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

From the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls and GI Brides, this is Jessie’s story, one of three true accounts from the book The Girls Who Went to War.“Since Jessie’s surname was Ward, she was one of the last to hear what role she had been assigned to. Mary and Olive had already been told they were going to an ack-ack training camp in Berkshire, and she crossed her fi ngers, hoping that she would be setting off with them. Finally, the corporal came to her name. ‘Private Ward,’ she called out. ‘Anti-aircraft.’At that moment, Jessie couldn’t have been happier. She was joining the artillery, and would soon be giving the Germans what for.”In the summer of 1940, Britain sto…