I was Hilda Williams during the War. I joined up in 1939. I was only 18 and should have been 19. I joined the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) in Wrexham on the Barrack Square. I did the training there and then I went from there to Oswestry. Well everybody was going to munition factories and so I thought I'd go out and venture and see the world. I did my training and then from there I went to Oswestry and then I went to Anglesey.

My main work was spotting the planes, aircraft recognition. I was good, yes, I had to be, I had to be. Either on the predictives or the highfinders, but I was spotting the planes using binoculars. We were protecting an airfield. I should think I was there about a 12 month.

Then I got transferred to Newcastle and then I went to Middlesbrough and that's where I met my husband. There were no aircraft there so I went in the cook house with my husband. I got married on the same camp, we met, we worked together 24 hours and together we came home on compassionate leave and got married in 1944.

Once we'd spotted a Focke Wolf aircraft and brought it down in Newcastle. My husband was there and I said. 'Look there's a Focke Wolf and he jumped six feet up in the air. He thought I'd said 'f.....king wolf'!

When we brought this plane down, all the neighbours and all the civilians, they all collected, because it was an honour for them and they bought us all a lanyard. But they were disgusted that the rest of the money went to all the sergeants and the Officers Mess.

Another story, I'd only be in the ATS three weeks and got homesick so me and my friend hitch hiked, pelting down with rain, so we stopped the first vehicle we could come across and it was an Army truck. Little did we know that they'd put the canvas down, they got us in. When they pulled the canvas down, they got us in, it was full of Red Caps (Military Police), and these Red Caps asked us every question under the sun, but they didn't ask us where our pass was and they took us to the railway station.