A poem to Billy

A poem to Billy

A poem sent to Betty Turner's friend Billy to celebrate their 80th. Betty describes the wartime hardships she endured, hint at the bereavement after the loss of the men she loved, stresses the sense of duty toward her country, friendship and camaraderie.

IBCC Digital Archive

David Bloomfield

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

One handwritten sheet

MTurnerBM2146029-170131-02

[inserted] Sent to my friend Billy to celebrate our 80th [/inserted]
We were only just beginning to enjoy our teenage years,
When war broke out the unknown caused [inserted]our[/inserted] parents [deleted] fears & [/deleted] tears,
Our country needed us so we didn’t hesitate at all,
We joined the WAAF you & I, looking very smart, walked tall.
Dark grey silky bloomers almost down to our knees,
Woolly ones for the winter so we didn’t freeze.
Everything was rationed, even the toilet tissue
One sheet per person per sitting was the total issue!!
Sent here & there obeying orders, making new friends,
Certainly had no worries about the latest [deleted] indecipherable word [/deleted] trends.
We loved & lost many times sometimes our hearts were broken.
But secrets were [inserted] always [/inserted] kept & not a single word was spoken!
Those years helped us gain strength & sheer determination,
Taught us how to deal with most any situation.
Age is [deleted] now [/deleted] our biggest problem not everything seems to work
But one things for sure, WAAF friendship is [deleted] my [/deleted] a [deleted] biggest [/deleted] perk!