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. 

Always keen on adventure and the outdoor life, Don Maclean joined the Royal Marines Reserves in 1995 when he was 17, and received his green beret 18 months later whilst also studying engineering at university. He explains how part-time training worked and talks about the toughest challenges he faced, before reflecting on the level of self-motivation required to maintain the physical and mental fitness of a regular Royal Marine whilst living a civilian life on standby for mobilisation. In 2010 Don was called up for an operational tour of Afghanistan. He shares memories of arriving in Camp Bastion as a member of X-Ray Company 45 Commando, and describes in detail the role they played as a security force and how it felt to be waiting for action to unfold. Just eight weeks into his tour, Don stood on an IED during a routine patrol. He vividly recounts the moments that followed, the lightning-fast rescue operation that saved his life, and the multiple surgeries he underwent to save his damaged foot. Don shares his sincere appreciation for the exceptional rehab he received at Headley Court, and talks about achievements and ambitions in his new life beyond the military.

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.