Barclay, Rosamond Grant Renton (Oral history)

British aircraftwoman served as radar operator with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 3/1940-3/1942; section officer served with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB and Germany, 1942-1946

REEL 1 Background in Southampton, GB, 1921-1939: family; education; joining Air Raid Precautions as ambulance driver; driving in winter fog, 1939. Recollections of period as radar operator with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 3/1940-3/1942: enlistment; basic training at RAF West Drayton, 3/1940; radar training at RAF Bawdsey, 4/1940-5/1940; posting as radar operator to RAF Dunkirk Chain Home Radar Station 02, 5/1940-6/1940; plotting work; story of 'white haired' troops returning from Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940; posting to RAF Dron Hill Chain Home Radar Station; opinion of three and four hour watch systems; posting to RAF Trerew Chain Home Radar Station 18, living arrangements; relations between men and women working at Chain Home radar stations; organisation of plotting work at individual Chain Home radar stations and role of RAF Stanmore Park filter room; posting to RAF Bawdsey, 4/1941; German bombing of RAF Bawdsey, 6/1941. REEL 2 Continues: recommendation and preparation for commission; coping with radar theory course at RAF Worth Matravers, 1/1942; atmosphere and events in RAF Stanmore filter room at time of Channel Dash, 2/1942, effectiveness of German jamming of radar; attending selection board and sense she was unprepared for commission, 3/1942. Recollections of period as section officer with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1942-1945: difficulties of first posting as station supervisor at RAF Hillhead Chain Home Radar Station 14, 4/1942-9/1942; scare of possible tubercolosis symptoms; duties as station supervisor; installment of new radar equipment at RAF Canewdon Chain Home Radar Station 22, 9/1942-10/1942; height finding work at RAF St Lawrence Chain Home Remote Reserve on Isle of Wight, 11/1942; belief that Allied invasion would be in Pas-de-Calais area, France; question of safety of women alone at night during wartime; leisure activities. REEL 3 Continues: pleasures of Isle of Wight during wartime; warning in 1943 about impending German V weapon attacks; her work on 'ambiguous heights' at RAF St Lawrence Chain Home Remote Reserve; posting as supervisor to RAF Bawdsey, 11/1943; importance of good morale for accurate plotting work; sight of decoy landing craft on east coast, 6/1944; contrasting sight of day and night-time United States Army Air Force and Royal Air Force bombers on route to bomb Germany; wartime secrecy at RAF Woodbridge and station's role; reasons for leaving RAF Bawdsey due to exhaustion from shift system, 7/1944; posting to Ministry of Aircraft Production in London, 9/1944; accommodation in Fitzroy Square and social life; memories of VE Day in London, 8/5/1945. Recollections of period as section officer with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Germany, 1946: obtaining posting to Bad Oeynhausen, 2/1946; work collecting information about V2 Rocket at Unterloss; sight of devastation of Berlin and demoralised state of Germans. REEL 4 Continues: French offer of holidays for Allied service personnel in gratitude for liberation; holiday in Chamonix, France, 3/1946; travelling around Germany; selling cigarettes for currency; contrast between poverty of Germans and conditions for Allied personnel; black market; behaviour of Allied personnel in Germany and attitude of Germans towards them; further details of living conditions and leisure activities.