In 1941 at the age of 17, Joan Field applied to join the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service). Keen not to become a cook or a steward, Joan was happy when the discovery of her perfect eyesight meant she was chosen to become a signaller and sent to HMS Cabbala to begin her training. Joan talks in detail about the instruction she received – including Morse code, semaphore, the phonetic alphabet and naval discipline – before her first draft sent her north to the pier signal station in Oban. Joan shares memories of life in Oban, and the stark differences she encountered when she moved to the remote Ganavan signal station shortly after her arrival in Scotland, recalling one particularly frightening encounter that made her glad of the pistol training all Wrens received. She also talks about the improvements to planning that came when the Americans joined the war, but recalls with some horror their apparent lack of discipline within the ranks. Joan’s story provides a particularly engaging insight into the life and work of a female signaller, and highlights her deep connection both to the Scottish Highlands and the vital role she played in the war effort.

Megan Moir joined the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) aged 18 in December 1944. After brief training she went to Larne in Northern Ireland, but soon had the rare opportunity to join HMS Philante, a former luxury yacht which was used to train warships involved in anti-submarine work, with submarines acting as U-boats. They sailed to the naval base at the Kyle of Lochalsh opposite Skye, where she spent the rest of the war typing training instructions and training results. After the war she typed up reports in German following the surrender of U-boats there. She recalls her excitement when offered the chance to go to sea at 10 minutes notice, because very few WRENS went to sea; she vividly recalls being on the bridge, where she could see what was happening. She only stayed onboard one night; the rest of the time she slept in the “Wrenery”, where she enjoyed socialising in the common room with fellow WRENS and visitors. She narrates many fascinating anecdotes, including the celebrations for VE- and VJ-Day.

Colette Cook tells of her work at Bletchley Park operating the Bombe machines whose function was to find the daily key settings of the Enigma machines used by the Germans during WWII to transmit encrypted messages. Colette joined the WRNS (Wrens) as soon as she was able, and following a period of basic training, applied for a mysterious posting ‘P5’. It transpired that this was shorthand for HMS Pembroke V, a cover term for WRNS being posted to Eastcote (an outstation of Bletchley) to train as Bombe operators. In this engaging interview, Colette explains how, after signing the Official Secrets Act, she learned to load the bombe with the coloured wheels and then set about the difficult job of plugging up the back as directed by a ‘menu’. She describes the work as monotonous, physically demanding, and very noisy, but her and her colleagues ‘just grinded away’. She tells of a sense of urgency, but stresses it was not panic, and a realisation that what they were doing was important. Reflecting on her time at Bletchley, Colette says that whilst ‘it all seems like a dream now’, she has an overarching feeling of pride in the part she played to crack the German cypher.

Harriet Wight was living in the countryside in North East Scotland at the outbreak of war and recalls seeing an enemy aircraft drop a bomb over Aberdeen. It was then she decided ‘to do her bit’ and joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). After a medical in Dundee she did her initial basic training at Balloch on the edge of Loch Lomond and began her duties as a messenger. She was eventually posted to Ilfracombe in Devon as a signaller and was involved in taking and logging signals which at that time mainly related to noting casualties from the North African campaign in 1943. Harriet moved on to operating telephone switchboards after a period of training and was posted to Hatston on the Orkneys, close to the vital naval base of Scapa Flow. Harriet spoke of meeting her future husband, who was a sailor involved in Arctic and Atlantic convoys, and how she never concerned about the danger he was in until she found out that an American soldier pen-friend of hers had been killed in Belgium and then the reality of war hit home. Harriet concluded by saying how very proud she was of having been a Wren. 

When war broke out, 20-year-old Irene Bellamy was evacuated from Bristol to Chipping Sodbury, where she worked for a time as secretary to well-known aeroplane designer Basil Henderson. Although she found the job interesting, she was ambitious and determined to join the WRNS, which she managed to do despite already working in a reserved occupation. After training in Leeds, Irene was sent to Chatham to work as an admin officer before she successfully applied for a vacancy with ANCXF/SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) which took her to Eisenhower’s HQ in Bushy Park. There she began working for Admiral Parry, with whom she later transferred to France then Germany. Irene shares fascinating details about her life and work throughout her service, including the build-up to D-Day and its aftermath, and the end of the war which she saw celebrated around the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. She is rightly proud of her military career and was awarded the British Empire Medal in recognition of her hard work and significant contribution to the war effort.

With a long-held ambition to join the Navy, Fred Estall keenly awaited the arrival of his call-up papers, which sent him first to Pwllheli in north Wales for initial sea training and then to HMS Wellesley in Liverpool for gun training. He passed out as a DEMS gunner (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship) and went to Nova Scotia – via HMS Belfast and RMS Queen Mary – to join the crew of a Merchant Navy oil tanker. Fred talks about life on board, describing the extra work available to anyone willing to get his hands dirty – which he always was, not only because he could earn more money, but also because keeping busy helped him keep his mind off the U-boats. He explains the stark difference between the atmosphere of camaraderie in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy, and talks about the distinct lack of entertainment onboard a merchant ship. Recalling heavy seas, storms and the huge expanse of ocean, Fred’s memories bring vividly to life what it was like to move from tanker to tanker while the world was at war, keeping allied ships fuelled from 1940 – 1944.

After serving in the Home Guard and experiencing bombing in the blitz in London, Cornelius Snelling was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942 and carried out his basic training on HMS Ganges at Shotley. From his port division, Chatham, he was assigned his first posting, as a Bosun’s mate, to a newly commissioned ship docked at Glasgow, HMS Wild Goose, a Black Swan-class sloop. HMS Wild Goose specialised in anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay and Snelling took part in some of the ship's most notable actions, including the renowned "six in one trip" in 1943, which saw HMS Wild Goose, alongside other Bird-class sloops, sink six German U-boats in a single patrol. Snelling’s final journey aboard HMS Wild Goose was participating in an Arctic convoy to Murmansk and he describes the extreme conditions. In 1944, Snelling transferred to HMS Tyler, an American-built frigate on loan to the Royal Navy. HMS Tyler conducted patrol and escort missions in the North Atlantic and the English Channel, where it also escorted landing craft and supply ships during the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches. Snelling's service concluded in October 1945 when he steamed with HMS Tyler back to the United States, where the ship was returned to the US Navy.