They were landing on the beaches. And i could hear them. I could hear it all. You suddenly thought, this is a war. I really had the war in my ears. ~. ,. ,. , ears. We had responsible obs at a very young ears. We had responsible obs at a very young age. Ears. We had responsible obs at a very young age. At h ears. We had responsible obs at a very young age. At 18 ears. We had responsible jobs at a very young age. At 18 years ears. We had responsible jobs at a very young age. At 18 years old. I ears. We had responsible jobs at a l very young age. At 18 years old. And we could very young age. At 18 years old. And we could feel good about the fact that we we could feel good about the fact that we could contribute. Civilians and service that we could contribute. Civilians and service people. That we could contribute. Civilians and service people. Got that we could contribute. Civilians and service people. Got together. Helped and service people. Got together. Helped one and service people. Got together. Helped one another. And service people. Got together. Helped one another. He and service people. Got together. Helped one another. And service people. Got together. Helped one another. He would have a Fortnight Sleeve helped one another. He would have a Fortnight Sleeve and helped one another. He would have a Fortnight Sleeve and then helped one another. He would have a Fortnight Sleeve and then he helped one another. He would have a Fortnight Sleeve and then he could Fortnight Sleeve and then he could be killed at the end of it, we had no idea what was going to happen. You just put up with it. They said that if you joined the wrens you could free up a sailor to go to see, and so a lot of the work done by men could then be done by girls, and that was how it started. The belfast, ifound that girls, and that was how it started. The belfast, i found that the headquarters were in Belfast Castle above the river, you could see ships coming along the river and sometimes they would send ships that had been in the atlantic to be repaired in the hard dockyard. Meanwhile, the wrens had the whole of the west coast, and particularly how the atlantic in a plot on the wall. And one day i was watching the ships coming from the castle. Castle office, and i saw a ship, a destroyer coming in, Hms 0ribi She was called, and she was involved in various battles in the atlantic and needed some repairs, so she had her repairs done in belfast. So the first opportunity, the first thing the wrens did on their arrival was to send a message to the ward room, asking us down to have a drink on board. They had their priorities obviously right. So half a dozen of us went down to have a drink on board and there i metjohn lamb, my future husband, and in ten days we decided to get married. The next morning they sailed off to join this convoy which was leaving just north of belfast. We were absolutely vital because at the moment we were unable to feed ourselves, we had the most terrible rationing. I mean, rationing it wasnt bad for wrens because we have the naval stores, but for ordinary people, they would have one egg a fortnight. I mean, can you imagine anything more awful . So meat and everything was very, very difficult to get. The first bit of the atlantic was, we were able to give them Air Coverfrom our side, and then there was a huge gap before more air cover could be given from the canadian side. So as we approached the centre, the gap as it was called, there they had about a0 u boats were waiting for them, to attack them. And they managed to sink about 12 of our ships before we got anything back. At this Point Hms 0ribi was part of the escort of this convoy, and the battle went on. We had signals which were repeated to us, and anything that told us what was going on, i knew that they were in this, involved in this terrible battle. And i had thought, having just managed to catch hold of this man, im now going to let him go but of course no, actually we were plotting, we knew the battle was going on, we didnt have information as we would have liked it, but we had a certain amount of information that came in and told us john had been in bed, lying in a place near the bridge. He was woken up by a terrific crash, which actually he didnt know what it meant, he got out of bed and rushed up to the bridge again, only to find that his ship, hms 0ribi, had rammed a u boat. And they had actually, were now sort of riding on the side of the ship. It was the most extraordinary state to be in. Of course it was terrible anxiety, and all my friends tried to persuade me to go back and not to pay attention, but i couldnt possibly leave the scene. It was a matter of complete life or death to me, and i stayed there waiting for information, hoping for information, and just waiting, hopefully and luckily eventually we had more information to say that they had actually managed to sink this u boat, and were on their way back. They were able to crawl back to canada this time, they were the other side of the atlantic, and so they managed to get back at about 12 knots, which is a safe speed they could go at. When eventually he arrived in canada, he was able to ring me up and say he had arrived safely. Well, it was amazing of course, and you know, we just both felt, well, theres nothing you could say just thank goodness, thank goodness, thank goodness. You know, thats all you could do. You couldnt look far into the future, you might only have had a fortnight� s leave and he may be killed at the end of it. You had no idea what was going to happen, so you just put up with it, and if something was there, the present, it was there, you did it. Whatever. I grew up in the countryside, in lancashire, in my grandfathers house. He had a refugee cook from austria, and a refugee housemaid. And when they came, they didnt speak any english. He gave me a small german dictionary, so i used to spend my evenings as a Schoolgirl Sitting with mrs geltzel, it meant that we were talking more in german than english. I neverfound languages a problem in fact german turned out to be a rather useful language to have we trained at mill hill, and wimbledon, and then we were sent to little coastal listening stations. My first station was on the yorkshire coast, was at a place called withernsea, because a we had very good reception from the baltic. And the german naval ships used to talk coming out of the baltic or leaving their bases in the baltic. And at withernsea we used to search their wavelengths, write down everything we heard they kept Radio Silence most of the time, but we were searching up and down their Radio Frequencies in our little secret stations. And i think we probably Gota Fairamount of useful information. And we passed the coded messages to bletchley park, and the plain language messages to the nearest Naval Intelligence centre. They would sometimes have a bit of chat, you know, did you know so and sos boat are all going on leave next week . And the one that picked it up said, speaks german 0h, theyre all going to make babies. And we all wrote it down, because the rule was that everything you heard, you logged. And it might be useful for our side to know that these crews were going on leave, that these boats would not be operating. Even bits of gossip like that could come in useful, i was transferred to a station between dover and folkestone, where we could hear, very loud and clear, german naval ships warming up in the harbours opposite, or going down the channel. We worked what we called watches, which would be called shifts, so many hours on, four hours on, eight hours off, that sort of thing. I had been on watch overnight, i came out in the morning, about eight oclock, and there was a party of people coming up the path towards our cliff. And i recognised in the middle of this group, Winston Churchill and general eisenhower, and they were with a group of officers. And you were supposed to salute people of that rank, but as i had been on duty all night and was just informally dressed, all i could do was wave and say good morning and so they all waved back and said good morning, and they went on their way to the edge of our cliff. And in fact much later on, i heard that churchill wanted it to be reported back that he and eisenhower had been down on the kent coast, to deceive the germans into thinking that landings were going to be in kent, into the calais area, whereas of course we were going to land much further west in normandy. That ploy worked. I went in in early � 41. High i went to devizes, to learn gunnery as it was called. When the german aircraft came across, now the Height Finder was nine foot long, about that fat round, and it was on a plinth. Which, you moved it around. You followed the aircraft. And i had, one like that, very similar. That had. Cutouts for my four fingers. You and i looked into two strong scopes. Are metal round there, and magnifiers in there. I could use that eye, that eye, or both. A the girl that was next to me, who became my mate, you she turned a wheel, and she looked into one scope, are you and she had to get any part of the Aircraft Area as fast as she could onto that line, and keep it there. Whereas i had two aircraft to align, one right way up, one wrong way up. You are and as soon as you got them level, whatever part a you was on, whether it was tailfin, tail plane. Nose, whatever. You had to work fast, and then you called to the number one, 0n target, and she would read out the figures. You are you you are you so i was doing height, the other girl was doing range. She was calling out figures. That went to the guns in big pipes. So remember, we are walking over them pipes not treading on them, walking over them. Sometimes almost falling over. That was ourjob. So, i applied tojoin the wrens in march 19114. And when i told them that i was a gpo trained switchboard operator, i could tell more or less that id be accepted. Portsmouth in march april 19114 was a hive of activity. But the thing is fort southwick, which was our working place, was a very secret Communications Centre deep dug deep into tunnels in the cliffs overlooking portsmouth harbour. But to get down into the tunnels, we had to go down 350 steps we had to sleep in the tunnels, eat in the tunnels, be on duty in the tunnels and, of course, chuckles when we were coming off shift, we had to come up 350 steps, so it was a good thing we were young and fit. Chuckles the amount of activity in the tunnels i mean, each tunnel contained a branch of communications. Two months before d day, i was given training on this vhf set, which was a small radio set. And i think vhf then was in its infancy. It was simple for us to operate. You mainly had to operate the levers up or down. As it was a one way system, i would pass whatever messages i had to and then, they would lift their lever and pass their responses. And it was when they lifted their lever that i realised i was listening to warfare. Because they were landing on the beaches, and i could hear it. I could hear it all gunfire, machine guns, cannon, screaming, men men shouting, orders being shouted, all manner of things. You suddenly thought, this is a war. I really had the war in my ears and it made me very much aware of what was at stake. So, you know, ithink it taught me a lesson about war although i was a non combatant, of course. Nevertheless, i heard war at a very, very close source because not only did i have that experience on d day, but id lived through the blitz as well. File early in the enemys intensified air attacks on london, bombs were dropped on the dockland area. And i can vividly remember the night they blitzed the dock the docks. The whole of dockland was alight and you could see from the sky, the whole sky was red. We had to go down to the tube station at Clapham North because that was the only really effective shelter you could find. I think we all, really, were terrified. So, i knew what bombing was like to be at the other end of the bombing, you know . The recipient of it. So, no, i for me, war is something that should be avoided at all costs. We were told that there was going that there would be an official photographer coming down to the tunnels, so i had a somebody i knew in the tunnels, a young sailor, and i asked him if i could borrow his white top, you know, with the navy beading across. Im now sure that if it were known by the officers that this is what i planned to do, it would have been frowned upon very definitely. But i went ahead nobody knew and so, my photograph exists of a wren hat in at a rather perky angle and a white top that i shouldnt have been wearing. King george vi came down to visit us all in the fort. He toured a lot of the tunnels. I think there was a lift for vips dont think he had to travel those 350 steps however, on the parade ground, he took the salute and we all marched past and at the end, he thanked us all for our contribution to the Effort To The War effort. That was a moment of great pride. The wrens couldnt march wonderfully well because we werent required to do so, so i only hope we kept in step chuckles when i heard that the war was over, we were all overjoyed. And for me, it meant demobilisation, so i came down to london and was demobbed in august 1916. So, it wasnt a long service but an eventful one and, for me, it was probably the most meaningful episode of my life. Hello. After the bright but chilly start to the day, the rain has moved in as weve gone through the afternoon, moved in across northern ireland, Northern England, much of wales, moving its way across scotland. You can see that Cloud Enveloping many areas, but in the south its stayed mainly dry and in the north of scotland. But the north of scotland will catch that rain as we go through this evening. We will keep those pulses running across parts of Northern England and wales, and actually, it stays mostly dry if a little misty and foggy in the south overnight. Further north, once the rain clears, just a few showers. But look at the temperatures. Its very mild overnight. 14 16 celsius in the south is what wed see during the day as we head into the start of october. And thats because weve got humid air moving into the south of that weather front. So it will be quite a muggy night as well and a murky morning, we could have some low level mist and fog, some fog over the hills as well underneath this band of rain. And well see further heavy pulses moving through. So for some parts of snowdonia and cumbria, we could see 30 110 millimetres of rain falling. Very different day for scotland and northern ireland. Itll be bright with a scattering of showers around here. Temperatures 17 19 celsius. As i say, it is humid air. And if we do see the Sunshine South of that weather front, 23 24 celsius for the start of october. Then as we go through the evening and overnight into sunday, then we see that band of rain just creeping a little bit further south. But it never really gets really far south and clears the south east probably until tuesday. Behind it, certainly a fresher night, but again, warm and muggy across the southern half of the uk. Now the reason for that is because were going to see another pulse of rain moving along that same weather front. So holding it up, slowing it from clearing away. But this time, because weve got so much muggy, humid air in train, theres more energy in the atmosphere, and we could see some really lively thunderstorms during the course of sunday night into monday, working their way across parts of england and wales. Some real torrential downpours in places. To the north, another day of sunny spells and scattered showers. Fairly fresh feeling here, but still quite warm and muggy and even underneath the showers and thunderstorms further south. Now, that eventually clears out the way on tuesday. Well see a dip in temperature briefly with sunny spells and showers to the north. But then later in the week, temperatures build in the south. Live from london, this is bbc news. The us House Of Representatives narrowly passes a Stopgap Measure averting government shutdown, just hours before funding was due to expire. Armenias government says thousands of armenians have now fled from nagorno karabakh. Rishi sunak arrives admits to row about taxes. The us House Of Representatives has passed a Stopgap Measure to avoid a government shudown thats just hours away. The