大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Cleveland and submitted to the website by Jane Tombling, with the permission and on behalf of Ann Giese.

I was at school in Sussex at the outbreak of the war in September 1939. When invasion from the south became a threat my mother brought me to London to live with her at the flat in Russell Square. The owner of the flats allowed the tenants to occupy an empty basement flat during air raids. I remember sitting in that flat night after night with almost everyone enjoying cigarettes which of course in those days was the norm. It suffocated me so I decided to see how well my gas mask worked and hey presto it was great. Fresh air!! The occupants of at least 8 flats can make a lot of smoke and black-out curtains restricted ventilation. At that time I was attending Pitmans to get my London Matriculation and learn secretarial skills.

After the bombing became unbearable, Mother and I moved to Hampstead. I got a job as a secretary at a charity 鈥� St Dunstan鈥檚 for the Blind 鈥� based in Regents Park. I enjoyed bicycling the three miles to and from work but as soon as I turned 18 I joined up. I became a Wren and worked on code-breaking machines. After a three month training course, I worked for a year at Edgware and then a second year at Stanmore. These were out-stations for Bletchley Park where the 鈥渂ig brains鈥� were located 鈥� of course we didn鈥檛 know that. I was able to go home when I had time off as Hampstead wasn鈥檛 far away on the underground. We worked 8 hour shifts, called watches, and two girls at a time were on each machine. We were breaking German codes, messages between the German military but we weren鈥檛 told whether our results were beneficial or not. However, the importance of the work was obvious. We were not allowed to tell anyone AT ALL what work we were engaged in, so the Germans never found out. Our code-breaking was more successful than not.

Social life was a very important part of surviving the war. I used to meet my friend Madeleine who was half Dutch, she worked at the Dutch Embassy and we would go to the Hammersmith Palais or the Overseas Club in Westminster for dances. Overseas Forces had no civilian clothes, but the Brits were allowed to wear civvies if they wanted to for recreation.

As my outfit was not involved in breaking Japanese codes, we were disbanded when VE Day finally came. By that time I had married a GI I met at a dance. He want to France with SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) and didn鈥檛 return to the US until March 1946. I followed shortly. He met me at the airport 鈥� La Guardia, New York and I was seeing him in civvies for the first time. Boy did he look handsome!

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