大象传媒

I am submitting this story on behalf of my friend, Chris Dickson. Chris is aware of the 大象传媒's Rights and Responsibilities Policy and has agreed to her story being told under them.

Chris Dickson

Chris left school in July, 1939 having sat her Oxford School Leaving Certificate, and was due to sit the Civil Service Entrance Exam on 3rd September. This exam did not take place, thanks to Neville Chamberlain announcing that we were at war with Germany.

Chris worked for a year in the accounts dept. of a department store in Gosport, close to the short ferry crossing to Portsmouth. Two young lads who also worked in the store spent time on the roof during air raids dousing any incendiary bombs which landed there. Other staff went to a shelter at the back of the building, where Chris, a designated first-aider, had the task of maintaining calm. This was not achieved easily one day when RAF men from a local barrage balloon unit charged into the shelter after their base had been dive-bombed.

Chris, knowing that conscription was imminent, volunteered to join the WRNS as a writer 鈥� a general term covering a variety of office duties. She was posted to HMS Collingwood, a shore base in Fareham, Hampshire, to serve in the signals section of the base. Here, naval recruits were trained to become wireless operators or visual signallers using lamps or flags. Chris decided to apply to become a wireless telegraphist, and was one of the very small band of Wrens chosen to breach what had until then been a male preserve. She had to pass a test of 8 words per minute, which, for her, was not difficult as she already knew the morse code, thanks to the time she had spent in the Girl Guides.

Chris was posted to Dundee for a six-month training course at the Merchant Navy School under Merchant Navy instructors. Naval personnel also paid visits to teach Naval Codes and Procedures. Chris passed out, able to receive and transmit at 22wpm. In peace-time, the trainees were young lads who had to be back in quarters by 2200. This rule applied to Chris and her colleagues, with the bounty of one late pass per week 鈥� to 2300hrs.

Chris, with four others, was posted to Invergordon to replace the naval ratings. Their base was a small ship/shore station set up by a retired Chief Petty Officer and a retired Leading Seaman. Chris discovered later that CPO White had gone out and got drunk when he heard the nature of the party coming to join him. However, he had cause to change his mind when the girls passed the test he set them with flying colours.

The base was a small wooden hut in a field, alongside other huts up above Invergordon. The hut was divided in two: one half housed all the equipment, plus a stove which the girls kept going from a pile of coal outside. ( It also came in useful for boiling a kettle.) The other half housed the batteries, which the Wrens had to keep charged, and two bunks for sleeping when on night watch.

Naval watches are: 4 hours on and 4 hours off. At sea, the split takes place on the dog watches: 1600- 1800 & 1800-2000, but on shore the split was taken at night working the maximum 6 hours on 2000-0200 and 0200-0800. Of the two who went on duty at 2000hrs. one slept from 2200 to 0200 and the other from 0200 to 0800. A permanent ship/shore watch had to be maintained, aimed mainly at small ships which did not go far out to sea and who could reply to signals sent to them. Larger ships at sea had to maintain radio silence 鈥� so that their position could not be detected by the enemy. When transmitting signals to such vessels the sending had to be extremely accurate since they had only one chance to receive them. In addition, Chris and her colleagues had to maintain contact with the coastguards by radio telephony and with the C in C, Rosyth by wireless telegraph on another wavelength. These would have to be manned in the event of a breakdown of telephones or landlines. Fortunately, this did not happen during Chris鈥檚 time at Invergordon.

Three of Chris鈥檚 colleagues volunteered for overseas duty. On the outward journey their ship had to take evasive action and put into port in Argentina. The Wrens were told that they could go ashore provided they had civilian clothing to wear. However, naval tradition dies hard. They were marched down the quay as if on uniform parade. Eventually they arrived in Durban and to everyone鈥檚 surprise they encountered two of the ratings they had replaced at Invergordon. Hardly surprisingly, the latter called out: 鈥淣ot you again!鈥�

In time Chris was promoted to Leading Wren and posted to C in C, Rosyth, working underground at Pitreavie Castle and living in nissen huts in the grounds nearby. Security was achieved by having retired naval personnel posted halfway down the entrance corridors. They learnt to know everyone by sight and at first Chris was accosted and checked until she became familiar to them. Chris and her watch were also given a sharp reminder of naval discipline when, having worked extra turns to cover for each other so that they could all have some time off over Christmas, they were sharply told at the eleventh hour: 鈥渓eave is a privilege, not a right. Your leave has been cancelled!!鈥�

Chris was on duty and took a signal which read: 鈥淓nemy in sight.鈥� Later, a further signal arrived which read: 鈥淓nemy has been sunk.鈥� Chris learned that these signals referred to the Royal Navy sinking the German battleship 鈥淪charnhorst.鈥� Chris sat her Petty Officer鈥檚 exam while at Rosyth, passed and advanced her pay by the princely sum of sixpence.

With D Day in the offing, Chris was transferred to Newhaven, Sussex, early in 1944. There she worked in a tunnel which was cut into the chalk Downs. At this time the 鈥渄oodlebugs鈥� were in full swing and Chris and her colleagues frequently watched the Spitfires shooting them down over the sea. Many of the D Day landing craft left Newhaven for Normandy; troops awaiting embarkation camped nearby.

Chris remained at Newhaven until she was demobbed in October, 1945. Later she married. Her decision to remain unmarried while the war was on was a conscious one. She was all too aware of the dangers sailors faced whilst on active service.

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