Minerva

by June Hirst

  ‘It’s much warmer now that April is here. One of the First World War poets said ‘Oh to be in England now that April’s here.’

  ‘I do remember that. We read the First World War poems at school they were very sad,’ Ricky replied.

  ‘I like Wordsworth’s poetry, Ricky, especially the one about the Daffodils in the Lake District. I would love to go there.’

  ‘I’d love to take you there Minerva .It is very beautiful. We could walk for miles in solitude and lie under the stars and make love.’ He removed her hat and undid her hair, so that her golden curls tumbled onto her shoulders. He groaned as he buried his face in her hair and kissed her neck.

  ‘Minerva, Minerva you really are the sunshine of my life.’ She entwined her arms around his neck and pressed her soft body against his, as he squeezed her closer and their lips met in hungry kisses. Their great coats enveloped them like a protective tent. He pulled her shirt and vest out of her skirt, so that he could stroke her bare flesh. Minerva moaned as he ran his fingers up and down her spine, which sent tingles of pleasure through her veins. Time seemed to stand still, as they kissed and stroked. One hand crept up her skirt and reached her golden nest, while hesitantly she undid his trousers and stroked his manhood. For a few seconds they were a statue of erotic pleasure, when suddenly the air raid siren wailed and the statue crumbled. Minerva gasped and grabbed her hat and gasmask. Ricky clutched her hand and together they fled in pitch darkness to the W.A.A.F.’s air raid shelter, where Ricky left her. She managed to fasten her greatcoat to cover her disarray, as the W.A.A.F.s came, tumbling out of the huts, with greatcoats and gasmasks and bare feet thrust into shoes. Vanessa and Victoria arrived with hats askew and greatcoats fastened in the wrong button holes, followed by Sergeant Benson.

  When all the W.A.A.F.s had been checked in safely Sergeant Benson, Minerva and Victoria watched the fighter planes taking off, hoping to shoot down the bombers, followed by the empty Wellington bombers in an attempt to move them to safety. Hangars and buildings could be rebuilt, but the planes must be saved.

  ‘They must be nearly here now .They will be following the River Humber inland from the North Sea. We had better get down into the shelter and close the door,’ Sergeant Benson ordered. The frightened W.A.A.F.s, were sitting silently on the wooden forms. Their white faces were eerie in the semi darkness. The new girls were experiencing their first air raid and the grim reality of war had reached them. Bomb after bomb rained down and the anti-aircraft guns were blasting out. The girls huddled together with hands over their ears. Minerva and Victoria helped Sergeant Benson to reassure them of their safety and keep them calm. Some of the new recruits were crying and others were trying to be brave.

  ‘After all Victoria it’s their first day at least we’ve had six months of calm,’ Minerva whispered.

  ‘I hope the boys are safe. I told you it’s best to live for today and tomorrow is another day,’ Victoria whispered. When she wondered if the boys were safe Minerva had two faces in her mind. One had grey eyes, a merry smile and brown hair and one had startling bright blue eyes, jet black hair and a mouth that she had never kissed. By now the girls were chattering together and Vanessa started to sing; , ‘You are my sunshine my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.’

  ‘Altogether girls she shouted and soon all the girls were swaying and singing at the top of their voices. Minerva smiled as she remembered how Vanessa had cheered everyone, on that first journey, from the railway station, which now seemed a whole lifetime ago.

  Suddenly above the singing, the all clear siren could be heard and then there was silence. All the girls looked at the Sergeant and the two Leading Aircraft Women, expectantly.

  ‘Stay here while we take a look at the damage,’ Sergeant Benson ordered and she opened the door, carefully, followed by Minerva and Victoria. Dawn was breaking and fires were raging. The three W.A.A.F.s gasped at the devastation. There were bomb craters in the runway and one of the hangars was on fire and fire engines were working. There was a hole in the ablutions roof and all the doors of the huts had blown off, but the taped windows had withstood the blast. They could see similar damage to the other buildings. They were speechless and shocked. Sergeant Benson recovered,

  ‘We need those doors back on, before tonight and there will be bomb blast dust everywhere, but we all need to get dressed and have a hot drink, before we start to clear up,’ the sergeant said.

  ‘Shall we get the cookhouse girls and then they can go and see what can be done about breakfast?’ Minerva asked.

  ‘Good idea Wood. Go and see to it. I notice that you two are fully dressed anyway. I won’t ask why.

  ‘Let’s hope that the lavatories are working. I think that is where the girls will want to go first,’ Victoria remarked.’ Here come Molly and Shirley and the rest of the cookhouse girls.’ They emerged from the shelter blinking followed by Minerva.

  ‘Get yourselves ready for duty, as quickly as you can and then go and see what can be done in the cookhouse for breakfast. We have a long hard working day in front of us, when we shall prove to the men, that we are very capable,’ Sergeant Benson told them. You two Leading Air Craft Women will supervise the clear up of the huts. I have other duties.

  The huts were covered in dust, but after a breakfast of jam sandwiches and hot mugs of tea, the girls were ready to commence on clean up duty to make the huts habitable. Angela fetched a screw driver and some screws from the stores and they managed to re-hang the doors. She also managed to acquire a tarpaulin, which they secured with nails over the hole in the ablutions roof. Fortunately the drains were not damaged and by some miracle the water pipes had not burst. After a hard day existing on tea and sandwiches all forty eight girls shared baths and washed their hair, before they snuggled into their beds and fell into an exhausted sleep.

  Chapter 10

  After that first bombing raid, they all realized that the ‘phoney war’ was over and here was the real war right on their own doorstep. The new recruits were very subdued, because what had seemed like an exciting adventure was now dangerous reality. For days they all existed on tea and sandwiches, while the cookhouse was repaired. The dust and grit of the bomb blast seemed to be everywhere. Even so morale was high. There was an evil enemy to defeat and they were determined to go forward together and stand together to defeat him.

  Minerva and Victoria had been detailed to an unpleasant duty after the raid, which had upset them. Minerva drove, accompanied by Victoria, to the undertakers in Malton, to fetch five plain wooden coffins. It was the first time the girls had been involved with death. The five ground staff airmen were the first on the base to be killed and the girls could not help but wonder who would be next.

  As soon as the Medical Centre was thoroughly cleaned the new recruits had their inoculations and induction lectures. This time it was Minerva and Victoria who organized them. The two girls had not seen Ricky and Parky, since their love making had been interrupted, by the air raid siren and they were becoming anxious.

  Vanessa and her helpers had cleaned the Officers Mess and removed the broken glass, so the bar was ready for reopening and Vanessa was on duty. There was no sign of Sunny, Ricky and Parky, but she kept her ears open for information.

  The runway was repaired and the Airmen were now repairing the hangars. The precious bombers could now return. They had been saved. Vanessa saw Tommy arrive in the bar.

  ‘Hi Tommy, long time no see. Have you seen Sunny?’ she asked. Just then the roar of the Wellington bombers could be heard, as one by one, they circled and landed on the repaired runway. They were safe.

  ‘They should be back by tonight they flew off in the reccy planes and landed at R.A.F. Bilton. They have been operational from there,’ he replied. Vanessa handed him his usual pint of beer. ’Thanks I’m ready for this. It has been hard work this week repairing the runway, but we are back to normal and all the planes are saved, s
o I reckon that is victory to us.’

  ‘Well, yes apart from the five men who were killed,’ Vanessa replied.

  ‘I shot one of the buggers down. It made a mess of a corn field, but it made a bigger mess of the crew, Vanessa, Tommy announced.

  ‘Good! It serves them right. Are you seeing Angela tonight?’

  ‘Yes if she would like to see me.’

  ‘Course she would you softie, she thinks you’re Mr Wonderful,’ Vanessa told him and Tommy grinned and sipped his beer contentedly.

  The same afternoon Sergeant Benson was looking for Minerva and Victoria She had been very impressed how they had organized and reassured the new recruits. They had even taken them for their first drilling exercise, thus releasing her to get on with administration. Assistant Section Officer Felman was also impressed and wanted to see them. She crossed over the camp to the garage, where she found them supervising the washing of the fleet, by the new recruits, who had opted to work there.

  ‘Attention,’ she bawled as usual and all the W.A.A.F.s stopped and saluted. ‘Stand at ease Wood and Jones. Assistant Section Officer Felman wishes to see you in one hour, so go and prepare yourselves. Corporal Brown is on his way to supervise. As you were the rest of you,’ she instructed the girls, who were still standing to attention.

  ‘Yes Sergeant,’ they both replied,’ and shed their blue overalls before marching back to the billet.

  ‘We haven’t done anything wrong. She can’t have found out about our love nest in the woods, can she Minerva?’

  ‘No of course not Victoria we’ve worked very hard this week and Sergeant Benson has complimented us. Perhaps she has noticed. We make a good team, you and I.’

  ‘We do Min I’ve never had a best friend before. I’ve had a lot of so called friends, but never one who I could trust with my life. I know that we are going to be best friends forever. Come here and the two girls hugged each other.

  ‘I’ve never had a best friend either Vic .It’s strange how we are so compatible, when you come from the top of the social scale and I come from the bottom.’

  ‘Rubbish Min, it’s who we are now, not what we have been, that counts and any way, you don’t know whose blood is running through your veins. Your mother was very beautiful and fate dealt you a wicked blow. Are you ready?’

  ‘Yes come on let’s go we both look spick and span. Let’s march into the lion’s den, but she is a pussy cat really Victoria.’

  The two W.A.A.F.s marched smartly to the Assistant Section Officer’s office and knocked on the door. ‘Enter’ was the reply, so the two girls entered, stood to attention and saluted.

  ‘Leading Aircraft Women 3030 Wood and Leading Aircraft Women 3036 Jenkins-Jones, Ma’am,’ Minerva announced.

  ‘Oh yes! Stand at ease,’ Fiona Felman told them. ‘ Ever since you arrived at this base Wood you have been an outstanding W.A.A.F. The Women’s Air Force has not reached its first anniversary yet, but personnel of your calibre is needed if we are to make a satisfactory contribution to the war effort.’

  ‘Thank you Ma’am,’ Minerva replied.

  ‘As for you Jenkins Jones I told you when I promoted you, that you had surprised everyone by your progress and I am very pleased with you.’

  ‘Thank you Ma’am,’ Victoria replied.

  ‘You have both been doing the work of Corporals since I promoted you, so from today you are promoted to Corporals. Here are your stripes to replace your badges. Congratulations. See that you do not let me down. I hope that you will soon be Sergeants. You are dismissed.’

  ‘Thank you Ma’am,’ the astonished girls replied as they saluted and then marched out.

  ‘Keep marching Vic, she will be watching us,’ and the jubilant girls marched back to their hut, before shrieking with joy and hugging each other.

  ‘Let’s get our stripe sewn on straight away .Don’t worry, fumbling fingers, I’ll sew yours on as well, while you go and fetch some coal for the stove.’

  ‘O.K. Corporal,’ Victoria replied and they burst into a fit of giggles. When the stripes were sewn onto their jackets they went to the ablutions to admire themselves in the mirror.

  ‘You are very smart, Corporal Wood .’

  ‘So are you, Corporal Jenkins –Jones.’

  ‘I am going to write a letter to Mummy and Daddy .They will be very pleased, because they were sure that I would be expelled. I was expelled from school you know. It was great fun or so I thought at the time. It seems a long time ago,’ Victoria said. Minerva smiled and remembered how much she had enjoyed school and how she had been working in the mill, while Victoria was misbehaving at school.

  ‘Yes it does seem a long time ago,’ she replied.’ Someone will be promoted to Leading Air Craft Women to take our places, now that we have the new recruits.’

  ‘I hope Vanessa is promoted. She was such a scruffy Cockney sparrow when she arrived and so common, but if I have changed, so has she. I like her now,’ Victoria said.

  ‘Yes so do I we’ve all changed, even Angela. She seems very keen on Tommy though. I think she was so spiteful, because she was unhappy. Listen the reconnaissance planes are returning .I can recognise the engines. Let’s go outside and look.’

  The girls dashed outside and Ricky and Parky swooped down over the W.A.A.F.s quarters, before circling down and landing.

  ‘Thank you God for bringing them safely back,’ Victoria whispered.

  ‘Please God keep them safe always and Martin Moxon too,’ Minerva added.

  ‘Goody, goody, best friend Woody, we can celebrate tonight,’ Victoria said and they both laughed.

  The other girls returned to the hut and congratulated their two friends on their promotion. Both girls felt very conspicuous at dinner and their stripe felt to be shining on their sleeve, as everyone congratulated them. They were in the recreation room when there was a tap on the door and two faces peeped around it.

  ‘Pssss,’ they theatrically hissed.’ Mosquito operators, buzzing Minerva and Victoria. Over!’ Fortunately above all the music and chattering Victoria spotted them and grabbed Minerva’s arm. The new girls, by the door were giggling, as well as feeling envious. The two Corporals dashed across the room and out into the extended daylight hours, where they were enveloped into welcome arms and hungrily kissed.

  ‘We can’t wait to continue from where we were so rudely interrupted last week.’ Parky whispered.

  ‘ In your dreams. Down boy! The sun hasn’t gone down yet,’ Victoria answered and they all laughed.

  ‘Just a minute, what have we here’? Ricky asked. Is that a stripe that has grown on my Yorkshire rose? I’ve only been away a week, which seemed like a year my sweet. Congratulations.

  Parky looked on Victoria’s sleeve,’ Oh! Great, congratulations. This calls for a celebration,’ and they all strolled across to the Officer’s Mess.

  ‘We really should have champagne, but port and lemon will have to do,’ Parky said.

  ‘Their kisses are like champagne and we hope that they will treat us later,’ Ricky said and Minerva blushed. They found a quiet corner and the girls eagerly waited for their news.

  ‘Right! Where have you been and what have you been doing’? Victoria asked.

  ‘We were ordered to save the planes, so we took off in the Mosquitoes and landed at R.A.F. Bilton and we’ve been doing reconnaissance from there. The Wellingtons landed there as well,’ Parky told them.

  ‘It is a fighter plane station and we were allowed to try a Spitfire .It was amazing. They can out manoeuvre any German aero plane . We need lots more though Ricky added. Victoria and Minerva exchanged glances and Minerva swallowed hard.

  ‘Would you excuse me for a moment please. Is there a ladies room in here?’ Minerva asked.

  ‘Yes behind the bar, Vanessa will show you,’ Ricky replied.

  ‘ I’ll come with you,’ Victoria said. In the sanctuary of the small ladies room Minerva grasped the wash basin and took deep breaths. Victoria put an arm about her shoulders.

 
; ‘Minerva, pull yourself together. It doesn’t mean that he has met Martin Moxon, just because he has been to R.A.F. Bilton.

  ‘You know very well Victoria that he will have. Martin is a famous airman. He is the ace aeronautical engineer. Of course they will have met.’

  ‘Well even if they have met, they won’t have been talking about you. Their heads will have been full of the other ladies, namely, the Spitfires. They worship them. If they start talking about him, just smile and listen, or if you want to know more about him, ask questions.

  ‘Alright, I’m being silly.’ Live for today, for tomorrow is another day.’ I know. Thanks for your support, love. Come on I’m feeling better now.

  They returned to the table, smiling and their glasses had been refilled.

  ‘ It was really thrilling to fly a Spitfire Minerva and there is this genius engineer in charge of the whole fleet. I’ll swear he talks to the planes. The engines are so sweet they almost sing.’ Ricky said.

  ‘Really, what is his name?’ Victoria asked.

  ‘ Martin Moxon , but they call him M.M. or Magic Fingers.’ Parky replied.

  ‘He is from Heatonfield, do you know him Minerva?’ Ricky asked.

  Minerva sipped her port and lemon, but managed to reply,

  ‘I’ve heard of him,’ although she felt that she was going to choke and her heart was thudding so hard she thought that it would burst. How she remembered those fingers, when he touched her shoulder, as she stood at her loom in the weaving shed.’ Ah well what will be will be and we have no control,’ she thought.

  ‘Well we are glad that you are back. Everyone has worked very hard to repair the bomb damage,’ Victoria interrupted as she could see Minerva’s distress. We even re hung our door, which was blasted off didn’t we Minerva?’

  ‘Yes we did and we had a very sad assignment. We had to go to the undertakers to fetch some coffins.’

  ‘That’s war darling they kill us and we kill them. It’s the only way to stop that megalomaniac Hitler from taking over the world.’ Ricky told her. The two girls shivered.