 On the outbreak of war in September 1939 , Bessie left her union post and joined G Division of the Liverpool Ambulance Service , as a driver . Initially her main job was to train other drivers , mostly young women . She became a section leader and then a deputy leader of G Division , an administrative post that should have kept her at headquarters . However , she records that she drove her ambulance through all the 68 major air raids that struck Liverpool during the war years . It was dangerous work ; on a single day , 3 May 1941 , 14 drivers lost their lives . Bessie remained with the ambulance service almost until the end of the war in 1945 . 
