise books. There were talks on the history of the local regiment in Leicester, and on the basics of Army discipline. ‘You won’t be asked to do something, and you won’t be told to do it either,’ they were informed. ‘You’ll be ordered, and you’d better know the difference.’

      Among the many topics covered in the lectures was the uncomfortable subject of venereal disease, or ‘VD’. Many girls who had yet to learn the facts of life were shocked at being told about the virtues of ‘French letters’, and even the more worldly wise were horrified by the grisly photographs of syphilitic sores that flashed up on a giant screen in front of them. But for the ATS, sexually transmitted diseases were no laughing matter. National rates of gonorrhoea and syphilis had more than doubled since the start of the war, and it was estimated that one out of every 200 ATS girls had already been infected.

      Of all the lectures that Jessie attended in her first week of training, the one that made the strongest impression on her was a talk about Anti-Aircraft Command. To begin with, the Royal Artillery’s ‘ack-ack’ gun-sites had been strictly male environments, but the drive to free up men for fighting roles abroad was seeing the formation of a number of mixed heavy gun batteries. The prime minister’s daughter, Mary Churchill, had been among the earliest ATS girls to join one of them.

      The Army was keen to boost recruitment among the current cohort of ATS trainees, and as the girls sat and listened, the speakers pressed home the importance of the guns in defending Britain’s cities against German bombers. ‘When you’re asked what job you’d like to do in the Army,’ they told the hut full of young women, ‘we want as many of you as possible to request ack-ack.’

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4QAYRXhpZgAASUkqAAgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP/sABFEdWNreQABAAQAAABQAAD/4QQWaHR0cDov L25zLmFkb2JlLmNvbS94YXAvMS4wLwA8P3hwYWNrZXQgYmVnaW49Iu+7vyIgaWQ9Ilc1TTBNcENl aGlIenJlU3pOVGN6a2M5ZCI/PiA8eDp4bXBtZXRhIHhtbG5zOng9ImFkb2JlOm5zOm1ldGEvIiB4 OnhtcHRrPSJBZG9iZSBYTVAgQ29yZSA1LjAtYzA2MSA2NC4xNDA5NDksIDIwMTAvMTIvMDctMTA6 NTc6MDEgICAgICAgICI+IDxyZGY6UkRGIHhtbG5zOnJkZj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMTk5 OS8wMi8yMi1yZGYtc3ludGF4LW5zIyI+IDxyZGY6RGVzY3JpcHRpb24gcmRmOmFib3V0PSIiIHht bG5zOnhtcE1NPSJodHRwOi8vbnMuYWRvYmUuY29tL3hhcC8xLjAvbW0vIiB4bWxuczpzdFJlZj0i aHR0cDovL25zLmFkb2JlLmNvbS94YXAvMS4wL3NUeXBlL1Jlc291cmNlUmVmIyIgeG1sbnM6eG1w PSJodHRwOi8vbnMuYWRvYmUuY29tL3hhcC8xLjAvIiB4bWxuczpkYz0iaHR0cDovL3B1cmwub3Jn L2RjL2VsZW1lbnRzLzEuMS8iIHhtcE1NOk9yaWdpbmFsRG9jdW1lbnRJRD0ieG1wLmRpZDpGQTlF M0NDNTFBMjA2ODExOEMxNDg4REY0RjI2QUU2QSIgeG1wTU06RG9jdW1lbnRJRD0ieG1wLmRpZDpG ODI5ODREOEJDNDAxMUU0ODZCQkQ0RDYxMTk3MDEyOSIgeG1wTU06SW5zdGFuY2VJRD0ieG1wLmlp ZDpGODI5ODREN0JDNDAxMUU0ODZCQkQ0RDYxMTk3MDEyOSIgeG1wOkNyZWF0b3JUb29sPSJBZG9i ZSBQaG90b3Nob3AgQ1M1LjEgTWFjaW50b3NoIj4gPHhtcE1NOkRlcml2ZWRGcm9tIHN0UmVmOmlu c3RhbmNlSUQ9InhtcC5paWQ6NDRFMzg5RTYwNzIwNjgxMTg3RTRBMkZDOEY3OTMyQTIiIHN0UmVm OmRvY3VtZW50SUQ9InhtcC5kaWQ6NDNFMzg5RTYwNzIwNjgxMTg3RTRBMkZDOEY3OTMyQTIiLz4g PGRjOnRpdGxlPiA8cmRmOkFsdD4gPHJkZjpsaSB4bWw6bGFuZz0ieC1kZWZhdWx0Ij5naX

СКАЧАТЬ