Acknowledgements
This book is a tribute to my remarkable mother, and also to all those women in the Second World War who, in many ways, took a greater risk than the men in leaving the sanctuary of their homes and country in order to serve.
When I found Sheila’s letters bundled up in black bin liners after her death in 2009, I decided to fulfill her final wish, which was to write her memoirs. She had often told me that she was immensely proud of her war years: she had even begun to sort the letters herself, using recycled envelopes. However, our daughter’s sudden death in 2011 put a temporary stop to the project. Louise and her Granny had always enjoyed a close relationship and so it became the clichéd labour of love to complete this book in honour of both of them.
I thank them for inspiring me: writing the book was the perfect antidote to the grieving caused by this double bereavement.
Thanks also to my friends and family – especially my husband, Ross, and our son, Tommy, who have supported me during the painstaking process of pulling the book together. And special thanks to Charlotte Blundy who transcribed the letters, cleverly deciphering my mother’s difficult handwriting, and to Joanna Frank who gave me some excellent advice on an early draft.
Finally, thank you to Felicity Kendal for agreeing to write the foreword: I feel we share a bond via our two sets of eccentric parents. Felicity – your empathy through these difficult times has been a great solace.
Contents
Title
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Felicity Kendal CBE
Chronology
Introduction
❖ 1940 ‘Disappointed with it all’
❖ 1941 ‘It would be marvellous to feel one was doing something’
❖ 1942 ‘Work, sleep … and a little pleasure thrown in’
❖ 1943 ‘I am bursting with pride’
❖ 1944 ‘How are the mighty fallen’
❖ 1945 ‘Oh it’s all such a stupid muddle’
❖ 1946 ‘These men!’
Bibliography and Sources
Plates
Copyright
Foreword by
Felicity Kendal CBE
It is no exaggeration to say that what we have in this volume is a treasure chest of letters.
They start with Sheila, as an innocent ‘green girl’, joining the WRNS at the beginning of World War Two. She writes home to her mother, begging for parcels to be sent, for silk stockings, nail polish, and her old fur coat. She seems from the start to be obsessed with dances, dates and young men, and is determined not to have her hair cut short. But as these letters, like a journal, continue through the war, we see her grow into the feisty, ambitious and independent woman she will become.
Assigned to the important work of monitoring via cyphers and signals the enemy and British fleets, she travels to Egypt, and in her words becomes an ‘Invasion Addict’. She is promoted to Cypher Officer and as such has the knowledge of planned invasions and attacks. Her details of so many – now famous – turning points of the war are intriguing.
She lives a giddy life full of romance, hard work and danger, yet never loses her almost childlike wonder and excitement of the day-to-day social scene, the work she is doing, and her wonder at the Exotic East.
This is a chronicle of a time gone by, when in the midst of death and destruction so many women like Sheila, passionately committed to serving King and Country, were nonetheless equally committed to the important job of securing a suitable husband.
Sheila seems oblivious to her beauty, but not to the staggering number of young men who constantly pursue her. Like a modern-day Emily Eden, she enthrals us with details of her journey and adventures:
Saturday
Dinner at the Mena Hotel. It was just perfect – dining and dancing in the moonlight by the side of the swimming pool, all very gay – At about midnight we decided to walk up a hill to see the Pyramids, it was rather glorious – you walk out of the hotel garden up a hill which slopes round the foot of the Big Pyramid … which I climbed … and all in the bright moonlight … beautifully cool!
Her letters chart the war almost weekly. By the end she has met ‘unconventional’ Tom. He is the opposite of the social and gregarious Sheila, yet he seems to see off with ease any competition for her hand and heart. At the end of the war they plan to marry, as she writes to her mother:
Dear Ma,
Please don’t make too much fuss about anything – Tom hates it so – we shall get married I expect in a Registry Office – I honestly don’t think Tom would survive a proper wedding with relatives and guests – he’d probably get up and say something awful or shocking – he’s quite liable to!! And please don’t rush around telling everyone I am marrying a Czech!!
This is an extraordinary and detailed portrait of an intelligent and passionate woman, and a fascinating read.
Felicity Kendal CBE
Chronology
1939
September
Hitler invades Poland on 1 September; Britain and France declare war two days later
1940
January
Rationing starts in the UK
March
Bombing of Scapa Flow naval base in Scotland
April
Germany invades Denmark and Norway
May
Germany invades Belgium, Holland and France
Churchill becomes Prime Minister
Holland surrenders
Belgium surrenders
June
Evacuation from Dunkirk
Italy declares war on Britain and France
Norway surrenders
France signs armistice with Germany
July
German U-boats attack Atlantic convoys
Battle of Britain begins
First German air raids on London
September
Operation Sea Lion (invasion of Britain) planned by Germany with Blitzkrieg bombing of British cities
Italy invades Egypt
British victory in Battle of Britain
Germany, Italy and Japan sign pact
Sheila joins up and goes to Dunfermline for training
October
Sheila moves to Dundee
Germany invades Romania
Italy invades Greece and Albania
Hungary and Romania join the Axis
December
Britain begins desert offensive against the Axis
1941
January
Tobruk falls to the British
February
Afrika Korps arrives in Tripoli, led by Rommel
Benghazi falls to the British
March
Benghazi falls to Rommel
Tripoli falls to Rommel
Rommel besieges Tobruk, the only part of Cyrenaica to remain in British hands
Stalemate in the desert
British forces land in Greece
Sheila goes to Greenwich Naval College for Officers’ Training Course
Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia
Greece and Yugoslavia surrender
May
British counterattack in Egypt
Fall of Greece and Crete
Sheila goes to Methil, Lundin Links, Fife
Sinking of the Hood by the Bismarck, and then the Bismarck is sunk
June
General Auchinleck takes over as Commander-in-Chief from General Wavell
Allies invade Syria and Lebanon
Germany attacks Russia
July
Britain and Russia agree pact of mutual assistance
August
Fall of Persia to British forces
Battle for Weste
rn Desert begins
Russia joins the war
Siege of Leningrad begins
September
First use of gas chambers at Auschwitz
October
Germans advance on Moscow
November
Aircraft carrier Ark Royal sunk off Malta by U-boat
December
Bad period for the navy: loss of Repulse and Prince of Wales in Far east; Ark Royal and Barham hit by U-boats in the Mediterranean; Valiant and Queen Elizabeth sunk by human torpedoes in Alexandria harbour
Mid-1941 – mid-1942
Eighth Army in retreat in Western Desert
Japan attacks Pearl Harbour
US joins the war after Pearl Harbour
Britain surrenders Hong Kong
1942
January
Early February
Sheila sets sail from England, destination Egypt via the Cape
End February
Sheila meets Robin Chater on board ship
Fall of Singapore
Tobruk taken by Rommel
May
Sheila arrives in Alexandria and is attached to Office of the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean
Sheila meets John Pritty
June
US Navy wins Battle of the Midway – turning point in the Pacific
Sinking of the Medway at Port Said
Germans advance on Alamein Line and two hours from Alexandria
‘The Flap’ in Cairo and Alexandria, accompanied by mass evacuations of civilians and staff
July
1st Battle of El Alamein begins
British Army in the Western Desert in retreat: General Auchinleck replaced by General Montgomery
Low point of war: Japanese sweeping through Malaya, Java, Burma, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Borneo (1941–2)
October
2nd Battle of El Alamein begins
November
Eighth Army wins Battle of El Alamein; turning point of the war
Operation Torch, combined landing of US First Army and Eighth Army begins offensive in North Africa with the aim of meeting in Tunis
Axis forces defeated at Stalingrad – Germany’s first major defeat
1943
January
Tripoli recaptured; Tunis falls to First (US) and Eighth Armies and Battle for Africa is won
Casablanca Conference: Roosevelt and Churchill call for ‘unconditional surrender’
March
Sheila moves to Cairo to join Admiral Ramsay’s planning team for Operation Husky, Royal Navy General Headquarters
May
Sheila meets Major Bruce Booth-Mason
German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa
June
Sheila is promoted to 2nd Officer
Sheila moves back to Alexandria now that Operation Husky planning is completed
July
Allies invade Sicily, Operation Husky, the beginning of the Second Front agreed by Churchill and Roosevelt at Casablanca Conference in Jan 1943
Sheila goes on leave to Beirut
September
Eighth Army lands in Italy
Italy surrenders but Germans rescue Mussolini
October
Sheila moves back to Cairo to work for Admiral Waller, director of Combined Operations
Rome falls to the Allies and Italy declares war on Germany
November
Allied leaders meet in Tehran
1944
January
Allied landings in Anzio
End of the Siege of Leningrad
March
Sheila is transferred to Suez as Principal Cypher Officer
Hungary occupied by Germany
May
Germans surrender in Crimea
Germans retreat from Anzio
June
Allies enter Rome
Operation Overlord: D-Day landings in Normandy
July
Operation Cobra: Allies break out from Normandy
Sheila goes on leave in Palestine with John Pritty
August
Sheila on leave in Beirut, Baalbek and Damascus with Aenid Brothers
Allies liberate Paris
Germans abandon Bulgaria
September
Sheila returns to England by sea; she remains in England for the rest of the war, stationed at Harwich
Athens liberated; Rommel commits suicide
October
Soviet army enters Prussia
November
Surrender of Axis forces in Greece
December
Germans attack Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge begins
1945
January
Germans withdraw from Ardennes
Soviets capture Warsaw
Auschwitz liberated by Soviets
Japanese retreat to Chinese coast
February
Yalta conference: the Big Three leaders meet
US lands at Iwo Jima
April
US army encircles Germans in the Ruhr
Allies liberate Belsen, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück
Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes US President
May
Germany surrenders in Europe on 7 May
Sheila is posted to Kiel to help with supervising the peace
June
Sheila meets my father, Sub. Lieut. Tom Unwin, RNVR based in Kiel
Leave in England
July
Back to England for a three-week course at Petersfield Signal School
September
Sheila is back in Germany: Hamburg, not clear what the job is
October
Sheila moves to Plön; Bruce Booth-Mason awarded MBE
November
New relationship with Captain Ken Millar of the Tanks
1946
Feb–March
Sheila is on leave in England
April
Sheila is on leave in Brussels with Ken Millar
Sheila moves to Kiel to do secretarial work
June
Sheila celebrates the anniversary of V-Day sailing with Tom Unwin
July
Sheila is on leave in England
August
Japan surrenders after the US drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
September
Tom Unwin drives Sheila into a tree in Kiel
October
The Nuremburg Trials
Sheila announces her engagement to Tom Unwin