Former 'Gunner Girl' revisits wartime memories for Remembrance Day
Video report by ITV News Meridian's Christine Alsford
The wartime memories of one of the oldest surviving so-called 'Gunner Girls' will be shared at an event in Dorset this weekend to mark Remembrance Sunday.
Grace Taylor, 97, spent the Second World War defending the country with anti-aircraft guns, attached to the Royal Artillery.
Grace's stories, both happy and sad, are included in a new book alongside the memories of others who served.
Grace is President of the Poole Royal Artillery Association and will be remembering all our servicemen and women when she speaks at an event to promote the book Army Girls at the Poole Lighthouse on Sunday, November 14.
As a young girl, aged just 16, Grace was so desperate to join up and serve her country that she lied about her age and within months ended up doing one of the most dangerous jobs for women in the entire war.
As a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in the early 1940s, she became a so-called 'Gunner Girl'.
Grace said: "They're responsible for the position of aircraft and through their instruments give the positions to the gunners.
"I was working on the instruments that provided the guns with directions of where to fire.
"I was nearly always on the coast and our guns were on the clifftops. We were firing out to sea to try and get them before they got to the towns and cities."
Both men and women died doing these vital jobs that aimed to protect civilians in British towns and cities. Those that survived witnessed terrible raids and suffering.
Grace continued: "Plymouth was bombed and flattened and we were out all night and it seemed to go on forever and the noise was dreadful.
"You don't have time to think about whether you are frightened or not, all you want to do is shoot those planes down before they do any more damage."
One of her favourite wartime adventures was the time she and others raced across fields to retrieve the parachute of a surviving airman.
In the days of rationing, the material was prized and shared out among them.
She said: "My piece was enough for a nightdress. Oh, she made it so lovely with this white nylon. Yes, that's what happened to the parachute."