大象传媒

1941-42: Portsmouth, Liverpool and Gibraltar

Then I was sent to Portsmouth as a cadet, still not in officer鈥檚 uniform. I lived with two other girls in the Girls Friendly Society, where they let rooms to the Navy. We were bombed every night. I never went down to the cellar because I preferred to stay above ground. The window had to be left open, so when the bombs dropped the curtains used to blow in 鈥� but of course it would have been the glass if the windows had been shut.

We had things like sardines for breakfast, which didn鈥檛 need cooking, which I found all rather disgusting. You weren鈥檛 allowed to be out late at night, but I did go out one night with a friend of my Aunt鈥檚. He was a very nice boy 鈥� he had a very old car and we had to keep picking up the bits that dropped off as we drove along 鈥� wings and that sort of thing! We got back late and I knocked on the door and a woman looked out of the window and said, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e too late,鈥� but she let me in!

When there was an incendiary bomb on top of a house that apparently belonged to the Admiral, I remember putting on all my jewellery 鈥� earrings and necklaces and everything I had got 鈥� and dragging on a pair of trousers and my uniform jacket and going out with some others to try to put the fire out. I wasn鈥檛 going to leave my belongings behind! We tried to put the fire out but we couldn鈥檛 鈥� we did our best. We ought just to have left it for the authorities to do it, I suppose, but we weren鈥檛 afraid. It was rather exciting.

After that I got a little flat in Lennox Road South in Southsea, which was a very nice little self-contained bedsit with a little kitchen across the passage in what appeared to be a cupboard, and lots of hot water in the bathroom, which was nice. But every night we used to be woken up with the landmines and incendiary bombs being dropped.

Every morning I had to find my way to the dockyard on a bicycle and everywhere you went there would be a sign up saying 鈥淯nexploded bomb鈥� or something and you had to go round another way. One bomb apparently did hit Admiralty House where they were working (I wasn鈥檛 there) and they were down in the cellar. There was one Wren officer who had hysterics and another Wren (a friend of mine) gave her a sharp smack on the face to shut her up and stop her 鈥� which worked. And the bomb didn鈥檛 go off 鈥� it rolled down the passage between them 鈥� I鈥檓 not surprised she had hysterics!

Then we were moved out to one of the big forts, Fort Wallington, at the end of the string of forts above Portsmouth built in Napoleonic days. It was very dusty and dirty and I got asthma badly. Anyway, I was there as a cadet and then I became an officer and got my uniform. I became a cipher officer (Third Officer). I remember looking over the shoulder of one Wren in the Signal Office and seeing she was writing the full words for every letter 鈥� so the signal was reading: Monkey, Nuts, etc!

I and another Wren officer stayed with a naval wife with a little girl in this dear little house near Havant, which was charming with a lovely garden. There was a gardener who came in and looked after it so we had vegetables for free out of the garden 鈥� carrots, peas, broad beans, etc. Every morning you had to find a way of getting into Fort Wallington but mostly if you stood by the road in uniform you would get a lift. There was always somebody going in that direction and they were very good about it. So we always got there and we used to stay the night very often in the Fort because we had to work shifts.

The Fort was strange because it was very bare and like a prison really, with little truckle beds with blankets on 鈥� no sheets, just blankets 鈥� and we used to lie down and sleep for a bit and then get up and go on with our work, and then go back home in the morning. I cannot remember how we got back but we always got back somehow. That鈥檚 where I did an awful lot of teleprinting. We used to practise on the teleprinter, writing out Mein Kampf, which might have amused Hitler had he known! It seemed a good exercise because I had never seen a teleprinter before, but I got very good at it. I got so that I was really talking in my sleep on the teleprinter. I chatted with a soldier at Thorney Island who always seemed to be on watch when I was and he invited me out (a joke of course) 鈥� we did eventually give our names. We weren鈥檛 supposed to chat on line. I was teleprinting one day when some people came in and interrupted me. I said, 鈥淥h, do go away,鈥� and I turned round and saw it was the Admiral, Sir Percy Noble!

I got a bit bored with Portsmouth, and one of my friends had gone up to Liverpool, so in 1942 I did that. I had also put in to go abroad at any time, but Liverpool came along and so off I went, to work in Derby House. I worked first of all as a cipher officer and then as what was called the Duty Commander鈥檚 Woman, which meant that when the Duty Commander wasn鈥檛 there I was the Duty Commander, which was interesting! We were Western Approaches. The rest were in the Liver Building. I used to have to find the necessary code words for the signals and see that the signals went out and all that sort of thing 鈥� and type them all. It was very interesting, with a great big map on the wall of all the convoys. A bit heartbreaking sometimes to see crosses on them where they had been sunk. The main ones that seemed to be sunk were the tankers going across to Gibraltar 鈥� they were easy meat for the U-boats, I suppose 鈥� being rather cumbersome and large. One of the Commanders I worked for had the Polar Medal (when a young man, he鈥檇 been with an expedition to the North Pole). I sat in a glass office overlooking the girls who were marking swastikas on our ships when sunk. When I went to ask what code I should use, I was told, 鈥淐hoose what you like, my dear. You鈥檙e in charge.鈥�

My brother鈥檚 friend came up one day, resplendent in khaki battledress. He took me to the big hotel in Liverpool to have tea and we were sitting there when Robert Helpman, the ballet dancer, came through, because they were putting on Swan Lake. I had been with a Wren friend to see it 鈥� it was the first ballet I ever saw. It was quite funny because there was a window at the back of the stage for the swan to appear at and, when we were watching Robert Helpman dancing about in the front, a dresser went past the window with a bunch of flowers and everybody tittered. The poor dancer wondered what had happened 鈥� probably thought he had split his tights or something 鈥� and paused in midair, but all was well. I have never forgotten it! We stood for hours in a queue to get in but it was worth it.

During 1942 I was sent to Plymouth for six weeks. There was nothing to do. I went to a dance with a friend, Stuart Le Bailly (who later became an Admiral), at Keyham College (the engineering college for the Navy). Next day we were sent off. I never told him. He must have wondered why I never contacted him again. (It wasn鈥檛 until I saw his address on a letter he had written to the Daily Telegraph in 2005 that I was finally able to write and apologise!) I posted my book to my parents to show them we鈥檇 gone. I didn鈥檛 know where we were going. We were put on a train to Greenock. The journey took hours. We had nothing to drink. The army had provided drinks for the soldiers but the navy had forgotten. We had sandwiches and sausage rolls. I borrowed a mug from a soldier and got a drink from the tea-urn which was being trundled up and down on the platform.

We were put on to the "Llandstefan Castle" (Union Castle liner) to Gibraltar, with four people in cabins for two. We had all got solar topis and whites (I took the white material, which cost 拢2, but never made it up as I was not there in summer. I sold the material to another Wren, as I left before we got into whites). The previous lot of Wrens who had been sent out for Operation Torch 鈥� which was our code name for what we were going out for (the North African landing) 鈥� had all been lost at sea, which I think was because they had been put in a very slow convoy. But we went unescorted which was better 鈥� faster, and so the U-boats weren鈥檛 waiting for us the same. When we got into the Bay of Biscay, there was a warning of a U-boat, so the ship hung around and the Wrens were told to stay below 鈥� we thought it would be better to hang around on the staircase! We were all in communications, plus a few US airmen. The ship was fast and therefore unescorted. I had bedbugs in my cabin. I caught one on soap and showed it to the steward as they wouldn鈥檛 believe me!

We worked very hard at Gib 鈥� long, long hours. We鈥檇 do a double shift really. The boys couldn鈥檛 stand it 鈥� the few young men we had used to just fall asleep before the end of the shift. But it did take quite a bit out of you, which was why the last thing you wanted to do was to go to a dance anywhere after 16 hours at work or whatever it was. And it was pretty fast at work too 鈥� the Americans didn鈥檛 know how to use the ciphers and it made it very difficult for us. We had to guess at a lot of the things they sent. One I do remember said, 鈥淎dmiral Darlan (that was the French Admiral at Oran) is a YBSOB.鈥� and we didn鈥檛 know what that meant, so we asked the Signals Officer and he said 鈥渁 yellow-bellied son of a bitch鈥�. This was, of course, because we had to sink the whole French fleet in Oran. The French were furious and have never forgotten (鈥淩emember Oran鈥�), but Darlan was a German Nazi supporter so we couldn鈥檛 let the Nazis use the ships.

The husband of my best friend from school came out to Gib while I was there. He was the Director of Sea Transport. He suddenly appeared where I was working. I was covered in purple ink from the duplicator, my shirt hanging out, with the arms coming off because they鈥檇 rotted. He said, 鈥淗ello, Sheila.鈥� I said, 鈥淗ello, Douglas!鈥� He said, 鈥淐ome and have lunch.鈥� And so we went and had lunch at the Governor鈥檚 house with his ADC!

We were very short of women in Gib. We鈥檇 only got the nurses and us 鈥� and there weren鈥檛 many of us. We went to dances at the Rock Hotel. I was billeted in the old naval hospital, which was very mucky really. There were bedbugs in the first room I was billeted in 鈥� it was crawling 鈥� and then I was moved out of that and shared with another girl. We had two little beds and a bathroom, but the water came from such a long way away that it was never anything but tepid, so I used to have baths on the ships. I went on board HMS Rodney and had a nice meal there with some chap. I played tennis with him and beat him, so he didn鈥檛 like me any more!

(continues in Part III)

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