Sarah told her story on the BBC Wales Bus. The following is a transcription based on the interview.

I expect many of my generation remember 1938 when P.M.Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany waving this piece of paper signed by him and Adolf Hitler and remarking "Peace in our time" - it was not worth the paper it was written on. Anyway, it made people more prepared for hostilities, the populations started stocking up on items in short supply and building Anderson shelters in their gardens, the Clydach Hospital shelter was also in the process of being built. The Hospital itself had opened in 1925 and it was a cottage hospital.

On September 3 1939 I was on night duty and the PM had stated on the wireless (as it was called) that he would be speaking to the nation at 11am. It was a beautiful warm summer's day. My bedroom was above the nurses' dining room and as the windows were open I could clearly hear the Prime Minister speaking. He had sent an ultimatum to Hitler to take his troops out of Poland. He had not received a reply by 11am so this country was now at war against Germany.

The following week everyone was busy putting up blackout curtains. Staff at the hospital comprised of Matron Bevan, Sister Lewis, 3 staff nurses (I was one of them) five junior nurses and one assistant nurse - Nurse Gough who was always so full of life but she died of breast cancer at 39 years of age. The domestic staff were cook Miss Bebb, who in spite of the meager rations used to dish up excellent meals, 2 or 3 ward maids and one laundry lady Mrs Bendle, who used to take 3 days to do the washing for the hospital which included bed linen, operation sheets and gowns as well as uniforms for the entire staff.

I can still see the massive boiler bubbling away and the laundry room filled with steam. Thursday and Friday were set aside for ironing. Can you imagine what it was like to iron sheets, uniform dresses, starched aprons and caps and cuffs as many as 25 or more every week and remember that one woman did it all on her own. What would today's young housewife with her automatic washing machine think of such tasks the mind boggles!!

A call came through to matron to make arrangements to discharge all patients to make room for causalities (no-one knew what to expect of course). Up until then no patient had been discharged on a Friday as it was considered unlucky, but we had a clean sweep during the first week of the war, surgical patients, spinal injuries etc. and it all happened on Friday. Being left on my own during the night was not a very pleasant experience as there were no lights in the wards and just a blue bulb in the corridors. I used to walk around with my little torch and jumped at every sound.

Anyway, the "phoney" war soon ended and we started admitting patients once more, things were practically back to normal. The air raid shelter was built while I was at the hospital and proved a boom during air raids of 1941 (3 nights running in 19, 20, 21 of February) when Swansea was flattered by German bombs. I was again on night duty and we used to wheel out the patients on stretchers every evening to the safety of the shelters. Even the nurses and ward maids used to sleep on mattresses at the far end with Sister Lewis a strict disciplinarian in charge of them all, leaving just Matron and myself in the hospital itself.

One patient could not be moved back and fore as he had a fractured spine so I used to sit at the side of his bed to keep him company, while Matron looked after the fire watchers (young man in their teens and early 20s who were in reserved occupations). Matron even taught them how to use stirrup pumps to put out incentaries which were dropped to light up an area before actual bombing.

We got used to things during the war. Even if we heard planes we used to understand if it was one of our planes or if it was a Gerry. I use to walk up the hill in the blackout with no fear. We used to walk around with a tiny touch. If there was a tiny light the air raid warden used to say put that light off. Everybody used to help one another. When I was on duty and I was staying with this patient I used to nip out once and again and could see the bombs coming down on Swansea and I could see the Llandarcy Oil Wrecks on fire, flames were sky high.

Patients were frightened but pleased to be taken to shelter. We used to hear the siren going. It was winter time of course. Everybody looked forward to 'Germany Calling Germany Calling' on the wireless. We used to laugh about it...

Sarah Preece

Read other WW2 stories from Clydach