Love and War in the WRNS
Page 20
Robin Chater seems to be making a late run on the outside in the race to win Sheila’s affections. Of all three men, she has known him the longest as they came out on the ship together, but he is also the youngest. Sheila, meanwhile, is bored with the downgraded job in Alexandria, despite having a ‘plum’ role and is champing at the bit to get a transfer. She never lost this characteristic of always feeling that she was missing out on something better, and that the grass is always greener elsewhere. I think it emanates from her deep insecurity as a child:
C in C Med Levant!!
28/8
My dear Ma – No home mail this week. Life is quiet again here, but quite pleasant … 2 days ago Ivan drove Clement, Eve and I, plus James out to Amriya – this is fairly far west, the most I had ever been and not far from the battlefields. James and I sat in the dicky and nearly fell out the road was so bumpy. Eventually we turned down by the edge of the salt lake, crossed a rocky ridge, and then ran parallel to the sea along a road bordered with fig plantations. We turned right through an Army Camp and over an incredibly sandy road, until we could go no further. Ivan, Eve and I then walked the last 100 yards to the sea. What a lovely sight it was – the sand all white, the sky deep violet, and the sea a glorious transluscent turquoise shade, deepening towards the horizon. Eve and I didn’t bathe as we hadn’t our costumes, but Ivan went in in his pants! Eventually we drove back to Mex where we had a magnificent fish lunch at about 3 o’clock! My arms were terribly tanned after it all and I considered myself pretty brown before that! … I have just received the most lovely bracelet from Robin as my birthday present. It is Persian – minute pictures painted on bone squares with rounded tops which are set in frames of silver. All is done by hand, and the pictures themselves aren’t more than an inch square – all country scenes, men riding horses, bathing, threshing, hunting, milking cows etc. I love it. It arrived beautifully packed in a rose wooden box, sealed in black and wrapped in a piece of khaki turban! He hopes to get a move from Iraq, the staff college hasn’t materialised, but I think it is a good thing really, as he is far too young to sit on the staff in Cairo or elsewhere boring. Bruce and John wrote a lot from Sicily – the former enjoys life terrifically. He is a very cheerful, jolly type and never lets anything get him down. I’ve never met anyone so patient and kind. For I used to keep him waiting hours some evenings in Cairo when we were going out, and then when I was ready, often I was too tired to go out dancing or do what we had arranged and never once did he grumble. John, as ever, is still a wee bit difficult. I don’t think he’d ever be different. He says he will still wait for me to marry me, but I haven’t held out any hope for him at all, as he really is so childish, and fiendishly jealous. There is a terrific buzz at the moment that we will all be home by the time our 2 years is up. I personally don’t see how they can possibly work this – what I feel as regards myself is, that I’d hate to return to a Methil kind of job, as a 2/O and a D.C.O. [Deputy Cypher Officer]. I’d probably be sent to Greenock or Liverpool as head of a watch, but I’d hate that. Naturally I would like to stay in combined ops but it might be difficult to get in. Alternatively, I could return home, have leave and then agitate for further service abroad, India or somewhere. I can’t bear vegetating. C in C Levant Cypher Office is an appalling place to be stuck in – as a D.C.O. it is imagined and quite rightly so, the plum of cyphering jobs on the station – but if I could get out to a more interesting job elsewhere, I’d go like a shot. I saw the C in C’s secretary last week and he has promised to put me first on the list of officers transferring to India. There may not ever arise the opportunity but if it does turn up, I wouldn’t hesitate to go. I have had my hair cut again and look far better. It was so thick before. This afternoon, Barbara and I are bound for the beach. Some friends of hers are picking us up at four. We do night watch tonight. I rarely find them tiring these days. It’s far quieter doing watch than working days like we did in Cairo. A very self centred letter. I’m sorry!
Lots of love,
Sheila
They are completely up to date with news of the Italy landings, which is hardly surprising; as a Cypher Officer, Sheila would see all the messages that were going through and of course be involved in co-ordinating the landings themselves. She kept the original cable dated 11 June, marking the first success in the Sicily campaign, from the Italian Admiral Pareas, ‘Beg to surrender through lack of water’ and the reply from the British, ‘Surrender of Lampedusa accepted from second-in-command who fully agreed with terms. Governor not yet contacted, soldiers landed’:
C in C Levant 3/9
My dear Ma and Pa –
… This morning we went to a service at Ras el Jin (HMS Nile Naval Base and HQ of Rear Admiral Alex). It was to celebrate – if you can say such a thing – 4 years anniversary of the outbreak of war, and was held in the open. Lots of Wrens were there, naval ratings, marines, Navy and Army officers. Unfortunately the man who played the piano played all the wrong tunes so we all got in a dreadful muddle … Today we have heard that the Eighth Army have landed in Italy – good old Monty and well done the Eighth Army. That will be all the people we know in Cairo once more, Bruce and John I expect … No, I have not had the parcel yet, Ma. I do hope you did it up well as they get terribly buffeted about. I packed most carefully and sent to Robin a pair of Polaroid glasses he asked me to get him and he now writes and says they arrived almost falling to bits and that if I hadn’t wrapped them in cotton wool they would have broken to bits and that only to Persia! …
Lots of love to you both
Sheila
Italy surrendered on 8 September; Mussolini had been deposed and the new government had made peace with the Allies, although the Nazis were still entrenched despite Hitler ordering Rommel to concentrate on defending northern France. Nevertheless Germany’s defensive positions, the weather and the mountainous terrain proved too difficult for the Allies to overcome, and it was not until the Battles for Monte Cassino between January and May, 1944, that the Allies began to make headway further north.
In Alexandria, the vanquished Italian fleet arrived from Malta, accompanied by the British warships HMS Warspite, HMS Valiant, HMS Faulkner, HMS Fury, HMS Echo, HMS Intrepid, HMS Raider and the Greek naval vessel RHNS Vassilisa Olga [Queen Olga], the French FLN Le Terrible, all commanded by Admiral Cunningham. ‘Surrendered Italian Fleet Arrives at Alexandria – One Year After Alamein’ screams the Egyptian Mail headline, faithfully recorded in the scrapbook:
C in C Levt 18/9/43
My dear Mama –
… Oh isn’t the news marvellous? I had just come in in the evening when a Wren rushed out to say that Italy had surrendered and we dashed upstairs and immediately there were drinks all round to celebrate the occasion. We have been frantically busy and as you can guess it’s all been most terribly interesting. I’ve done so many extra watches it’s almost been like Cairo again. Perhaps the most exciting event of the week has been the Italian warships which arrived here 3 or 4 days ago.
Barbara and I decided we just had to go and see them come in – so although we had been on watch till one, we got up early and took the Wrens transport down to Ras el Jin where Rear Admiral Alex has his offices. Barbara used to be a coder there, so we went to the coding office which is right on the edge of the sea and climbed onto the flat roof. It really was a most wonderful sight, on the horizon slowly drawing nearer seemed to be a toy fleet, headed by 2 of our biggest battleships one ahead of the other, the first one dark and the second camouflaged pale gray and blue – destroyers followed and then in the rear the Italian ships. I counted 15 ships in the horizon at one point and it seemed so funny that Alex which has been so denuded of the fleet ever since we’ve been here, should be graced with the pride of both the British and Italian Navies at the same time. These were the ships that we had been receiving photo recce reports about for months. Taranto! Cavour! Littorio etc. I just couldn’t believe my eyes to see them all spread out in front of me. It was a perfect day too, not too hot, the sea
calm and a cloudless sky and as we stood on the roof watching, our planes circled round over the convoy. Some of the other girls stayed in bed but I wouldn’t have missed that sight for anything – it was history. We have now gone into 3 watches which means we don’t do extra watches but are on more, if you can see! Yesterday we moved into our new officer quarters. I have the most lovely room on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the sea. Unfortunately it wasn’t finished and so we had no lights but had to creep about with candles and this morning there has been a frightful rumpus because some people found bugs in their beds, so we have all had to move out again till it is fumigated. Personally I think it’s silly to make such a fuss, Egypt is alive with bugs. I am so used to them and so blasé about them you would be shocked! Anyhow, I am still lucky as my bed is on a balcony on the sea side of the house and gets the fresh air. I have heard no more of my move east and fear I won’t be allowed to go as we are now so busy. Absolutely no news of Bruce and John. They must be in Italy. I hope nothing has happened to them …
Heaps of love to you all.
Sheila
PS the sun has just set and I have seen the green flash!
It is hard to know from this distance whether Sheila’s mother’s snub in failing to acknowledge her daughter’s role in the war was deliberate or not. Sheila is justifiably nettled and, as ever, gets her own back by belittling her older sister’s morality. It is rather priceless that she is allowed to date as many men as she likes, but Rosemary is not: the crucial difference was that Rosemary tended to go for ‘sergeants’ i.e. other ranks, and not officers. Rosemary continued in the WAAF after the war, where she never married but seemed to have a number of affairs. She finally married a widower, after her retirement, at the ripe old age of 60:
C in C Levant
23/9
My dear Mama –
… I am enclosing some snaps which were taken on leave in Beirut from which you will get an idea of what the country looks like. It is really very beautiful. Also enclosed are some taken from George Buildings Cairo, where I was working and you can now see what aspects I viewed all the time we were planning Sicily. I am rather amused because you have made no comment on that show at all. For myself, I was, and still am, just bursting with pride and having a hand in the show, and working with such wonderful people as Admiral Ramsay and also have the feeling that I have just a wee, wee spoke in the success of the show for all the hard work which I, and all the others, put in in those 4 months in Cairo. If I never do another thing in this war, that will be behind me. It’s funny, because coupled with the marvellous job, I had the most tremendous fun in Cairo, far better than any I’ve ever had out here before or since, except perhaps last August when they all came back from Malta. I am still rampant to get back to them, but fear it’s no good, as we are terribly short of old hands and are even now in 3 watches to try and keep the work under. Not that I think I’m a cut above the rest, but experience is bound to tell and so many of the people are new and do the most incredibly silly things.
All my boyfriends have deserted me – even James my puppy has disappeared!! Mails have been shocking lately, none from Sicily for a month, nor from Robin in Iraq and yours from home have been pretty elusive. I had an airmail letter card from Rosemary yesterday who seems keen on a New Zealander this time. Well, I hope it comes off, tho’ I must say to add yet another Bert to the family seems deplorable. Maybe he could change it (is it Albert, Bertram or what?) Soon I shall be the only unattached female in the family! That’ll never do!
The news re coming home at the moment is that we have to do 2 1/2 years abroad, so I shall definitely try for a change, if not now, in a few months time. No more Levant for me, thank you.
Our new quarters which we have moved into on Friday had to be hastily evacuated on the Saturday as they were found to be full of bugs! Personally, I was neither bitten, nor ever even aware of one, but judging by the fuss everyone made – there couldn’t have been less than a million! I now sleep open to the sky and sea, on a balcony, which is very pleasant, back in our Sacré Coeur Convent …
Well no more, my 5th and last letter for this morning!
With heaps of love
Sheila xx
I am sending this by sea, let me know how long it takes. S.
C in C Levant 29/9
My dear Ma, Thank you for 85, 86 which arrived within 2 days of each other. How I envy you blackberrying. I miss the country and everything pertaining to it terribly - when I see pictures of fields, trees, woods, and mountains, I can’t imagine what they are really like. I’m sure I shall go mad with excitement when I actually do see these things again – everything is so barren out here. Well, as regards my coming home in the New Year, I’m afraid it’s no go, because we have just signed a paper to say whether we want to go home after 2 1/2 years out here and then only if the service can permit. Of course I said yes, however, since signing, I hear from the secretary that he thinks he will be able to send me to India – and he is seeing the Superintendent about it. I am really very pleased about this because I don’t think I should like to spend another year in the Levant. I have worked in the most exciting office (with exception of S/M’s maybe) and any other place like Suez or Port Said would be rather deadly. Of course this is all taking work as the primary factor, maybe I would do better to think of the social side for a change, but I don’t think I could. I also think it might possibly mean coming home even sooner than from here – but that of course is pure guesswork. Anyway, if I do go it will mean being with all my old friends which I shall like. At the moment we are in 3 watches and I am really ashamed of the girls on my watch for the way they grumble. I don’t like it much either, but it’s the least one can do to carry on without a perpetual moan. It’s funny, but it seems just to be the people who were commissioned out here who are so trying. Those who were officers at home have far more guts … – I am still all packed up as we haven’t moved into our new house yet. The grumblings then will be even worse as no one wants to go in. These are times when I HATE these women (or girls!) who are my fellow Wren officers – they are so spoilt and selfish. I’m certainly not looking forward to living with them. The ones at home were so different. Oh – there is no chance of bringing James home with me, because I now have lost him for over a week and fear there is no chance of his returning now. Poor wee thing – still I am quite confident he is perfectly OK as he is so terribly independent. I am not really in a very good mood to be writing letters, I feel too scratchy with the outside world to be pleasant. There are times when it is no asset to be conscientious, one gets so terribly disheartened at the behaviour of others – to go to India would be a blessed relief. Still no news from Sicily or Italy, but a long long and very funny letter from Robin this week – it really did cheer me up quite a bit. We are in the middle of the mango season, they really are marvellous things, but I never fail to get into an awful mess – they have huge stones in the middle and I always end up with the stone in both hands – gnawing away! Dates have begun too, but I ate so many last year, I can scarcely entertain the idea of one this year! I must now get up properly and go to the laundry. Then have an early lunch and go to work. Sorry for this moan.
Lots of Love
Sheila
Sheila finds herself back in Cairo ‘three weeks only this time’ as she notes in her scrapbook, changing roles. There is definitely a sense of the theatre of war having moved on, and those left are scrabbling around to find interesting jobs to do. Hence her great angst about trying to get a challenging new role. I think she must have dreaded the inevitable posting back to Britain, as the war at this stage was far from over, and her love life was still in a muddle:
RNGHQ MEF
10/10
My dear Mummy –
… As you already know, I am in Cairo again. This time working for Admiral Waller who has come to Cairo as Director of Combined Operations in place of Admiral Maund. This time I have switched to secretarial work and am secretary to his Chief of Staff who ac
tually hasn’t arrived yet, but we expect him minutely. Admiral Waller is a dear old boy but rather terrifying in that he’s so vague and never knows where he puts anything or what he has seen, etc. His secretary went down to Alex the other day and I was left to cope with the Admiral, I love it but it nearly sent me grey! However, we went out to lunch together to Shepheards and became good friends …
All the boyfriends are well, and Bruce is now a Major! He seems to be having a marvellous time in Italy, even John is cheery. He sent me £4 for my birthday. I felt quite embarrassed! I’ve also heard from Idwal Humphrey on the way to India – not since he arrived – I think my chances of going there are about nil now – but I still hope!
… The first few days we were here I nearly passed out with the heat – never known anything like it – thank heavens it is quite cool now, hardly anyone I knew in Cairo before is up here now. One of the first people I met was an ex Commodore from Methil who has been pressing me to go out with him ever since. I’m not a bit keen, for when I said I’d have to work he said did I know any other Wren officers etc. I said no. What cheek these men have! I wonder what he thinks we are? I hope you are all well and enjoying life. We are still in whites whereas I expect you’re all in wool and wearing stockings (what a problem the latter are – even here!)