Doreen was studying German at university in WW2 when she was called up, age 20, and assigned to Naval Intelligence at Bletchley Park. This was in June 1944 at the start of the German V1 ‘flying bomb’ offensive. She was part of the Ultra intelligence unit and translated de-coded documents intercepted from the German Enigma system. After translation she classified and sorted the documents so that they could be accessed by senior officers. She worked in the same hut as Alan Turing, one of the crucial scientists in the Ultra system. One of the main tasks she worked on was tracking U-boat movements in the Atlantic as they tried to threaten Allied convoys. She also worked on locating the German battleship Tirpitz so that it could be attacked and sunk by the RAF.

After the end of the war she was assigned to Berlin, in occupied Germany, where her knowledge of German and military procedure stood her in good stead. She worked with senior officers in Naval Intelligence and was in Berlin during the first part of the Airlift. After two years in Germany she returned to Britain. Here she worked for the War Office, translating documents for the War Crimes tribunal. This task she found both horrific and interesting.

When this ended Doreen found a job outside the service, at Lloyds Bank. She was employed in their foreign section, where the red tape was worse than in the intelligence services! This irritated her and she left after one year.