Kate glanced at the clear night sky. She was in luck! Every star shone bright and true for her. Smiling, she revved the noisy engine and pressed her foot down on to the clutch-pedal. She had memorized the route from the map and she set off at a steady speed, glancing frequently into the wing mirror to check that the following vehicles were still there.

In the darkness, she grinned to herself. Oh, Danny, I wish you could see me now driving this great lorry. I wouldn’t drive the Squire’s new motor into the dyke now!

Two hours and forty-three minutes later, Kate pulled up at the guard-house, every lorry in her convoy following suit.

‘Halt! Who goes there?’ came the routine inquiry.

‘WAAE’ Kate smiled in the darkness.

‘Good Lord!’ The guard on duty peered at her. ‘You back already? We didn’t expect you back till first light.’ He grinned, stood back and waved them all through. As Kate pulled to a halt in the MT yard, the instructor appeared as she jumped down from the cab.

‘Well done! You’re first back.’ He said no more but the man who had shouted at them, bullied them, despaired of them over the past few weeks, finally put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.

That was better than a medal, Kate thought. Later she was to find that the instructor had specially recommended her for promotion and she was immediately upgraded to Aircraftswoman First Class.

Mavis was not so fortunate.

‘They keep telling me that I’m too friendly over the radio. That I get too excited when there’s a flap on,’ she moaned to Kate. ‘They say I’ve got to be calm and efficient at all times. I know they’re right. A pilot in trouble doesn’t want to hear some hysterical female on the other end of his radio link . . .’ She sighed. ‘But it’s awfully difficult not to yell at a pilot to get out of his burning aircraft instead of trying to find out objectively if it’s feasible for him to bring it in to land.’

‘You’ll get the hang of it, Mave,’ Kate encouraged. ‘I still think you’re just the right sort of person. It’s no good having some cold fish who doesn’t give a damn.’

‘Mmm,’ Mavis said doubtfully.

But in the end, Mavis too passed out, not quite at the top of the class like Kate, but well enough to make her ecstatic at becoming a fully-fledged Aircraftswoman Second Class.

‘Now keep calm,’ Kate teased her. ‘You know what they told you.’

‘I know, but it’s the first time I’ve passed anything!’

‘Me too. First time I’ve ever been good at anything – except perhaps sewing.’

‘Sewing? Crikey – not much difference, is there?’ Mavis laughed.