We spent four weeks at Skegness doing basic training and doing various tests to see which branch of the navy we were best suited, we then went to Wales, H.M.S Glendower in Pwllelwi where we did a further two weeks assault course and toughing up training, during this time we lived in tents and in March it was cold. However I was certainly a lot fitter at the end of this course. I was under nine stone when I joined up and with good food and fresh air and exercise I must have gained half a stone in six weeks.
I left Glendower in April for my specialist training, I was to be trained as a radar operator, which was still a pretty new thing in 1944, I was quite pleased at getting chosen for this branch. We set out for the Isle of Man where the radar operators were trained. H.M.S Douglas was a number of hotels on the sea front and a radar station on Onchan Head. I trained for about 8 weeks and enjoyed being on the Isle Of Man. it was different from the mainland in wartime, the food seemed easier to get in cafes etc. and I was able to send a box of kippers home to my mother. These were a godsend to her, the food situation for large families in Britain was desperate. There were quite lot of prisoners on the island, mostly Italians, they seemed to be quite happy with their lot, they stayed in hotels like ours on the seafront, but they had barbed wire around them. The shore leave was good with plenty of entertainment, I was still learning to dance and use to go to the Villa Marina dance hall, the beer was good too and at 8p a pint, much cheaper than on the mainland.
However, it had to end, and I qualified as a Radar Plotter third class (RP3) and was drafted to Portsmouth for dispersal. The journey back to Fleetwood was just as rough as the journey there, it is about sixty miles by boat but notoriously rough. After a night spent in Preston Barracks we headed down to Portsmouth. It was the 1st of June, 1944
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