WAAF veteran Olga Hopkins on VE Day party at RAF Wellesbourne and meeting Queen Camilla
OLGA Hopkins joined the Women’s Auxiliary Airforce (WAAF) in December 1943 at 18 years old and trained to become a wireless mechanic.
Originally from Pontyclun, south Wales, Olga spent just over a year in training before, in early 1945, she was sent to RAF Wellesbourne Mountfield. Working on the radio sets of Blenheim Bombers, it was Olga’s job to fix and maintain the equipment for cadets training to become pilots.
Olga, who is now 99 and lives in St Alban’s, recalled her time in Wellesbourne and the VE Day celebrations.
She was part of the team which carried out daily inspections – DIs – on the radio sets.
“They would test the radios by calling up the watchtower and saying, ‘Do you read me?’ and then if everything was all right, they would say, strength five, which meant it was very good. If it was less, then you either had to re-tune,” she explained. “We also had to check all the radio wiring in the plane, and press buttons to speak to the pilot on the ground and so on. If there was any problem, we had to repair it.”
Olga, whose story features in this week’s Country Life, was at Wellesbourne when the war in Europe came to an end – she remembers the late-night party.
“We were listening to the radio on the American Forces Network. I was lying on my bed and then suddenly on the loudspeaker, at midnight, came a voice saying, ‘The war’s over’. Immediately afterwards they said that there was a party in the sergeants’ mess.
“We put on our battle dresses over our pyjamas and went up to the mess where there was a party with music, it was lovely and we were all very happy.
“The next day, we went back to the section and carried on with our work, but we did listen to Winston Churchill saying that the war was over, and the treaty had been signed. We were just over the moon and full of hope. We knew that there wasn’t going to be any more killing in Europe.”
Olga has a good reason for remembering exactly when she left Wellesbourne: “I left on 3rd October 1946, it was my 21st birthday. I was moved to RAF Spitalgate in Grantham. I was there until June 1947, two years after the end of the war in Europe.”
Olga enjoyed living close to Stratford and made the most it during her stay in Wellesbourne. She remembered listening to Elisabeth Schumann singing at the Stratford theatre one Sunday afternoon.
On Monday (5th May) Olga was invited to Buckingham Palace for a special event to pay tribute to veterans of the war and even got to chat with the Queen.
“It was a wonderful occasion. When we got to the palace, we went in through the main gates and the band was playing wartime songs. There was no formality, there was just a lovely atmosphere on a day dedicated to the veterans.
“At one point an employee came and said to me, ‘I think that the Queen might like to speak to you’. The Queen came and sat down, and held my hand gently, and we had quite a long conversation.”
