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.

After being demobbed, Naval man Len Hurst took to post-war England in search of a suitable new job. When promises of employment within the Merchant Navy fell flat, Len found luck in the field of aviation, gaining his Civil Aviation licence and beginning work as a Radio Officer.  In this interview he recalls his time with Southend Airways, coinciding with the start of the Berlin Airlift. He describes his own experiences flying with different crews, as well as some pilots who were almost certainly more than three sheets to the wind. Len’s anecdotes include one hair-raising flight, when a problem with the control locks forced his plane to fly at a scarily low altitude, and another lucky escape following a crash caused by the collapse of his plane’s undercarriage. With Hamburg flattened, Len and his crews helped to deliver goods like butter, coal, and flour. When considering the initial resentment from many Berliners, he reiterates that the Airlift was to “feed” people, something which otherwise might not have happened.  Similar to many, Len has no regrets, and recalls the Airlift as “a very interesting period” in his life. He has since written a book, detailing his experience. 

Rodney was working as an apprentice at the Chatham dockyard when the war broke out. He offers an incredibly vivid and detailed account of the intense and dangerous labour and of the hardship faced by many at the time. Rodney was up close during an air raid on the dockyard and recalls the minute details of the HMS Arethusa returning fire and deterring the enemy. Another particular danger was exposure to asbestos. With so many men dying young because of it, Rodney counts himself as very fortunate to have survived in good health. Rodney and the men were also responsible for manning the anti-aircraft Z Batteries. At night they had to set up, load and fire the incredibly heavy rockets without ever really knowing if they hit the enemy as it was so dark.