During the Second World War thousands of women served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) or the Timber Corps. In this book 19 Scotswomen who served in the war tell their stories. The women, born between 1918 and 1926, and interviewed between 1998 and 2005, came from towns and villages throughout Scotland.

The 1939–45 War plucked many women from their normal lives and thrust them into very different and dangerous experiences. Leaving her job in a baker’s shop in Glasgow, one woman found herself early in 1945 on a troopship heading for Naples; another, as an officer in the WRNS, crossed the Atlantic three times. One woman escaped death when 26 of her ATS colleagues were killed at Yarmouth by a German bomber. Despite the danger, many women formed close and lasting friendships, and for some the war years were the happiest of their lives. These fascinating stories of wartime women, told in their own words, vividly convey the important and varied roles that women played during the war.

Ian MacDougall

Books