Hazel Agami

A sequel to Mulberry Harbour

My unit was posted to Germany, leaving me behind, ill with flu. Later on I was sent to Germany with one other British ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) girl, and was quite upset at being separated from my unit, and also scared of crossing the Rhine Bridge in the train, as the bridge was said to be damaged.

In freezing weather we went up to Germany in an unheated railway carriage with ice on the windows. It took ten hours to reach Iserlohn, a small town in the Ruhr, Westphalia, and the HQ of the 21^st Army Group. I found myself eventually in a Signals Unit in a bleak ex-SS camp near a small lagoon and a deforested hillside.

The ATS commandant there said she didn't know what to do with me: "We have no ATS drivers here." Likewise the men's commandant, adding that it was unsafe for me to be driving alone in Germany. After telling him that I always had a fatigue (working) party on board, I was sent to the men's workshop with a sergeant to choose a truck and have a driving test. The men were told to moderate their language when in my presence!

I chose a Bedford truck (engine housing in the cabin gives some warmth). I was given a fatigue party and an assignment, and that was that. I became their ATS driver and I was adopted like a mascot by the men, mostly Cockneys (East End Londoners) who painted my name and a star on my leather jerkin. I once more had the privilege of wearing battle dress and trousers, unlike the Signals girls in their "spit and polish" uniforms.

Driving in Germany in the ice and snow was no picnic, especially at night with dimmed lights against the blind headlights of German trucks. I had a veteran sergeant major with me when I drove.

The German people apparently lived in cellars, but their children were well dressed. They were avid for cigarettes and coffee which they used as currency.

I didn't like being in Germany because of what had happened there. I saw the extensive war damage in some of the cities and the Mohne Zee dam which had finally been bombed by the R.A.F. (viz – the file: "The Dam Busters"). Such devastation for miles! There was no fraternization, but one of our soldiers showed a German woman a picture of Belsen and she said that it was propaganda.

Soldiers began to get demobbed and we had lots of parties, drinking German Hooch! Then I too got demobbed and went back to Brussels and England and civvy (civilian) street.

Back home I joined the Ministry of Supply transport group in Manchester, and went to Paris in 1947, driving for the Delegation to the Peace Conference in a car now and in a dark green uniform. Driving in Paris was hectic. I discovered a distant family relative whose wife took me with her to buy a hat. In Paris choosing a hat took all morning and I bought a Nefertiti type hat in emerald green which I wore when not in uniform. I certainly looked conspicuous. I was in Paris for three months.

After Paris I went to a college for ex-service members to train as a teacher of English and history, and taught in English schools until I came to Israel in 1953, to Shefayim. I taught until I was 80, when I also stopped driving. I was widowed in 1981 and have a son and daughter.

To read Mulberry Harbour online, the link is:
http://www.esramagazine.com/blog/post/mulberry-harbour