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Bomb Girls
Bomb Girls

Bomb Girls

Britain's Secret Army: The Munitions Women of World War II

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

214 Pages, 6 x 9

Cloth, $32.95 (US $32.95) (CA $36.95)

Publication Date: November 2013

ISBN 9781782194422

Rights: US, CA & CAR

Bonnier Books UK (Nov 2013)
John Blake

Available from local and national retailers throughout the US.
 

Overview

They were the unsung heroines of World War II; the wives, mothers, and teenage girls, all "doing their bit" for the war effort, clocking in daily to work in vast munitions factories, helping make the explosives, bullets, and war machines that would ensure victory for Britain. It was dangerous, dirty, and exhausting work. They worked round the clock, often exposed to toxic lethal chemicals. A factory accident could mean blindness, loss of limbs—or worse. Many went home with acid burns, yellow skin, or discolored hair. Others were forced to leave their loved one and move to live with total strangers in unfamiliar surroundings. Frequently, their male bosses were coarse and unsympathetic. Yet this hidden army of nearly two million women toiled on regardless through the worst years of the war, cheerfully ignoring the dangers and the exhaustion, as bombing, rationing, and the heartbreak of loss or separation took their toll on everyone in the country. Only now, all these years later, have they chosen to tell their remarkable stories. Here, in their own words, are the vivid wartime memories of the "secret army" of female munitions workers, whose resilience and sheer grit in the face of danger has only now started to emerge.These are the intimate and personal stories of an unforgettable group of women, whose hard work and quiet courage made a significant contribution to Britain's war effort. They didn't fire the bullets, but they filled them up with explosives. And in doing so, they helped Britain with the war.

Author Biography

Jacky Hyams is a freelance journalist, editor, columnist, and author with over 25 years of experience in writing for mass market magazines and newspapers in the UK and Australia. She is the author of the memoirs Bombsites and Lollipops: My 1950s East End Childhood and White Boots & Miniskirts, as well as The Real Life Downton Abbey and The Female Few, a look at the Spitfire heroines of the Air Transport Auxiliary.