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

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

Calvi Calvi

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 stood alone against Germany. The British Army stood at just over one and a half million men, while the Germans had three times that many, and a population almost twice the size of ours from which to draw new waves of soldiers. Clearly, in the fight against Hitler, manpower alone wasn’t going to be enough.Eighteen-year-old Jessie Ward defied her mother to join the ATS, leaving her quiet home for the rigours of training, the camaraderie of the young women who worked together so closely and to face a war that would change her life forever.Overall, more than half a million women served in the armed forces during the Second World War. This book tells the story of just one of them. But in her story is reflected the lives of hundreds of thousands of others like them – ordinary girls who went to war, wearing their uniforms with pride.

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Copyright (#ub5a6aecd-95bc-5588-9167-e6e063c68768)

HarperElement

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First published by HarperElement 2015

© Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi 2015

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Cover photographs (not representations of the women portrayed herein) © George W. Hales/Getty Images (WAAF officer); The Everett Collection/Mary Evans Picture Library (military officer); IWM Collection (WRNS officer); London Fire Brigade/Mary Evans Picture Library (background)

Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi assert the moral right

to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record of this book is

available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007501229

Ebook Edition © May 2015 ISBN: 9780007517541

Version: 2015-03-17

Dedication (#ub5a6aecd-95bc-5588-9167-e6e063c68768)

For

Cathleen Alexander (ATS, 1941–1946)

Anne Barrett (ATS, 1943–1944)

and in memory of

Jane Bekhor (WAAF, 1941–1943)

Contents

Cover (#u64ca0f77-ef05-5a66-83b4-755771fbcefd)

Title Page (#ulink_3ca961ec-cea2-5448-bb69-28ed1f8a7874)

Praise for The Sugar Girls (#u7097bb6f-787f-5639-8202-09d78c06a58d)

Praise for GI Brides (#uccbcc4c7-e7f3-55fb-961c-ed251bb43d97)

Copyright (#ulink_b795e6e4-8e11-528d-9577-e317d3b5cca4)

Dedication (#ulink_3195bfa7-4eec-536f-aa68-960b44245767)

Preface (#ulink_56e73cca-c645-5fb0-ac40-6c39059e656b)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_6327f9cc-0a2b-56c9-89ed-98606413e858)

Chapter 2 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

Write for Us (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)