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Ebook244 pages4 hours
Bomb Girls: Britain's Secret Army: The Munitions Women of World War II
By Jacky Hyams
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
They were the unsung heroines of World War II; the wives, mothers, and teenage girls, all "doing their bit" for the war effort, clocking in daily to work in vast munitions factories, helping make the explosives, bullets, and war machines that would ensure victory for Britain. It was dangerous, dirty, and exhausting work. They worked round the clock, often exposed to toxic lethal chemicals. A factory accident could mean blindness, loss of limbs—or worse. Many went home with acid burns, yellow skin, or discolored hair. Others were forced to leave their loved one and move to live with total strangers in unfamiliar surroundings. Frequently, their male bosses were coarse and unsympathetic. Yet this hidden army of nearly two million women toiled on regardless through the worst years of the war, cheerfully ignoring the dangers and the exhaustion, as bombing, rationing, and the heartbreak of loss or separation took their toll on everyone in the country. Only now, all these years later, have they chosen to tell their remarkable stories. Here, in their own words, are the vivid wartime memories of the "secret army" of female munitions workers, whose resilience and sheer grit in the face of danger has only now started to emerge.These are the intimate and personal stories of an unforgettable group of women, whose hard work and quiet courage made a significant contribution to Britain's war effort. They didn't fire the bullets, but they filled them up with explosives. And in doing so, they helped Britain with the war.
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Author
Jacky Hyams
JACKY HYAMS is the bestselling author of 'Bombsites and Lollipops' (John Blake, 2011). More recently, she has written 'Frances Kray: The Tragic Bride' (John Blake, 2014) and 'Vicious, Elegant Bastards' (The History Press, 2022).
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Reviews for Bomb Girls
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's a bit strange to think there are people growing up now whose grandparents weren't even alive during the war. It's odd reading this book because these girls... my grandmother would easily have been one of them if she were a bit older. I don't know what my nan did during the war, but I can imagine her doing this. And the other things they talk about, dances and air raid shelters and rationing... that's still real for me because of Grandma and Nanny. (Grandad didn't really talk about the war as such, though he loved to talk about his time in the Navy; Grampy probably wouldn't have told me anything about it had I been old enough before he died, and all I remember him ever telling me was how to build a stable Lego house. I get the impression Grandad mainly went to the pictures, and Grampy mainly wandered around on the front lines, but goodness knows if that's memory or invention in the latter case.)These women, I almost felt like I knew them. Their voices are a little similar, filtered through Jacky Hyams, and their experiences were very much the same. Their opinions differ -- one lady writes optimistically about women now doing their bit just the same as they did back then, while the next says that women now are too selfish -- although there's often a similar outlook which says, we just had to do it, so we did. (For the record, I would do what I had to, too. I'd probably go more the nursing route, though: not because I'd be afraid, but because I'd rather patch people up than make things to put holes in them.)Bomb Girls is a valuable collection of stories that shouldn't be forgotten: perhaps not the most exciting to read, but I think it's important that these women are (finally) given a voice and remembered. They were every bit as much heroes as the men out on the front lines.