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Title INTERVIEW WITH MAURICE AND HYLDA MASLEN - HYLDA'S STORY Description
Interviewed by Fiona Wright, Edward Gardiner and Sarah Kay at the British Legion, Hemel Hempstead November 2008
Hylda - I was a telephonist in the WAAF*. It was quite a big job. Actually, it was a very busy switchboard I was on, taking all these calls. It was very interesting. I didn?t go overseas because you had to have permission to go overseas and I was underage. My parents wouldn?t let me. My brother was out there and he said no. I chose the WAAFs because my brother Bill was in the RAF. He became a flight lieutenant in the end.
Fiona - How old were you?
Hylda - I was 18 when I went in. I volunteered because I knew I had to go in the forces or into munitions or something but I wanted to go in and get the job I wanted. I was in 3 camps really. I was in Harrogate for my telephonist training and then I was sent to Melksham in Wiltshire where I met my husband Maurice.
Maurice ? Yes, she used to pass along this path with this other girl and I used to look out of the window with a pint mug and say, ?Bring us back some tea Taffy?. And that?s how it all started.
Hylda ? Yes, they called me Taffy because I was Welsh.
Fiona - But at that point you weren?t married?
Maurice - No, no! In fact it wasn?t until I was on the troopship to India (it used to take a month to get to India from Liverpool in those days) that I thought I might not see her again so I wrote to my mother and we got engaged by proxy.
Hylda - I had an engagement ring on and everyone said, ?how did you manage to get engaged?? Marvellous!
Maurice ? We were married in 1947. I was still in uniform.
Hylda - We did the same square ? what we call square bashing** for 6 weeks, the same as the men you see. We were in wooden billets. How many people were there in each one, Maurice, 8, 10?
Maurice - No. More than that; more like 30 - about 15 in each side ? we had that in ours. You had it soft, didn?t you? You used to get pyjamas. We didn?t.
Hylda - We had sheets. You didn?t.
Maurice ? No, we didn?t have sheets, we only had blankets.
Hylda - Everybody was so friendly and they?d do anything for anyone, it was great: the atmosphere was great there. You had some good times at the camp. We went to the cinema ? it was good times really. Then the Americans came over and we had dances and invites when they let us out.
Maurice ? You had a pass didn?t you?
Hylda ? Yes, it?s to say you?d come in at a certain time. Fiona ? How long were you allowed out for?
Hylda ? 23.59 at the latest and of course, if you were out and the police stopped you, you had to show your pass. The only time you?d get away with it was during an air raid. It was funny because on the RAF camp we were out in the country and of course there were no air-raid shelters out there because we weren?t expecting it. The first time I went into one, it was when I came up to London for the weekend from my camp and I got in an air-raid shelter. It was the first time, with all this going on and it was the first time I?d been in an air-raid shelter.
One thing you did learn was discipline though, which was good. You couldn?t, say, like they do at work now, take a ?sicky?. If you were sick you had to go on sick parade.
Hylda - Women were plotting the course taken by planes, which was a responsible job. I mean, they all had responsible jobs but they all needed one another, and as I say I was on the switchboard.
Fiona - So where was the switchboard that you worked on? Hylda - It was in the headquarters of the RAF in Melksham. Oh yes, it was a busy time and it was quite stressful. You could only do so long on there. One girl had a funny turn once. She pulled all the plugs out, and I had to go on and try and reconnect her. They were exciting times ???
Edward ? When you were working there did you ever get anyone important ringing up? Anyone famous?
Hylda ? If ever anyone rang you had to give a number. Like I?d say, ?Melksham 321? and then she?d say, ?Is that the RAF camp?? You?d say, ?I?m sorry, it?s Melksham 321?. You didn?t dare say it was the RAF camp because everything was high security. We?d field all sorts of important calls from Fighter Command or something, or we?d put him through on a hotline, which means it wouldn?t go through any other kind of operator and we knew it was something important. And I had to ring the Royal Arthur once where Prince Philip was.
We were threatened once that there would be an invasion. I was at the switchboard. We had to break all the machinery up and destroy everything. I thought, ?What if I do that and it?s a false alarm?? So I didn?t. It was a bit scary. Then it (the war) stopped. It had been going on for 6 years and everybody went mad. No-one could believe it, that the war was over. They were bashing frying pans, banging and shouting ? it was great.
Fiona ? So was that VE Day?
Hylda ? That was the first one, because of course, it still carried on.***? The next day it was back to normal as if nothing had happened.
Edward - I was just looking at your medals. What are they for?
Hylda - I?ve got the Veteran?s Badge and the War Medal.
* WAAF ? Women?s Auxiliary Air Force
** square bashing ? marching and learning to follow orders.
*** The war in the Far East continued until VJ Day in August 1945.
Keywords WAAF, telephonist, RAF Collection Home Front Place Melksham, Wiltshire Year 1940 Conflict World War Two File type html Record ID number 104 Can you add any more information to this resource?
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