大象传媒

I enlisted with the Royal Air Force as a WAAF on the 15th November, 1941 and was demobilised exactly 4 years later on the 15th November, 1945. I served as a "listener" at RAF Chicksands but could not tell anyone what I did; if asked I had to say I worked on weather reports!

After enlisting I spent the next 6 months at the London Radio College in Chiswick. My colleagues and I were trained by an experienced newspaper man who had worked for Reuters. We had to be able to transcribe the Morse signals at 22 words per minute. I was the teacher's pet as I was the fastest in my group. I was made an ACW 1 and was in the top 5 of a group of 70.

On finishing this course I had a short leave before being sent to Compton Bassett in Wiltshire for further training procedure. This was RAF procedure but what we really needed was the German procedure. Whilst at Compton Bassett I learnt how to set my own frquency and how to change it. If a frequency that was not very busy was selected, it was easier to pick up the German signals.

I was then sent to RAF Chicksands, part of the "BEDFORD TRIANGLE" which included Woburn Abbey and Bletchley Park. On arrival and until our new quarters were built we worked at Chicksands Priory - which we shared with the bats and the beetles! The accommodation - for 24 of us -was a wooden hut, we had very little privacy.

We had to "listen" 24 hours a day, every day. There were 4 Squadrons - 3 Squadrons of Wireless Operators and 1 Administration Squadron. We could recognise the German call signals - the dits and dahs of the Morse could be recognised like recognising someone's voice. When we heard their signals, we encoded their messages on to sheets, then we pressed a button to let the Sergeant know that we had a message ready to be collected. The messages were then sent to Bletchley Park for decoding.

The German Control Group told their encoders when to take a break; one night whilst waiting for the Germans to start transmitting again, I picked up a SOS. It was in English, and referred to latitude and longitude so I thought it may be a ship. I transcribed it and pressed the button for the Sergeant to come and collect ny transcription. The following day I was summoned to see the WAAF Officer, she told me "Jolly good work, Ratcliffe". I never knew what the SOS was about but it was obviously significant or I wouldn't have heard anything more about it. It was a miracle that I picked up the SOS because if the Germans had been transmitting I wouldn't have heard it. ALSO, it was a message in English on the frequency to which I listened to the Germans.

We had musicians in the Squadron so we had had bands and dancing. We also went to concerts by Glen Miller's Band. The Americans would send a coach for the WAAFs; the WAAFs were in great demand as dancing partners as there was a shortage of females. There was always a lovely buffet -an added enticement to attend the dances!

Single RAF men were sent out to India to "listen" to the Japanese; as we could not pick up their radio signals in Britain.

One VE Day I had to work but I was off-duty on VJ day. On VJ Day we had a party in the YWCA Building. This had been built to enable us to have somewhere that we could take visitors. When it was dark a huge bonfire was lit; I dashed out and fell into a bed of nettles - I was covered in nettle stings!!

Story: This story has been submitted to the People's War site by Muriel Palmer (volunteer) Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of Edna BUCKLEY (author) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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