Casemate 77

Bow and Arrow War:

by Marjorie Inkster. PB, 102pp. Small number of b/w photographs. ISBN 1.85858.280.6. £10.95. Published by Brewin Books, Studley, 2005.

In early 1942, the author exchanged the fine woollen uniform of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry for the rougher serge of the Womens' Auxiliary Territorial Service. She had volunteered to train as a mechanic in the revolutionary new world of radar (Britain mobilised a far higher proportion of women into its armed forces than any of the other combatants in WWII). After a very brief and soon abandoned rifle course (HAA batteries on which the gun-laying radar had become operational, would have been defended localities had there been an invasion), she joined an RE company near Chester. One of her tasks was to service the radar on board the Coronation, a converted dredger stationed in the mouth of the Mersey. Following a successful officers' course, she moved to the London area overseeing the servicing of radar sets, being attached to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers on HAA sites north of the Thames, including the one at Chequers which had its own LAA unit. Another site was at Golders Green that featured in the 1943 film about the ATS, ironically entitled 'The Gentle Sex', although the site's top secret radar was not shown.

The author makes a number of interesting asides, giving considerable technical details; mentioning that senior ATS officers rather disapproved of the use of their members on gun sites (almost 400 ATS were killed or wounded during the Luftwaffe's campaign against Britain). However, the ladies who worked on the AA sites were proud to wear the AA Command badge of an upward pointing bow and arrow.

The book is a personal memoir, nicely written, and is evocative of a period when young women took on unprecedented challenges, and survived the dangers and discomforts of total war.

Bernard Lowry.