Anticipating the arrival of our ATS replacements the military had taken over some small houses facing the southern entrance to South Raglan Barracks; these were quite empty except for quantities of bedding (the girls were to be much more pampered than we were) and of course the houses required fire-watching at night. This duty was not so onerous as might be thought. Much in the manner of the fairy story The Princess and the Pea we piled up mattress upon mattress upon mattress until a normal bed height was achieved and the addition of clean sheets and pillows completed the ensemble At no time when I was there fire-watching was there ever an air raid, or if there was I slept through it. With the coming of the dawn I replaced all the bedding just in case a snap inspection was called, then I caught the lorry back to Bowden Battery where I was granted the morning off to compensate for my exhausting night duty. There were many air raids on Plymouth, some were minor but there were also some major ones. I seem to remember four but I was never down in the centre of town for these; for many raids I was in the GOR but for two I was in a pub, The George in Crownhill; I recall the noise of the planes and of the exploding bombs and shells and seeing the fires over the city with the occasional brighter redder flare-ups as planes crashed. Walking back to our billets one could see some damage and some of the houses in Fort Austin Avenue were burning but the city centre and the docks area bore the brunt of the action. AA fire was credited with the downing of 16 planes in the major raids, other "kills" being credited to the RAF. Going into the city after a heavy raid was a rather sickening experience, smouldering ruins and desolation and the knowledge of untold deaths and misery. Before I left Plymouth in 1942 the guns at Rame and Down Thomas were either replaced by or augmented with rockets ("Z" batteries). Around this period Bristol became the HQ of the 8th AA Divisional Signals and Plymouth became the No2 Company. Our shoulder flashes now changed, the red flames were extinguished and were replaced by an 8-pointed red star smack in the middle of the bomber; still very pretty and prophetic.