大象传媒

This story has been written onto the 大象传媒 People's War site by CSV Storygatherer Ian Hollins on behalf of Pauline Knight. The story has been added to the site with her permission. And Pauline Knight fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

Seeing the pictures of the fleet at Portsmouth took me back to that night of the 6th June 1944 when a Polish officer and I stood on Boniface Down on the Isle of Wight and watched in the invasion fleet steam out from Portsmouth on our left and Southampton on our right as they took it in turns to form line ahead and sail off into the unknown. Tears were streaming down our faces as he realised his dream of returning to his family was becoming a reality and for me this was what I had been working for, for three years. We had been down at 鈥淭he Heights鈥� as our quarters were known when the watchroom phoned down to say the screen was completely blotted out and we knew that 鈥渢his was it鈥�. The island had been completely isolated without passes for week or so.
I was officer in charge of one of the secret listening posts manned by German speaking WRN鈥檚 who monitored the RT and WT transmissions from enemy shipping around the British Isles from Blyth round to Hartland Point in Devon. I joined up in November 1941 when I heard that German speaking WRN鈥檚 were required for unknown duties. I had an interview with Lieutenant de Lazlo in a corner of the Admiralty in London, passed and later was called to the Naval College Greenwich where I joined a group of girls for an extensive course under Lieutenant Marshall, always known to us as 鈥淔reddie鈥�, on the working of the German Navy and the terms we were likely to hear. We passed out as Petty Officer Wrens purely as this was the only way in which we could receive specialist pay and later when I passed a WT course I became a Chief Wren for the same reason. These ranks were always an embarrassment when we had to visit headquarters as we were entirely ignorant of what the rank entailed.
Another Wren, Madeleine Earnest and I passed out together and we were posted to Dover and then Broadstairs where we were called 鈥淒ead Earnest鈥� and 鈥淕rim Hilda鈥� on account of our dour countenances! I am glad to say I acquired a more acceptable name which carried on right through my career of 鈥淧luto鈥�. It was given to me by Dinger Bell when we were on night watch together and she said I looked like the Disney dog with my earphones on my cheeks. We wore them there in case of static which could temporarily deafen you.
After D-day I was posted to Coverack in Cornwall to re-open the station in case the Germans had an idea to invade a small force into the West Country but we picked up nothing unusual. I had been training at Ventnor in 鈥渘oises鈥� when we had to identify all traffic we picked up. We had no idea what we wanted to hear or why. Fortunately I became pregnant and was able to join my husband, an observer in the Fleet Air Arm, who after serving on HMS Furious and bombing the Tirpitz was sent to the Isle of Man as a radar instructor. And it was there that we ended our war service and our daughter was born in Douglas and is now a Manx citizen.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.