An air photograph used to monitor U-boat construction in Hamburg shipyard. The latticed structures at the bottom are the construction pens designed to conceal building progress – they were unsuccessful.
Many special studies and handbooks were produced by the sections at Medmenham, all designed to aid identification and knowledge. Lavender Bruce’s future husband, Lieutenant Bryan Westwood RNVR, devised a method of gauging the speed of shipping from the wave patterns shown on air photographs. When a PI reported on a convoy, its location and course would be stated together with the number and types of ships. In addition, the time of arrival at its destination could be calculated from the speed at which the vessels were travelling, providing the navy with important intelligence. Lieutenant Geoffrey Price RNVR, who married an ATS PI at Medmenham, describes his work in ‘A’, the Naval Section:
I looked after the contingent at Medmenham which consisted of three RNVR officers and three WRNS officers who were permanent staff; with small contingents of Naval officers coming through on short courses before going to the Pacific to work, mostly, in aircraft carriers. We kept a close eye on the German Navy, the merchant marine and a very sharp watch on the U-boats. This covered both the operation and the building of U-boats. One of the marine movements always under close scrutiny was the passage of cargo ships to and from Norwegian iron ore ports. It was possible from photographic cover to watch each ship, which was individually known to us by its correct name, from its loading in Hamburg or its German or continental port, to its unloading in Narvik or other Norwegian port and then after its cargo of iron ore was loaded and the ship well on its way to Germany we would arrange for it to be sunk. The cargo from Germany was nearly always known as well and, if considered necessary, this would be sunk on the outward voyage. It was rather unsporting to let a vessel load up before being sunk, but of much greater benefit to the war effort.
‘Z1’ sub-section, responsible for Norway and the Baltic. Seated from left: Grania Guiness, Mary Howitt, Jean Starling and Elizabeth Dennis. Standing at left is Willem Skappel, who escaped from Norway in 1940. Standing at the back is Vivien Russell.
The economic section followed a similar plan. This section was manned by officers with inside knowledge of the workings of all manner of factories, steel works etc. It would arrange the bombing of them or by other means of destruction or damage. The rebuilding would then be carefully watched until such time as it looked like coming into production again; when it would be attacked again. Very unsporting!14
The WRNS officers at Medmenham were few in number and other ranks did not serve there. Second Officers Evelyn Bellhouse and Margaret Binns worked in ‘A’ Section for some time and other WRNS members included Dorothy Vaughan-Williams and Christine Guthrie, who was later posted to the Allied HQ in Ceylon, in preparation for the planned attacks in the Pacific War.
Mary Winmill was born in Calcutta, returning to England at the age of 7. After leaving school she trained as a secretary before studying in France and Germany and becoming fluent in both languages. A few days into the war Mary and a friend travelled to Edinburgh to join the WRNS and then went to Portsmouth for basic training. She spent the next eighteen months as a cipher officer in Edinburgh, putting secret messages into code to send, and decoding incoming ones. She then transferred to the ‘Y’ service on radio interception and served at several east coast naval intercept stations, where her linguistic skills were fully utilised:
I listened on Radio Transmission (R/T) to the German E-boat captains as they chattered to each other before leaving ports in occupied Europe to hunt for Allied shipping in the North Sea and English Channel. The information gleaned from these conversations was used on a daily basis to warn Royal Navy and merchant ships of where and when they might be attacked by the enemy, thus enabling them to take evasive action. After several months however, the Germans realised that their social chatter was being intercepted and the practice ceased.15
Mary married an army officer who was a PI and when her service with the interception service came to an end she retrained as a PI. She then joined her husband at RAF Medmenham and worked in the Naval Section, where she was the only WRNS officer at the time.
Other women’s services were slightly envious of the Wrens as it was believed that they were issued with black silk stockings, with seams, as part of their uniform – far preferable to the khaki or grey thick lisle stockings which were uniform issue for the ATS and WAAF. At some point during the war, however, a small, extra allowance of clothing coupons was made to all servicewomen, enabling them to buy such things as handkerchiefs, thinner stockings and other non-issue items. Another difference was that WRNS officers wore ‘natty little tricorn hats’ while the two other services had opted for a cap style more akin to men’s headwear for their female recruits. Although, as one WAAF said: ‘caps were jammed on to all kinds of coiffeurs – it was the time of the Vera Lynn look.’ An unforeseen advantage to the WRNS uniform, as Mary Winmill discovered, was the double-breasted reefer jacket that gradually stretched to became a single-breasted number, allowing her to continue working until just before her first baby was due to be born. WAAFs and ATS could buy themselves a short ‘battledress’-style blouson with plastic buttons, which saved the daily metal button polishing. The majority of women took pride in their uniform and accepted the associated pressing and button polishing without complaint, finding satisfaction in being smartly turned out. Practice was required to manipulate the collar studs with which, in common with servicemen, they were issued to anchor their collarless shirts to separate starched collars.
Mary Winmill, a WRNS who worked in the Naval Section.
First-Phase army PIs had formed part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France in 1939, and following the withdrawal from mainland Europe, an Army Photographic Interpretation Section (APIS) was established at Wembley. With the move to Medmenham in 1941 the APIS became known as the Army Section ‘B’, with the function of providing strategic military intelligence from photographic cover over a large part of Europe. RAF and WAAF personnel worked alongside American, Canadian and British army and ATS in the Section, which followed the practice of forming several sub-sections. Military establishments were watched, including barracks and training areas, where new types of tanks and military vehicles might be spotted. Under continuous scrutiny were the enemy artillery and flak (German anti-aircraft fire) installations that formed the Channel and North Sea coastal defences. Reports and maps showing these were continuously updated and provided essential information for the target data needed for air and seaborne operations. Topographical and detailed defence interpretation was called for in many areas prior to commando raids and paratroop operations, and for this reason army PIs always played an important role in the strategic-planning team for future combined operations.
One of the many incredible accounts of enemy establishments being discovered by PIs at RAF Medmenham was that of the underground factories, for which an army inter-service sub-section – ‘B6’, under the leadership of Captain McBride – was set up to investigate. The widespread searches made by the Section in connection with enemy secret weapon manufacture in 1943–44 will form part of a later chapter, but during those searches ‘B6’ had spotted a large number of underground sites all over continental Europe. Although some were just storage depots, many were factories identified by the PIs from the standard building pattern of latrines, which were always the first essential to be built when there were plans to employ large numbers of workers. The construction of a complete aircraft factory, capable of producing fully assembled aircraft, was discovered built deep underground near the Czechoslovakian border near a town called Kahla. The PIs found that the flat top of a long, high ridge had been stripped of trees and a runway constructed; further searches found parked aircraft, later identified as new jet fighters. Geologists determined in which strata of rock the factory would be built and where the entrances were likely to be. The number of workers on the site was estimated by measuring the
hutted camp alongside and applying British army standards for the number of bunks permitted in a specific area. Two of the WAAF members of the ‘B6’ team were Helga O’Brien and Sarah Churchill, who wrote:
Puzzling and tedious as it often was, there were moments of terrific excitement and discovery. One American interpreter had been watching a particular mountain in his regular checks on an area. Suddenly he noticed a change: it appeared that the top of the mountain had been shaved off. At the mountain’s base a railway line disappeared into it. There was no apparent reason for this, but we were never allowed to ‘assume’ anything. He had been allocated this area so he must survey it constantly. I was in the room one day when, after weeks of unrewarding scrutiny, there was a shout of delight – there was a photograph of a plane being winched up the side of his mountain! The Germans had built an underground factory. Aeroplanes were winched to the top of the mountain then the ‘shaved’ mountain top was used as a runway.16
Subaltern Margaret Hodgson was one of the first ATS officers to be employed as a PI and she joined ‘B’ Section in 1943, along with Subaltern Bridget Bateman. They had attended army PI courses at the School of Military Intelligence in Matlock, Derbyshire. In common with the WRNS, ATS officers who were PIs at Medmenham were few in number. ATS NCOs who had trained as draughtswomen were posted into Medmenham in the last year of the war. Sergeants Joan ‘Panda’ Carter, who had reluctantly found herself as a clerk in the Pay Corps, and Barbara Rugg, who had worked in the Drawing Office at Larkhill, achieved their wish and went to be trained as topographical draughtswomen at Wynstay Hall, Ruabon, North Wales. The three-month course, attended by Royal Engineers and ATS, included map drawing, use of a stereoscope, contouring, plotting and learning how to survey with a theodolite.
Margaret Hodgson, ATS, at work in the Army Section with a USAAF officer.
‘Panda’ was then posted to the military survey establishment at Esher, in Surrey, to use her cartographical skills:
We were put to work on revising maps using aerial photography and photo mosaics to form a comprehensive picture of bombed areas. The Ordnance Survey maps of Europe at the time were about twenty years old and a way had to be found to bring them up-to-date as quickly as possible. It was very exciting to be working on a map and suddenly see a photograph of a town not there twenty years ago or an autobahn cutting across the country.17
Barbara became a plotter on army-related photography flown from RAF Benson:
We actually worked at Ewelme in a lovely old house. We had huts in the garden as well and there was a lovely yew tree in the garden. When it was hot weather we would go outside and have our breaks sitting under the tree. We worked long hours and when we came off a night shift we would go to have breakfast in the little café nearby and then cycle straight to the river and row up to Shillingford Bridge, under the bridge and then back.18
As more and more men were posted away from Medmenham to mainland Europe, to serve as PIs in support of the advancing Allied forces following the Normandy invasion in 1944, women took over their work. The Royal Engineers Drawing Office at Medmenham was originally composed of men only, but became an entirely ATS section when further demands were made for men to go overseas. It was officially noted that there was nothing to show that the work of the ATS was in any way inferior to the Engineers.
Notes
1. Starling, Jean, Australian War Memorial REL36872.001.
2. Operational Record Book, Air 28/384, TNA.
3. Cussons (née Byron), Diana, RAF Historical Society seminar.
4. Smith, Nigel, Tirpitz: The Halifax Raids (Air Research Publications, 1994).
5. Bulmer (née Dudding), Pamela, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection.
6. Churchill, Sarah, Keep on Dancing, p.60.
7. Grierson, Mary, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection, 2001.
8. McLeod, Norman, ‘History of ACIU’, unpublished, 1945 onwards, Medmenham Collection.
9. Kamphuis, Lillian, Pensacola News Journal, 11 September 2007.
10. Kamphuis, Lillian, Medmenham Club newsletters, spring 1995, autumn 1999, spring 2002.
11. ‘Medmenham USA’, unpublished account, 18 July 1945 (Medmenham Collection).
12. Grierson, Mary, part of a poem from her personal wartime scrapbook (Medmenham Collection).
13. Skappel (née Campbell), Betty, recorded memoirs, 2011.
14. IWM 12598 04/2/1 The papers of Lieutenant Geoffrey Price RNVR, held by the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum. The author was unable to locate the copyright holder.
15. Espenhahn (née Winmill), Mary, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection, 2001, and in conversation with author, 2005.
16. Churchill, Sarah, Keep on Dancing, p.61.
17. Carter, Joan, IWM papers.
18. Mottershead, Barbara, recorded memoirs.
OFF DUTY
After the move to Medmenham in 1941, Danesfield House itself was used for a short time as both working and living accommodation, and in common with many other country mansions it was reputed to have a resident ghost. A clerk typist, newly posted into Medmenham, whom we know only as ‘Jane’, was told the legend of the Grey Lady of Danesfield. The tale, doubtless embellished for each new WAAF’s arrival, was of a nursemaid who, in times past, had claimed to hear footsteps ascending the stairs when the moon was shining and the house silent. The story was playing on Jane’s mind as she groped her lonely way around the house at dead of night to a room set aside for the official ‘hour in bed’, halfway through her first 12-hour night shift:
I ascended the wide staircase to a room four storeys up in pitch darkness. The moon shone through a high circular window on to a mattress bearing rough blankets but no sheets. The calls of owls and sheep came very clearly and I was terrified by the scurry of what could have been a mouse. A bat flapped against the leaded window and a giant moth fluttered helplessly about the moonlit room. When I heard footsteps in the corridor outside I grabbed my skirt and hurried for dear life back to the happy tap of the typewriters in the typing pool.1
Accommodation was found for some women in local houses. Pat Donald and three other WAAFs were billeted in Wittington Hall, the house next door to Danesfield, where they lived comfortably in the attics:
The house belonged to a Canadian named Garfield Weston who owned many food companies, including Fortnum and Mason. He and his wife had a large family so there were always lots of children around. They were very kind and made cocoa for us when we returned at the end of a 12-hour shift.2
Susan Bendon commented:
Medmenham is in one of the most beautiful parts of the Chilterns and I was billeted in a dream-like mill house about a mile down a steep hill towards Marlow. The mill was active and was owned by an enchanting elderly couple who seemed to have stepped out of the nineteenth century. In spite of having eleven children, they always addressed each other as Mr or Mrs Broomfield. The PI course was fascinating, with a great atmosphere of camaraderie, there were wonderful pubs all around and it was sheer heaven.3
The RAF soon requisitioned another large Thameside building to serve temporarily as the WAAF officers’ mess until sufficient huts were built in the grounds of Danesfield House. Phyllis Court was an Italianate-style house built in 1837 close to the centre of Henley, with beautiful gardens overlooking the finish line of Henley Royal Regatta. Some WAAFs lived and ate there, others came from their billets just for meals; buses then transported them to and from RAF Medmenham. Hazel Furney was billeted with a friend in a charming beamed cottage opposite the Angel Inn by the bridge in Henley-on-Thames, where they enjoyed living in a homely atmosphere. They would often punt home from Phyllis Court to Henley after dinner and struggle back with it to have breakfast the following morning.
Section Officer Lady Charlotte Bonham Carter, known at Medmenham simply as ‘Charlotte’, lived in the mess. She was older than most WAAFs, having served in the First World War with the Foreign Office. Just before war was declared in 1939 she trained f
or Air Defence and took a flying course, commenting that she missed not having a motor horn when up in the air. She subsequently joined the WAAF at the age of 47 and served initially as an instrument mechanic before being commissioned in 1941 and posted to RAF Medmenham after PI training.4 She was an efficient officer, remembered with great affection by many former colleagues, for her kindness and her eccentric, unmilitary behaviour. Charlotte always carried an umbrella and a basket or string bag containing food, as she was permanently hungry, even taking a basket of sandwiches on a church parade. She made up marmalade sandwiches at breakfast time in Phyllis Court and tucked them into the envelopes that her post had been delivered in earlier, making it easier to transport them to work on the bus. Thus they were always handy should hunger suddenly strike. She was once detached from Medmenham for a few weeks, and her section gradually developed a smell that increased in pungency. Following a search, a packet of marmalade sandwiches, covered in green mould, was discovered tucked into a filing cabinet.
Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos Page 10