More than any other service, it has attracted the women of wealthy families who have never worked before. Driving a car was the. only thing they could do really well, But the majority of drivers are young married women with occasionally a teacher or an office worker. They are most of them youns—the average aye for the whole service Is 27, Everybody had, of course, to' be a competent driver' before she was acjonable instruments to be placed over the ears.
Helmets and mittens, particularly, should) be in four-ply' fingering. Ample supplies of wool in this ply. Jare now available in Royal Alr Force blue.
Tt wool in this colour is unobtain—Jable something as near as possible advised. It is important' to use needles of the sizes mentioned in the oMeial patterns.
Oversocks are appreciated by ait men, who slip them on over their socks for wear with rubber boots. They should be 11 or 1145 inches long and Knitted by any good pattern.
In the great network of Home Defence spread throughout Great nursing.
Originally the emergency ambulance stations set up to deal with intended to be manned exclusively med enough women with driving in the other services. Others had cepted. But on top of that each one has been through a thorough and severe training. For months. before the war these women were trained on all sorts of vehicles, under all sorts of conditions. Heavy' lorries, not always of the latest model, were among the vehicles they had to' drive, They were put into "the toughest places and told to get out, given everything that was hard to do, until the end they felt they could handle anything on wheels.
They. were, besides, given special training In night driving—without any lights, so that they, at least, were prepared for the blackout, They were trained in map reading, and taught their particular ocality—the quickest route from. one place to another and the best alternate route one was. blocked.
Ambulance stations were set up in Jany place that was suitable. Under: ground garages were, often chose and the "ambulances" were in th first weeks often just lorries roughly converted.
Girls had, in some eases, to over~ aul and the engines, get
scrub and clean the whole vehicle batteries ix lights" and They worked Ike niggers getting blankets, fixing stretchers, getting themselves scratch meals while they were on duty. At some stations each one had to store enough canned food last herself for two days In case Continuat Stand By At the beginning of September, many women. who had volunteered were away on holiday. One girl hur-Hed back from Norway a few days before the declaration of war to take duty. The dimMeulty of contacting absent volunteers made the Work harder for those on the spot.
Singe then there has been time to organize things. Every station now has some kind of canteen terange—ment. 'The hastily commandeered ferrics are being rapidly replaced by }ambulances. 'The stations' themselves have settled down into a routine.
Girls work in eight-hour shifts and every station is fully manned for the whole 24 hours. "The rule 1s six days fon and one off, But so that every= tone will_get a fair share of Sundays they "sometimes do seven days one week and. five another. The drivers
extra allowances, fet £2 week and. there are "The hardest part of the Job 1s the waiting about. Every station must be kept at full strength all the time, There must be no. weak link. in this chain of Home Defence. So the girls have had to find ways of passing the time while they are standing by.
In this respect great help has been given by an American woman, Mrs Thornton, who was over here when war broke out and offered to help. She is very" good at giving Ieetures fon first aid and has made herself popular that ambulance stations all Dyer the country are clamouring. for her help.
She ig bright, makes the lectures interesting and asy to understand, such demand that a move-mont has been set on foot to keep her over here "The B.B.C. has also approached her to broadcast on Britain's Women at War. She always turns up to. the Teclires wearing skiing trousers. She says she can't bear to be bandaged fexeept in trousers,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.