Love and War in the WRNS

by Vicky Unwin

  The next letter is written from the hairdressers; it appears Rosemary is being posted to Egypt with the WAAF, much to Sheila’s envy, as that is where Bruce is currently stationed. It seems that Sheila’s mother’s parcel of civilian clothing for Bad Harzburg did not arrive on time!

  Menu from the ‘incredible’ party at the Vier Jahreszeiten.

  Hamburg

  17.10.45

  My dear Ma –

  I don’t think I have written since I had my first ride last week – It nearly killed me – I can’t remember ever having been so stiff before – I couldn’t even stand up straight! However, I have now been 4 times altogether, and think I’ve found my horse legs all right now – Incidentally, the horses are really very good and the country round here good for riding …

  I’ve just returned from my 72 hours leave in Bad Harzburg, which I simply love – I went with Kay Pollock and Caroline Hawksworth who are awfully nice. Kay and I share a room and Caroline (who is old enough to be our mother) is the wife of an Admiral and knows the Navy through and through, she is also an expert German linguist, so was a great help to us – we drove down in a most comfortable Buick with rugs, wireless and even central heating – with a German driver and a marine with gun to guard us! The country was rather flat most of the way – but well cultivated and wooded – we went first through Lüneburg and the next big town was Brunswick which we skirted, it seemed to have been badly knocked about – Eventually we arrived at Harzburg which is a sweet little town nesting on the side of the Harz Mountains – which are not very high really, but completely covered with trees – pines, beeches, sycamores, birch, chestnuts, and the whole aspect was as if they were on fire – so marvellous were the colours – The maples were wonderful, ranging from red and gold to pale yellow – the whole place is a leave centre for troops and we had nothing to pay except for any drinks we might wish to buy, ironically enough the whole place is run by 30 Corps. Bruce’s old H.Q.! We stayed in a very nice hotel called the Harzburger Hoff – there were very few girls there, but quite a lot of men – everything was very well arranged – a tea dance the first day and a musical concert in the evenings, and then to bed for we were tired – Then the next day we set out for a long walk over the mountains – going up by the mountain railway which was one of those horrid things on a string, we were petrified! However, we walked some miles over hills and through the most glorious woods till we came to a tiny village where there was a red white and blue barrier and 2 or 3 soldiers hovering over a fire –

  Now when walking you have to be most careful not to get into the Russian Zone or you mightn’t get out – the Russians being a bit queer – so having seen a notice, ‘you are getting near the border – be careful or you may be shot’ we asked a gunman in the woods and he said it was some way away – However, it all boiled down to the fact that we had been through the Russian Zone and hadn’t known it – anyway, we landed up on the wrong side of the barrier and the soldiers were so surprised they thought we were Russians – me in my red jumper and all!

  Naturally we returned another way!

  Kay and I rode twice, but horses weren’t up to much – we met 2 very charming boys in the hotel in the Westminster Dragoons. They were sweet and we danced with them on two evenings – one of them was Jameson’s whiskey, and the other heard while we were there he was being class ‘B’ released to go up to Oxford – It was lucky meeting them as most of the others weren’t up to much – also staying in the hotel was a Naval man from a HQ near here, and he brought us back in his Mercedes Benz also in great comfort – and took us for a nice drive round one afternoon when it was wet.

  On the way home Patrick Jameson asked us to have lunch with him in his mess just beyond Brunswick, which we did – They were an awfully nice crowd and had a dog I coveted terribly – a half cocker half golden labrador that looked like a hound – It belonged to their C.O. unfortunately – We eventually got back to Hamburg at about 1815 – to find a terrific conference going on to decide our future – apparently a lot of us will soon be redundant and a bit of re-allocation is going on – I hope they don’t send us home, though it wouldn’t break my heart, I should like to stay on a bit longer.

  Oh, I have volunteered to stay on in the Wrens till the end of next September – otherwise I might be out next Spring – I had a medical and have been pronounced fit.

  With regard to the German problem – there was a very good article in the Telegraph last Thursday or Friday – I don’t know which – in the centre page – If you read that, you will get a very true picture – of what conditions are really like out here.

  Robin writes to say that he thinks he has got his transfer to the RAC [Royal Artillery Company] but will have to undergo all sorts of training and exams –

  Has Rosemary gone yet? I am enclosing 2 P.O.’s for her, and my clothing coupon book for you – if you can will you please send her on her P.O.s as I don’t know where she is not having heard – Bruce’s comment was that words completely failed him and that it seemed to be the last straw for fate to offer!!! but he said he’d look her up and report to me if she was behaving OK! ...

  Tomorrow Kay and I are going out to a nearby place to dinner and dance with a Tank Regiment.

  I believe they are Desert Rats (I hope so!) She is a dear, but rather shy and retiring, rarely ever saying a word. But she is so pretty and rather Irish – I find I’m not at all shy these days, and if people don’t like me, well I’m sure I don’t care – so I’m trying to get Kay to be the same!

  I think I must really be dry – I’ve had a whole heap of hair cut off as it got rather unmanageable, I do hope it won’t look too much of a mess! I’ll send you a p.c. of Bad Harzburg. It really is lovely –

  Oh, thank you for the parcel which arrived not on time!

  Heaps of love, Sheila

  By the end of October Sheila and Kay had elected to be transferred to Plön, the headquarters of Flag Officer Schleswig-Holstein, near Kiel. The WRNS were already beginning to cut down on staff and I think they felt it good to be out of the way:

  It will be very cut off in winter, but it is supposed to be very beautiful. Plön is on a large lake – with hilly wooded country all the way round – lots of sailing to be had in summer, and skating in winter. I expect there will be quite a bit of riding too, which will be fun. Also, skiing, we hear. It is the HQ of 8 corps and lots of Army around. Lots of people say we are fools to go, but as we like country life, and the other 2 are keen to stay on here, I think it is the obvious answer.

  Before they left they watched the demolition of some U-boat pens in Hamburg harbour: the photos are stuck in the album, but as she says it was ‘such a dull day, I don’t think it will come out.’ They didn’t.

  Just as she is about to leave Hamburg for Plön she meets Ken Millar, who is about to muddy the waters vis-à-vis Bruce, who is now a lieutenant colonel and an even more attractive catch. The fact that he belongs to a tank regiment of Desert Rats from Egypt brings back many happy memories:

  Hamburg

  29.10.45

  My dear Ma –

  Life here is most pleasant – really we are lucky and this week has been just grand. To begin with, I have been riding three times, and now feel completely at home when mounted – all most horrid stiffness and black and blueness has now gone – Secondly, Kay and I have fallen for the Tanks in a big way – (at least they seem to have fallen for us!) – however they are an awfully nice crowd, and we had a good party at the Atlantic on Tuesday – followed by a simply marvellous day out at the Itzehoe yesterday. Ken Millar, who is Squadron Commander, arranged to pick us up at about 10 am, take us out to Itzehoe, which is about an hour’s run away, have lunch at R.H.Q., ride in the afternoon, and finish with dinner in ‘A’ Squadron mess – so he duly arrived, accompanied by Duggie Smith, who comes from Newcastle and the Colonel, Rory Leake, who is a terrific charmer – Ken and the Colonel are both regulars. Ken has been a P.O.W. for 3 or 4 years, but the Colonel seems to have been in every show
there was starting from Desert Days – and he is a D.S.O. and 2 M.C.’s the better for it as well as a whole string of other gongs. I’m afraid the 3 of us together immediately became the most tremendous bores – ‘do you remember old so and so’ and ‘did you go to such and such a place?’ Cries of maleesh, aiwah and saida rent the air (all wog terms!) and added to all this, everyone seemed to be wearing corduroys, which were Shepheard’s rig – After a very excellent lunch of wild duck, we discovered the horses were off the road, so we decided to go sailing instead. They have a beautiful seagoing yacht, the ‘Jarmo’ which they keep in the small nearby river, so six of us set off in the car, plus Jock, the Scottie, and proceeded down stream with a motor boat behind us to tow us if the wind gave out, it was very calm – eventually it did, so we transhipped, chugged down to the Elbe and came back at dusk, vainly trying to shoot ducks, of which there were many, but all too elusive – the country round there is flat and wet, with windmills rather like Holland I should imagine – We eventually landed up in Ken’s mess, where Betty and I bathed and changed and then on to a sumptuous dinner by candlelight. Laugh, laugh, laugh, that’s all we did, until Betty and I had to leave about 2200 – It really was a perfect day. On Wednesday Ken and I are supposed to be going to a symphony concert and on to a dance at the Atlantic – but as we had some altercation on the way home – I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it falls through! However, on Saturday, the regiment is playing the 53rd Welsh at Rugger and have arranged an enormous party afterwards, for which I am performing to at least a dozen Wren officers – It’s going to be such fun.

  On Saturday I went to a Symphony concert with a certain Bill Philpotts, Lieutenant RNVR, whom I have recently met [in Bad Harzburg]. We went on to the country club after and danced. Today we have been out driving in his Mercedes Benz (yes awfully posh isn’t it?!!) right into the country to a place called Großensee, where there is a most lovely lake, all surrounded by trees – the trees are nearly all bare now, but some of them are still golden, and with the sun on them. Still look pretty. However, it was a most pleasant drive, and we ended up at the Atlantic for tea.

  We still don’t know when we are going to Plön – the rival firm, 4th Tanks are up there; they also have a desert rat as their emblem but a black one – not a red like the 5th Tanks – Ken is going up there with a guard funnily enough, at the beginning of the month.

  I can’t remember whether I told you that Bruce has got the M.B.E. – I know I forgot to tell someone, but it may have been R. Isn’t it marvellous? for services rendered in Holland and Germany – There’ll be no holding him, I’m sure – so I wrote off and told him I hoped he wouldn’t be wanting a larger size in hats!! However, I’m thrilled about it, as you can guess. Has R. gone yet? I had a letter from her last week while she was on the verge – and I have already written an Air Mail out there. In spite of the marvellous time I am having here, I should simply adore to be out there now – and most of the Desert Rats I have met say they would too – in fact, they expect to be back again next year – am I jealous? Rory Leake knows Diana and Peter Booth well – he’s been all over the M.E., Iraq and Persia – lives in Kenya and really is too good-looking for words! Such fun, too.

  Must stop, or you’ll think I’m dotty, a good-time Gertie who never does any work at all! (Hush, I’m writing this on watch, but don’t tell anyone – now if I’d got that wool I’d be knitting).

  With lots of luv

  Sheila

  Sheila hasn’t heard from Bruce for a couple of weeks and she is concerned, ‘wondering what’s in the air – as he is usually so good in writing … Methinks there may be some glam Wren down there – but certainly hope not! However, time will show, but it’s maddening having to wait, he still expects to be back in Feb, he says.’

  It is love at first sight for Ken, but she urges mother not to breathe a word to Rosemary about this: ‘I don’t want Bruce to know, he might get hold of the wrong end of the stick’:

  Naval Party 1730

  c/o BFMO

  Reading

  4.11.45

  … In the meantime I’m afraid I’ve made a conquest here, and after 5 meetings a proposal of marriage was offered to me last night! The gentleman in question is one Ken Millar, a Captain in the Tanks – very tall, very military, and really quite nice – but not the kind of person I’d like to marry – As a matter of fact it was all most embarrassing – but I’d better begin the tale at the beginning – last Sunday we went down to Itzehoe, and it was arranged to have a colossal party this Saturday – I to produce the girls – Ken and I in the interim went to a concert at Broadcasting House on Wednesday, and ended up at the Atlantic for dinner – Kay was there with 2 of the subalterns, David and Duggie, who are keen on her, and really it is priceless to see the 3 of them together. Ken has been most attentive since the word go, but I thought he was joking and consequently laughed off all his remarks, until he suddenly asked me if I was engaged, to which I replied, most unofficially, yes, I was (thought this was the best thing to say in the circs!) So we left it at that. Now at this tremendous party last night it transpired that he was violently jealous of the Colonel, Rory Leake, who is absolutely grand (and the answer to any girl’s prayers!) and as we were dancing round the scrum of the dance floor, he asked me if I would forget my unofficial engagement for an official one – to which I replied I was sorry, but couldn’t – All the time a most riotous party was going on – The Colonel and I really split our sides we were laughing and joking so – all most harmlessly – but Ken got crosser and crosser (another John P. I’m afraid) and it ended up by his not even saying goodnight to me – so that’s how we stand! The proposal, by the way, was enhanced by bribes that I should be back in Alex by next March with a flat of my own, and Millar as my surname! Isn’t it strange that everything seems to lead to my eventual return to Alex – John P. would probably be out there by then, Bruce would probably still be there – No – I just couldn’t do it – I do wish Bruce would come up to the mark and everything would be bettered! Life is complicated isn’t it!!!!!!

  They moved to Plön and now, with a new admirer, it’s time to renew the wardrobe again, although she is still worried about the delay in getting the wool for Bruce’s jumper:

  NB Naval Party 1734

  13.11.45

  So sorry but delay due to going to Plön and being so busy thereafter no time for letters. Marvellous barracks and excellent job, and everyone very pleasant. I’ll have to tell you all about it later.

  I’ve had your letter, for which thank you. Also the 2 bed jackets and slippers which are all heavenly – thank you so much.

  Please send me some decent wool, those odd scraps are useless and I must have it immediately if I am to get the garment finished. Also – when you have a moment, please may I have my skates and also my brocade evening dress, shoes (gold) and gold bag, as we are going to be allowed to wear evening dresses at Xmas – Hooray!!

  Ken is up here for the week, and we are firm friends – I do like him immensely but he is rather pukka – However, he seemed to have a fixed idea that it has to be me, and is willing to wait and see as he knows all about B [Bruce]. I do wish B would do something. The mail has been shocking lately and he hasn’t even had any of mine – nor me his!

  R. is living in the YWCA I used to live in in Cairo – I was deeply envious of her, all my troubles would have been at an end if only I could have been there!

  It’s now 0:40, if I hadn’t written this now, heaven knows when I should have done so –

  Heaps of love,

  Sheila

  Thoughts of marriage are beginning to loom large in Sheila’s – and the family’s – imagination. Aunty Dorothy has offered to ‘give’ Sheila a wedding; Sheila thinks the ‘obvious thing’ would be to lay in a stock of champagne from Germany ‘as there is lots about – also good wines and liqueurs – However, it’s no good counting one’s chickens etc, as the gentleman has yet to come up to scratch (awful if he didn’t!!)’:

  Plön
>
  18.11.45

  Yes, it is all a great pity things should have worked out like this – It’s now 2 weeks since I’ve heard from Bruce and it was 2 weeks before that letter. None of my letters seem to be getting through to him either, and with this Palestine trouble one just doesn’t know what’s happening – I wish I could send a cable and find out but you can’t from here. Rosemary has met several people who know Bruce, but of course I wouldn’t dream of asking her to find out anything about him, especially as Rosemary has never been a very discreet person – Anyway, the position with Ken is that he is very much in love with me, and so prepared to wait and see what happens. I must say I do like him enormously, he’s great fun, sensible and levelheaded, intelligent to talk to, likes music, has run his own dance band and has knocked around a good deal (being of an Army family) which I think is a very good thing – for at least he knows his own mind. He is 29. To look at he is 6ft 4 ins, very thin, large, blue eyes – in fact, if I didn’t say so before, he looks like the man in the Rose’s lime juice ads! A typical English Army officer – His people live in Scotland near Stirling, where his father, a Colonel in the Cameron’s (I think) is stationed – He has 2 sisters, one, an ATS, is called Sheila, and is in Ceylon – one thing worries me rather, he is rather a snob (self admitted!) – but I have teased him about it quite a bit, and also told him that we have no money, and live quite quietly and humbly in Durham. If he would rather I was anything different or would let a thing like that worry him – well then I don’t think he’s the right man for me – I think he’s going to get his majority in December, and become a squadron commander – In January the regiment goes to Berlin to do guard duties there and I think they expect to return to the M.E. in the spring – It looks to me if I am not careful, I shall fall between 2 stools – I do wish I could hear from Bruce, when he is coming home, and so on – I don’t even know if he’s just not writing or whether it’s the mail – The whole thing’s a very tricky problem, which, I only hope will sort itself out for the best soon – I will keep you fully informed in all the latest details – but in the meantime, please don’t mention it to Rosemary or anyone, because it’s so easy to get those sort of things distorted, especially through the post – Pa knows of course, doesn’t he? …