Memories of an ATS Radar operator

Myrtle Lawler nee Skinner – Gunner Skinner W/144111

• Myrtle was called up to the ATS in February 1942 when she was 21. She was the only daughter at home with her recently widowed mother. If the war hadn’t happened her life would have been very different

• Myrtle became a Radar operator studying Radar screens and telling the guns which direction to fire

• Myrtle was stationed all over the country – whenever we went away on holiday there was always the call of “I was stationed here” wherever we went. In the first few months of training she’d been to Lancashire, Wiltshire, Wales and Gourock, Renfrewshire, Scotland

• It’s strange to say but she had a fantastic war! She traveled, met fascinating people from all over the country, was proposed to by 5 different men and loved it. She said it was like her university years. It gave her opportunities and experiences she would never have had if she’d stayed at home.

• When stationed at Felixstowe Myrtle was walking along a beach when some German planes flew over and fired gun shots at them!

• Myrtle said at one time she worked in the same office as Frank Muir