Wings Over Wick
1939 - 1945
Women At War

Mrs M Young, Glasgow
I was at Wick airport from March 1943 for just over 2 years. I served with the WAAFs as an RT (Radio Telephone) operator and worked in Flying Control.

My two most memorable recollections are of one night whilst on night duty I heard a bomber aircraft (we kept a listening watch on their frequency as well as our own) calling 'MAYDAY, MAYDAY' which was an aircraft's SOS signal.  I answered him and told him where he was, got hold of the duty officer, switched on all our runway lights etc and rang through to the Airfield Control caravan at the end of the runway, who set off his Verey pistol to give the pilot some more assistance.  The bomber landed safely - almost out of fuel and the crew told me they had been calling MAYDAY since north of Shetland and I was the first to answer. He came in next morning to thank the 'wee WAAF' who had saved them from ditching.

The other memory I have, is the day we had 64 Beaufighters take off three abreast, armed with their torpedoes and chasing after the Bismark.

Of the town itself, we all enjoyed being able to walk down the road in 5 minutes and were able to go to the cinema, a dance or have something to eat. I personally had two very good friends - Mr and Mrs Duncan McLeod of Coach Road. My mother and my sister came up on separate occasions to see me and stayed with them. I also had a S.O.P.(sleeping out pass) many a time and slept in their house.