EILEEN WADE

In January 1943 aged 20 I became W/237702 Miller, E.L. a Private in the A.T.S. I was sent to Guildford for initial training, there to learn how to march, salute, polish buttons and shoes, make a bed and lay out kit precisely to Army Rules and Regulations. To be innoculated against smallpox, tetanus and typhoid, and to be kitted out from hat to shoelaces and to receive 2/- a day pay. We were assessed for intelligence and ability and at the end of six weeks some of us were sent to Strathpeffer, Scotland, there to become Operators Wireless and Line and thence to attachment with the Royal Corps of Signals. Sixteen weeks later we passed out with such attributes as 12 words per minute in reading and sending Morse Code, how to use a ten-line telephone switchboard, a No 9 set, a Fullerphone, a modicum of semaphore and knowledge of Ohms Law, and a doubtful ability to erect a large aeriel, none of which, apart from Morse, was needed in my posting to No.1. War Office Signals, Whitehall - which was probably just as well.

In London, my company was billeted in Queen Anne's Gate from where we walked to Whitehall and the War Office 'Citadel'. And what a place that proved to be. Those of you who may have visited Churchill's War Rooms will have some idea of this vast underground complex which stretched under the War Office and Whitehall, and which most certainly wasn't thrown up in a hurry in September 1939. The entrance gate gave on to a bomb site containing a Nissen Hut in which we ate our cold dried egg (yuk) or jam sandwiches with tea at breakfast time, provided there was no heavy air-raid in progress, and a small entrance - all very ordinary - which led down three floors to the extraordinary 'Citadel' itself. Here fresh air was pumped and extracted continuously along air ducts to supply the large staff, and once down one had no idea of the weather or conditions above in the real world.

There were teleprinter rooms, War Rooms, code rooms, a hospital ward, wireless rooms, G.P.O. telephonists, canteens, repair shops and - it was hinted - two pubs, and the High Speed Wireless Room itself in which I was to spend the rest of my Army service. It was later described as the "Clearing House of Destiny: the room which linked Britain's Supreme Command with Worid Battlefields". It was the London terminal of a huge radio network - to Delhi, Cairo, Algiers, Pretoria, even Australia, though this particular signal could be difficult. All the thousands of messages both incoming and outgoing were transmitted automatically over the air at 100 w.p.m. by perforated tape fed through a Wheatstone machine, the perforations representing the morse code. We all thought it quite amazing, although our Signalmen from the G.P.O. and Cable and Wireless had used it all before. As the messages were all in code, we had no idea what they contained, only their priority, except for one which we received for nearly 24 hours, containing the names of freed P.O.W.s from the Far Eastern Zone which we knew would bring joy to many and sorrow to others.

The machines worked 24 hours non-stop and so did we, in three sections working 'up and down' shifts for two weeks and then one week of 'nights' with one shift off a week. We could truly say - like the Windmill Theatre - we never closed.

Six of us still meet. We all have other friends, but army friends are special. We shared great companionship and so much laughter through good times and bad during those unforgettable khaki-clad war-time army days.