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Mary Morrison was nursing at RAF Fareham when Southampton was bombed during World War 2.

What is your worst memory of the war?

Well, the worst memory, the very worst memory, would probably be - The worst memory, the night that Southampton gas works were, had a direct hit and the whole place was just aglow. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I'd never really seen anything like it and even now when I think of it, it's quite scary. And of course we were all on, we were all called back to the sick bay and we were all on duty and, I suppose, when something like that happened in these days we were all so busy and the most of us were very young and maybe it was afterwards that some of it left its effect. I think I would say that. But that was a real, a real, a real frightening experience. Mm-hmm. But down south in these, in these counties, especially Southampton, the bombs and the, it was really quite frightening. But I think that would be the most, the most frightening, I think. I think I would be honest in saying that.

I went down from RAF Bishopbriggs down to, oh dear, RAF Fareham, which is situated between Portsmouth and Southampton. I was in a sick bay there, with lots of others, of course. And I suppose I would be honest to say there were air raids every night, every night. You would see the glow away in the sky and you would say, 'Well, that's Portsmouth.' or 'That's Southampton.' And not, I wasn't very often in London - very seldom - but they had terrific, terrific air raids. Quite frightening. And then, I suppose, you gradually get a little bit used to it and you say, 'Well, maybe it's not quite so heavy tonight.' or 'Maybe we'll not have so many calls out tonight.'or 'Maybe we'll not have so many casualties in tonight.' and all that sort of, mm-hmm.

This interview was recorded as part of a War Detectives project in 2005 at Kinlochbervie Primary School.