This year marks the 80th anniversary of women being conscripted into the war effort, to ensure everyone “did their bit” as Allied troops tirelessly fought the battle against Hitler across Europe.
Job included operating perilously high cranes in dangerous factories, manufacturing munitions, driving fire engines or signing up to be a nurse in the auxiliary services.
It wasn’t for the faint-hearted, many risking life and limb to ensure the country was not defeated. Ivy Markham was 34 in 1940 when she started working as a crane driver in one of the factories which lined the River Don, on the east side of Sheffield.
She did so despite it being just months after her husband, Tom, was decapitated in a horrific steel factory accident after his
Read more on mirror.co.uk