Brave Faces

by Mary Arden

  The second letter must have been written first, because it had a very different tone. He sounded rather tired and miserable, saying that he never wanted to catch fish again, was fed up with the rain and cold winds, and that he missed me so much that he couldn’t sleep. ‘Oh, Mary,’ he wrote ‘I’d give a year of my life for a squeaky bed with you beside me.’ I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, so I did both.

  Taking four tests in a row on the first day wasn’t too bad, but by the end of the week, I was well behind with the reports. However, on the Saturday afternoon, I felt that I should get some fresh air and sunshine, so decided to cycle through the woods to visit the Finnegans. The children gave me some very colourful paintings they had done, which I loved and promised that I would put them up on the wall in my bedroom, as soon as I got back to the cottage.

  The following week I worked until I dropped, missing lunch most days to get the reports done, so that I would have time to go to Derry one last time before Christmas to do some shopping, as I wanted to buy a few more things for my family, my roommates, and for Donna and her children.

  I was given the Monday off, which gave me time to post my parents presents to them and then ride my bike to the Finnegan’s house. When I got there, I told them that I had to give them their presents now, as I would be at HMS Shrike on Christmas Day.

  Luckily, the presents from my family had already arrived, so I would be able to take them with me. I thought that my day bag would be perfect for me to put my presents in to take to Shrike, so I emptied out the contents on my bed to make room for them. Suddenly my eye caught sight of a small package lying on my bed, and I gasped, when I realised what it was. I had used some wedding present paper to wrap up two sanitary towels, just in case my period was early, but as I hadn’t had a period since leaving England, I had forgotten they were there. It was only now that I remembered to check my diary, as I usually recorded my due dates, but had obviously forgotten to do it since arriving in Ireland. Surely, I must be due about now, I thought, and then wondered whether working so much in the dark and being a bit anaemic might be what had made me late this month.

  I went to see the Wren doctor the next day, and she said that she could see from my records that I’d recently been married, and then asked, ‘Did you always take precautions?’

  ‘Oh yes, ‘my husband insisted, as we wouldn’t be able to afford children in wartime,’ I told her honestly.

  The doctor told me to roll my sleeve up, as she wanted to take a blood sample to do some tests. She then pulled down my bottom eyelids to peer into my eyes. ‘I’ll give you a chit for some iron pills, which should help, and then come and see me again in a week’s time, as I’ll have your test results by then.’ I told her that I’d be at HMS Shrike until the first week in January, so I wouldn’t be able to see her until then.

  When I got to Shrike, I was told that I’d be in Hut 10 this time, sharing with two other girls. As one of the beds looked as if it had been recently made up, I presumed it was mine, and I shoved the case with my civilian clothes in it underneath the bed and then unpacked everything else. I then went to the NVT office to fill out some reports, but as I tried to write, I kept thinking about Duncan and how I wished we could be together for our first Christmas as a married couple, which made me start to cry.

  Suddenly ‘Nosey Parker Kelly’ came in without knocking, demanding the key to the filing cabinet. I quickly wiped away a tear and handed him the key.

  He must have realised that I was upset, as he suddenly changed his tone and asked, ‘Do you ever get homesick?’

  ‘Only a bit, Sir, but I do miss my husband terribly,’ I replied.

  ‘Is he on ops?’ Fergal Kelly asked me. I nodded. Before he left, he reminded me to lock the cabinet and from that day on he always knocked before coming in.

  On Christmas Eve, I rang my mother, who told me that Mr Patrick had kept his word and sent the Irish linen to her, which she was thrilled about. I then spoke to my father who said that the house would seem quiet without me this year but that they were all going to Jane’s family on Boxing Day, which they were looking forward to. I then rang Duncan’s parents, who were obviously missing their son as much as I was. I let them know that I had recently received two letters from Duncan and that they were the best Christmas present I could have.

  There was no need for an alarm clock on Christmas morning, as it was so cold that all three of us were wide-awake by six. I suggested that we might as well open our presents as we were up, so after putting on our dressing gowns and placing blankets around our shoulders to keep warm, we began opening our presents. I had wrapped their presents in several layers of paper, like a pass the parcel game, and when they discovered that I had only bought them a lipstick each, they shrieked with laughter like small children, rather than two grown-up women. They had clubbed together and bought me a packet of Players, which I said I would save for later, but the truth was that I hadn’t felt like having a cigarette for the last two months, as they made me feel a bit sick. As it was still so early, we decided to take turns to have a lovely hot shower and wash yesterday’s smalls. When it was my time to shower, I inspected my breasts, as they had been feeling a bit sore lately, and let out a gasp when I saw that my nipples now looked more like blackberries than raspberries. I wondered whether I could be going down with mumps.

  The whole compliment of the airbase attended a special Christmas service in the big hanger that morning, and when it was over my roommates and I made our way back to the hut to tidy up before going to lunch. When we were halfway there, I heard my name being called out over the public address system, ‘Leading Wren Ogilvie to report to the First Officer’s office at the double.’

  I immediately went cold with fear, thinking that something terrible must have happened to Duncan.

  When I got to the office, the First Officer told me to sit down. ‘Leading Wren Ogilvie, I’m sorry to delay your Christmas lunch, but I’m afraid there is a change of plan and you are needed back at HMS Gannet tomorrow afternoon between fourteen hundred and sixteen hundred hours, as Commander O’Brian has three American VIPs that he wants you to test for night vision flying.’

  I was so relieved that it wasn’t bad news that I just grinned, and said, ‘I don’t mind going at all, Ma’am.’

  ‘That’s very public spirited of you Leading Wren Ogilvie, thank you.’ She then picked up the phone and put me straight through to Commander O’Brian. When I heard his voice booming down the phone I could tell that he’d been at the Christmas pudding brandy bottle already. ‘Thank goodness they’ve found you old girl! The thing is that we have these three American VIPs with us and we are at a loss as to what to do with them on Boxing Day afternoon. None of them play golf, it seems, so it was suggested that we offer them an interesting couple of hours in the NV Testing room, so we need you here you see?’

  ‘Yes, of course Sir, I’ll see if I can organise transport to get there after lunch,’ I told him.

  ‘No need to do that, its all been sorted. A car will pick you up at twelve hundred hours. Thanks for being a sport. Must fly now, the turkey is ready to be carved. Happy Christmas!’ he said, and hung up before I could say the same to him.

  ‘You are very friendly with the Commander by the sound of it,’ the First Officer said, suppressing a smile.

  ‘Well, Ma’am, we do speak most days, organising tests for his pilots.’ I then leant forward and said as quietly as I could, ‘I think he might have had a bit of Christmas Cheer Ma’am, as he doesn’t usually call me ‘old girl’.’

  The First Officer burst out laughing, ‘Well go and eat your own Christmas lunch now, Leading Wren, and enjoy the rest of the day.’

  I ran to the Wrens’ mess, thinking that I might be too late to get a seat, but as I entered, I saw one of my roommates waving at me, gesturing that she had kept a chair for me. The food was even better than the previous Christmas, so I conveniently forgot that I was supposed to be on a diet and ate everything in sight, including a marvell
ous tasting Christmas pudding, that I thought must have had a bottle of old stout added to the mixture, if the wonderful aroma that permeated the entire mess was anything to go by.

  That evening the officers put on a hilarious Pantomime, and to my complete surprise Fergal Kelly was a natural comic. He was playing Cinderella, so his obsession with sweeping floors was put to good use!

  To my utter amazement, at exactly twelve hundred hours on Boxing Day, an Officer’s car came to collect me. The driver told me that he had been sent from HMS Gannet by special order of Commander O’Brian, who had insisted that I travel in comfort, as I was doing him a favour.

  ‘The Commander asked me to tell you that one good turn deserves another,’ the driver said, and then asked me if I would mind telling him what was meant by that, so I explained how I had been asked to give night vision tests to some American VIP’s and, as I was working on my day off, the Commander must have been grateful that I had agreed to work today.

  ‘Oh, I see, of course, we thought – never mind.’

  I decided not to ask the driver who ‘we’ were or what they had thought, but knowing how men’s minds worked, I suspected ‘they’ had thought something naughty was going on between the Commander and me.

  When we arrived at HMS Gannet, I was surprised to see Commander O’Brian waiting for me. He put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug. ‘You’re a marvel, Mary. I just wanted to say a personal thank you for coming to my rescue. I will go and find our American friends and bring them to you at fourteen hundred hours. Try to keep them busy for as long as you can, as I’m hoping to get at least half a round of golf in before having to collect them!’

  When I went into the NVT office, I wondered whether I should take down all the Christmas cards, but then decided against it and went to the testing room to switch on a heater instead, thinking that the Americans might feel the cold. I then sat quietly and waited for my VIPs to arrive.

  At fourteen hundred hours there was no sign of them, but half an hour later a long and extremely shiny car finally pulled up in the front of the Sick Bay. After two and a half years in the Wrens I felt pretty confident that I knew which rank was which on all the service uniforms, but when the three Americans came into my office, I hadn’t a clue what rank any of them were. I’d never seen so much gold braid, brass and silver buttons and medals in my life, so I wasn’t sure whether to shake hands, salute or curtsy! In the end, there wasn’t time to do anything, because after the Commander had quickly introduced me to them, he disappeared and left us to it.

  I felt very nervous standing in front of these three distinguished gentlemen and wasn’t quite sure what to say. There was a moment’s silence and then the officer wearing Air Force uniform looked at my Christmas cards and said, ‘My, this is a bright and cheerful room, Ma’am; we display our cards like this at home too.’

  It suddenly occurred to me that they must be feeling homesick and missing their families like everyone else, which made me feel far less nervous in their company.

  ‘I’d like to see your filing cabinet and see if your system is the same as ours, if that’s possible,’ the Naval Officer asked while removing his hat and placing it on top of the cabinet. Seeing the senior officer take off his hat, the other two men took theirs off too.

  ‘Of course, Sir,’ I said, opening the filing cabinet for him, but as I did so, I realised that I’d forgotten that my chocolate biscuits were in the bottom drawer filed under Z. When he saw them he grinned at me, and said, ‘As I thought, just the same system as me!’

  He then asked me if I had to hide them in there because the SBAs pinched them, so I told him, ‘No, they are no problem, it’s the naughty doctors that pinch them!’

  They all laughed, and now the ice was completely broken, so I asked them to follow me down the corridor to the testing room.

  ‘That typewriter of yours is rather out of date, Ma’am,’ the Army Officer remarked as he opened the door for me.

  ‘Everything is over here,’ I replied truthfully.

  I turned off the light and while their eyes were adapting to the pitch-dark room I explained to them the different ways their eyes reacted in the dark. I then handed them their boards, which I had already shown them how to use in the office.

  ‘How did you work out the correct distance from the machine to the chair?’ the Army Officer asked me.

  I had no idea, so I lied and simply said, ‘It took us several trials to get it right, Sir.’

  All three VIPs must have been about fifty years old, but they made the same silly schoolboy remarks that the pilots and navigators, who were half their age, always did when they sat in the dark. I also noticed that they used similar swear words when losing their place on the boards!

  Once the test was over I switched on the dim light first, so as not to blind them, and then unclipped their collars.

  ‘How did we do?’ the Air Force Officer asked.

  ‘I’ll tell you once we are back in the office, Sir,’ I said.

  When we were in my office, the Navy Officer asked, ‘Could we possibly have a cup of your English tea?’

  While the kettle boiled I checked the tests. Two of them had failed, but the Army Officer had passed his test with the highest marks I had ever seen. I decided to wait until each of them had a mug of tea in their hands and were enjoying all my chocolate biscuits before telling them their results.

  ‘I do like English cookies,’ the Air Force officer said, dipping a biscuit into his tea.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind my asking,’ I said as politely as I could, ‘but did you all have alcoholic drinks with your lunch?’

  ‘Why, naturally,’ the Air Force Officer replied with a mouthful of soggy biscuit. ‘It is Christmas after all.’

  ‘I drank some gin at the Captain’s house before lunch and also some wine at lunchtime in the Officer’s mess,’ the Navy Officer confessed.

  ‘I didn’t have any,’ the Army Officer said. ‘I’ve been teetotal since the war began.’

  When I told them their results, the Air Force and Navy Officers looked a bit worried, so I explained that we had discovered that the results were always better for the pilots who hadn’t had any spirits for at least twenty-four hours before doing their night vision tests. And then in an attempt to create a slightly lighter atmosphere, I decided to tell them a funny story that one of the young pilots had told me at Shrike the week before. They all laughed so loudly that one of the SBAs came running down the corridor to see what was going on. When Commander O’Brian came to collect his VIPs, they were still laughing, sitting with their feet up on my desk, drinking mugs of tea and eating the last of my biscuits. The Commander was so happy to see that his guests were in such fine spirits that he slapped me on the back so hard that I nearly fell off my chair.

  ‘Sorry old girl! Damn fine job! Well done,’ Commander O’Brian said and then took his three VIPs away to a car that was waiting for them.

  One of the junior SBAs kindly helped me wash the mugs and then after making sure that everything was turned off, I shut up shop. Just as I was locking the door, I remembered that Mrs Donaghue had told me that she was going away for a few days over Christmas, so she would lock my room up while she was away. I had completely forgotten. I now had nowhere to sleep that night, unless I could get a lift back to Shrike but that seemed unlikely at this time of night.

  As I walked towards the NAAFI, I spotted a Wren Officer passing near the Entertainments hut, so I told her my problem and she told me that she was catching up with the Third Officer Billeting later that evening. So not to worry, she would find me a bed somewhere. Then I heard someone behind me call my name.

  ‘Mary, what the hell are you doing here?’

  I looked behind me and saw a group of girls walking arm in arm towards the entertainment hut where a film was being shown that night. It was my friends, Hannah and Eliza, from Swallow Cottage. They invited me to join them, so I went with them and just hoped it wasn’t another love story.

 
When the film was over, and we went outside to get some fresh air, the Third Officer Billeting came up to me and said, ‘I thought I’d find you here! I’m sorry we didn’t organise a bed for you before. Commander O’Brian ticked me off at dinner and told me to put you in comfortable quarters, but it’s too late to do that now, so unfortunately I have had to put you in a Nissen hut. You’ll find a bed made up for you in Hut 16, which is near the wooded area; just ask one of the other Wrens.’

  I was so tired that I would have willingly slept on the hanger floor.

  The following morning I returned to Shrike in the same comfortable Officer’s car, and as we arrived at HMS Shrike, I thought what a crazy couple of days it had been and that I’d never forget the year that I had Christmas in two places at once.

  When I got to the NV Testing office, I was surprised to see a note placed on my typewriter. It said that I was to report to the Sick Bay as soon as I possible. They must have some more iron pills for me, I thought gratefully but I was wrong. When I spoke to the nurse, she told me that I had to have an examination right now. ‘So you’ll have to strip down to your knickers Leading Wren, and then put on a gown and wait until you’re called.’

  The last time I’d been told to do this was when I’d first joined the Wrens, so I wondered why I had to go through this rather undignified examination again. However, I had no choice but to do as I was told, and hoped it wouldn’t take too long. I was lucky and after a few minutes I was called to the Wrens’ doctor’s room.

  ‘I understand that you had a blood and urine test recently at HMS Gannet?’ she asked, looking at a report on the desk in front of her. ‘They have requested that I give you a full examination at once,’ she said, looking up at me for the first time. ‘Please go and lie down on the couch behind the curtain and call me when you have done so.’