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It’s My Life


Each and every care home resident has a story to tell. As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Allied Victory in Europe, Joan Johnson, a resident at Gracewell of Bookham shares her World War II experiences.


and three-tonne lorries. Joan even once drove an amphibious DUK vehicle - she was only five foot four.


Throughout 1944, Joan’s job was to take the vehicles to the coast in the run up to the D-Day landings. She remembers the work was difficult, but says she knew she was actively helping the war effort which made it worthwhile.


She would get up at 6am to transport the vehicles and was then brought back to camp in a lorry. Along with 20 other fellow service-women, Joan would sit on the wooden benches in the back of the lorry singing all the way back to camp.


When the news that the D-Day landings had been a success, Joan says everyone was overjoyed. They were told that they could all have the day off but must return to camp the next morning as their work was not yet finished.


In 1943, Joan was just 18 when she volunteered with the Auxillary Territorial Service.


Her first posting was in Scotland where she spent six weeks at an assessment centre, training for her service. She recalls how the cold journey took 14 hours due to bombings on the tracks, with just a sandwich to keep her going. Aſter arriving in the early hours of the morning, she was given four injections and sent to a hut with blankets.


Aſter passing her training, Joan was posted to Camberley driving centre, the same centre where the Queen did her training. It was here that Joan learnt to drive a huge variety of different vehicles. As part of her training, she was also taught mechanics and got to know every part of each engine.


Once every month, Joan says she had a ‘jolly’ day. On these occasions, Joan was sent to collect the new motorbikes in a three-tonne lorry at the Mars bar factory which had turned half of its production to building vehicles for the war effort. While loading in the vehicles, Joan was invited into the factory where she was given a bag full of factory-seconds. As you might expect, when Joan returned to camp, she was pounced on for the chocolate.


Aſter three nerve-racking months, Joan passed her assessments and was excited to get started on her army career. She was posted to a camp near Slough which was full of Nissan huts and was close to the forest of Burnham Beeches.


When passing through Slough by train, Joan says that Winston Churchill apparently saw army vehicles being stored near the railway station and decided they were vulnerable to enemy bombers. He then suggested the Beeches as a suitable place to hide the vehicles and in May 1942 large parts of the site were requisitioned by the war department.


Joan was then a convoy driver and drove all types of vehicles which were mostly from America, including dodge trucks, jeeps


- 36 -


To make the most of the historic occasion, Joan and three others jumped on a train to London to go to Buckingham Palace. She said: “Now we were really going to celebrate”.


As she had gone to London in uniform, she and her fellow- servicewomen were greeted with people wanting to hug and kiss them. Joan remembers the place was crammed with people and that you could hardly move; people were cuddling one another, singing and dancing. She says the crowd even did the conga.


"Joan was a convoy driver and drove all types of vehicles which were mostly from America, including dodge trucks, jeeps and three-tonne lorries."


In the early hours of the morning, the group made their way back to camp. Her convoy work continued until she was asked to be a staff driver; she remembers how delighted she was and ended up driving the big brass hats around in a Humber Snipe car.


On one occasion, Joan had to leave the camp at 5am to pick up a Lieutenant Colonel and drive him 250 miles to Yorkshire in time for lunch, then drive him home aſterwards with only a compass for navigation.


She leſt the army aſter three years of service at the end of 1946. Aſter this, Joan decided to take the Civil Service exam for returned warriors.


Aſter passing the exam, Joan enjoyed a lovely career in the Home Office as a Personal Assistant to one of the Chiefs. It was whilst working for the Home Office that she met her husband Johnny Johnson who was a Captain in the army.


www.gracewell.co.uk www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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