Telephone operator in the blitz : Jean Elliot

Transcript

Well, you had a tin hat but of course you couldn't leave the switchboard. The switchboard was manned twenty-four hours a day and you worked through anything. You worked through bombing and everything that hits it. I worked in PBX control and they, the flying bombs, came over. There we were on the sixth floor and you could see them come past St Paul's either side, and you just held your breath and waited. And when the engine cut out, we just thought, you know, and when it - the bang - went (off) you thought 'oh well that wasn't for me' (laughs). From the moment you sat down until you got up you never stopped working. The lights were just in front of you, and when you were in the war office and places like that they had special lights. The red light was for the important people and then the green light, then the amber light. You see you always answered the important people first naturally, and you just kept going. I mean it just flashed if they got annoyed because they were kept waiting. They'd just flash you and the lights and that sort of thing.