Emails from and about former UGHQ personnel

Italics inside [ ] brackets are my comments

My husband, Nicholas Marra, died in 1996 aged 73. During WW2 he joined the Navy (called up having failed his 1st year exams at St Andrews University). Just recently my son found a box of old photos in our loft and I began to digitise them.
I found quite a few old photos from this time. He always said he was in the WRENS - “Fine body of women, won’t hear a word said against them.” This joke came about because he was sent as a navy coder to the Falkland Islands to do the job carried out normally by WRENS - it was considered too dangerous for WRENS to be sent. According to my husband they did the same job in places like Bermuda. They monitored weather conditions and conditions for radio signals.

   Prior to his service on the Falklands he was stationed by the tunnels near Portsmouth and told of how shortly after arrival there he was grabbed and hauled unceremoniously into a dugout to save him from the shrapnel raining down from their own guns. He had been standing trying to work out what was causing the whistling sounds in the air around him.

   Among the photos I found this. As you can see from the information on the back it says Fort Southwick and I looked up Fort Southwick and found your website. None of these sailors are my husband although one is called Nicky. Can’t even be sure the info is accurate as the surroundings show no sign of tunnels. Thought they might however be of some interest. [It is accurate. The Trig Point behind the washing line confirms the location as Fort Southwick]

Glenys M Marra, Dundee - July 2018

I was delighted to find your website whilst looking for photos to illustrate my Mum’s account of her war years in the WAAF. She is 94 and remembers vividly her time seconded to the navy at HMS Collingwood with her friends Muriel Bevan and Marian Boothroyd. They were all RDF [Radio Direction Finding - radar] Operators and had responded to a request for volunteers to be attached to the navy. My mother, Joan Plant (nee Faint) worked on the plotting table during the D Day landings. Her romance with my father Royal Marine Albert John Plant started at Fort Southwick as you will see from the attached account.

  Years ago we visited the D Day Museum [Portsmouth] and were lucky enough to meet the Curator because they were running a “Meet the veterans” day. My Mum was very quick to point out to him that a photo exhibit of the plotting room on D Day was inaccurate because it only showed WRNS and it should have also included WAAF. I now know from your website that this was probably one of the “staged” photos taken months later.

Gail Plant - August 2018

Extracts from:

                     'My War Years' by Joan Plant (née Faint)

  If you were 19 you had to do war work. Some girls worked in the munitions factories but their hair and skin would turn yellow. I didn’t like that so I decided to go into the forces and was advised to go into the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and volunteer for RDF (Radio Direction Finding – later known as RADAR). You didn’t always get what you wanted so I was lucky. I had to take an IQ test to become an RDF operator which I passed.

    When we first signed up we were given a number and also had to sign the Official Secrets Act. My number was ACW 2112005. We had the same badge on our sleeves as wireless operators so everyone thought that was what we were. RDF was top secret - you couldn’t tell anyone - not even your family.
    On 16 December 1942 I was given a railway ticket to go to Gloucester. It was very scary as we never travelled far from home. I arrived at the camp and was put in a room with other girls. I spoke to a girl from Manchester called Muriel Bevan and we became good friends. We saw a girl on her own looking lost so we called her over. That was Marian Boothroyd from Sheffield and the three of us became very good friends.
    We worked in Fort Southwick which had lots of different sections in different Forts. This is where we plotted all the boats on D-Day (6 June 1944). I can remember D Day very clearly. The day before all the men tanks and lorries passed through the town. It was quite a spectacle. When they had gone it was deadly quiet everywhere.
    Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. Fort Southwick was the Combined Operations Underground Headquarters.
     One day someone came to tell me there was a Royal Marine looking for me. I said I don’t know any Marines. Anyway I went outside and it was Albert (a friend from Hartlepool) who was on survivor’s shore leave and stationed nearby.
    (Albert John Plant walked along Portsdown Hill from Portsmouth towards Gosport asking at every Fort if they had any WAAF stationed there. Most just laughed at him but eventually he found Joan in Fort Southwick and their romance blossomed from there. They married in 1947).
    When we were finally demobbed you were supposed to hand in your uniform. After D-Day we had been allowed to wear our own clothes off duty. We were given a rail pass and a warrant to buy some clothes.
    I enjoyed being in the WAAF. It was very educational and I made friends with people I would never have met otherwise – that’s why I wanted my children to go to University.
    We were given a letter of thanks from the Navy and a medal for our services but they were lost when my parents died.