Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos (12 page)

Two months later, ‘Babe’ Suckling failed to return from a PR sortie to La Rochelle. Eve must have remembered the very earnest young pilot whom she had known so recently. At Wick ‘Babe’ had evidently regarded her as extremely aged, and when he heard that she was going on a high-altitude flight with one of the pilots, he came to see her rather worriedly, saying: ‘Have you cleared it with the medical officer? You know it’s not always wise for elderly people to fly at great heights!’ Eve was then under 30 years of age!

The fourth PR airbase, RAF Leuchars near St Andrews, was also on the east coast of Scotland but considerably further south than Wick and consequently a whole day was saved when transferring photographs to Medmenham. The return flight from Wick to the Norwegian fjords was at the extreme extent of a Spitfire’s range, but the Mosquito, introduced at Leuchars in 1941, had a far greater range. The PI Section was set up with the arrival of the new aircraft and Eve Holiday moved there from Wick for a few months. She described Leuchars as:

Most cosmopolitan – and fun. There was a Dutch squadron there (who thought mostly about food) and a Norwegian squadron, ‘Vikings of the Air’, who would take off in
any
weather and were quite fearless. The WAAFs used to organise games and amusements which the pilots adored, and there was always a crowd – musical evenings when David Linton played his violin, country dancing, fencing, archery and games. There were drinking parties too of course, and sometimes, when I attended morning briefings, I would notice a yellow faced pilot slipping off for a whiff of oxygen in his cockpit. This was recognised as the best antidote for a hangover.

Early in 1942, the newly built 42,900-ton German battleship
Tirpitz
became fully operational and for nearly three years threatened the Allied convoys passing through the Arctic Ocean to and from Murmansk. These convoys carried essential supplies to maintain the Russian ability to fight, and thus it was vital to pinpoint
Tirpitz
, monitor her movements and ultimately destroy her. It was not an easy task as
Tirpitz
hid in the Norwegian fjords, well camouflaged against the steep, wooded slopes. Hundreds of PR sorties were flown, each one bringing back up to 1,000 photographs to interpret which provided the most useful and up-to-date intelligence for the Royal Navy and Bomber Command.
Tirpitz
was prevented from plundering the Arctic convoys but it was late 1944 before she was finally capsized.

The German battleship
Tirpitz
was a great threat to Allied shipping. Photographed here vertically from above and at very low level (below) when it was moored and hidden in a Norwegian fjord. Taken on 28 March 1942 by PR pilot Flight Lieutenant Fane.

Suzie Morrison was posted to RAF Leuchars in July 1942 and for six months followed the movements of
Tirpitz
:

Knud Hauch, a Danish engineer who had joined the RAF, was in charge of PI at Leuchars and there were two other WAAFs there with me. Cover of the
Tirpitz
was flown every day, at least once. The weather, of course, was always a problem: it could prevent photographs being taken at all or else they were obscured by cloud. Despite this we did often see the
Tirpitz
and reported on the situation.

I managed to get flights in all sorts of aircraft. I once flew to the Shetland Islands where, at that time, no service women were posted. I was walking around and an airman said to me, ‘How long are you staying?’ and I replied, ‘Twenty minutes!’
18

Several pilots at Leuchars wore the dark-blue uniform of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, having escaped to Britain when their country was invaded. Throughout the war, they piloted flying boats across the North Sea at night to rendezvous with fellow Norwegians in remote fjords and sometimes smuggled them back to Britain. These men would be extensively debriefed to avoid the possibility of bringing an enemy agent into the system who could betray other Norwegians. The PIs briefed pilots on their course for these flights, which were at very low altitudes to avoid being picked up by enemy radar. Information on enemy defences within the narrow confines of a fjord, including the variable height and positions of booms and balloon barrages, was vital to the success of all of these missions.

Suzie Morrison served at RAF stations Wick and Leuchars in Scotland, monitoring the movements of
Tirpitz
.

Some WAAFs enjoyed being in the vanguard of First-Phase PI with the ‘buzz’ that an operational PR airbase provided. Others preferred the diverse subjects presented to Second Phase, building up a huge amount of day-to-day knowledge about the enemy. Third-Phase sections provided an opportunity to concentrate on a specialist subject. The ACIU was a flexible organisation that responded to current need with sections being opened or closed as prevailing operations demanded, and PIs moved from one section to another as required. The WAAF PI who seemed to have worked in the greatest number of sections was Sarah Churchill, who joined at least six different teams. This arrangement would almost certainly have had mutual benefit for both Wing Commander Kendall, who organised all PI at Medmenham, and her father, the Prime Minister.

Notes

  
1
. Cussons (
née
Byron), Diana, a lecture on the ‘Work of the Interpreter’ at a seminar on photographic reconnaissance, 10 June 1991, by permission of the RAF Historical Society.

  
2
. Bogarde, Dirk,
Snakes and Ladders
(Chatto & Windus, 1978).

  
3
. Colles, Dorothy, IWM papers.

  
4
. Scott, Hazel,
Peace and War
, p.49.

  
5
. Churchill, Sarah,
Keep on Dancing
, p.62.

  
6
. Powys-Lybbe, Ursula,
The Eye of Intelligence
(William Kimber, 1983). Reprinted by permission of the author’s family.

  
7
. Duncan (
née
Cameron), Jane, extract from her wartime diary, quoted in
My Friend Monica
(Millrace, 2011), p.261 Reprinted by permission of the author’s family.

  
8
. Scott, Hazel,
Peace and War
, pp.50–1.

  
9
. Komrower (
née
Eadon), Shirley, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection, 2001.

10
. Paper on attributes of photographic interpreters, 1945 (Medmenham Collection).

11
. Powys-Lybbe, Ursula,
The Eye of Intelligence
, p.14.

12
. Sowry (
née
Adams), Jeanne, memoirs.

13
. Hick (
née
Johnston-Smith), Elizabeth, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection in 2002 and conversation with the author in 2010–11.

14
. Reid, Helena, letter, 2002 (Medmenham Collection).

15
. Grierson, Mary ‘Bunny’, papers on 1 PRU, 1946 (Medmenham Collection).

16
. Rendall (
née
McKnight-Kauffer), Ann, interview with Constance Babington Smith, 1956/7 (Medmenham Collection).

17
. Holiday, Eve, interview with Constance Babington Smith, 1956/7 (Medmenham Collection).

18
. Morgan (
née
Morrison), Suzie, audio recording for the Medmenham Collection in 2002 and conversation with the author, 2010–11.

On a summer’s day the sunlight streams through the tall windows of the ‘Versailles Room’ of Danesfield House Hotel, lighting up the decorated plasterwork on the delicate coloured walls, the high ceiling and the chandeliers. Stepping outside on to the terrace one sees the stone balustrade and steps with the topiary garden below and the specimen trees standing in the parkland. The lawn slopes down to the cliff edge and below is a sweeping curve of the river; it must be one of the most beautiful views of the Thames valley.

In the Second World War, the plasterwork was boarded over, the chandeliers removed and the largest room in the house was known as ‘Second-Phase’ or ‘Z’ Section. It was to this section that all air photographs came for inspection after the immediate tactical reports had been made by the First-Phase PIs on reconnaissance bases. Tables were positioned around the room, each with the individual PI’s stereoscope, slide rule and anglepoise lamp. Box files and reference books stood on shelves, charts of enemy equipment were pinned to the walls and photographs were everywhere. The room was never empty, for the occupants worked 12-hour shifts every day of each year, and as one group finished their shift, another took its place. The view through the latticed windows was much the same as it is today, if the lines of temporary huts could be ignored and allowance is made for the dug-up garden.

Anyone taking a break from work to admire the view of the river from the terrace would have been in uniform – the air force, navy or army, or the women’s services of WAAF, WRNS or ATS. Nationality flashes on the shoulder of some uniforms showed that their wearers came from Canada, Australia and other Dominion or Empire countries – Joan Vyvyan Slade wore a flash with ‘NIGERIA’ on her tunic.

Later on many wore the uniform of the American services – the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) or the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). The occupied countries of Europe were represented too, including officers from Norway, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free French. It was in the Second-Phase Section that the international and joint service character of RAF Medmenham was most in evidence.

Among the WAAFs were two Jeans from Australia. Jean Starling had travelled to England from her home in Canberra in early 1939 and was working in London when war was declared. She enlisted in the WAAF soon afterwards and worked in Second-Phase interpretation at Wembley and Medmenham.
1
Jean Youle, from Melbourne, also joined the WAAF early in the war and first served as a telephone operator at RAF Hornchurch in Essex. This was one of the sector airfields of RAF Fighter Command that defended London and south-east England throughout the Battle of Britain. The airfield was located in what was known as ‘bomb alley’ and the station was frequently attacked throughout the summer of 1940, with particularly heavy raids on 24 and 31 August.