LADY JANE BETHELL - MEMORIES OF 1939-1945

So much happened to me in these six years. At school for the first year, followed by various forms of further education including a Secretarial Course, in February 1942 1, with two great friends, joined the A.T.S. We were all 18 years old and longing to get into uniform. There will be many who remember the initial training. It was tough. In our case it was also incredibly cold that winter of 1942.
Living in huts which siept 40 or so girls in double bunks. A lot of drill P.T. and kitchen fatigues. It was a big change from the rather priviledged and sheltered life I had been used to. Funnily enough the girls that made the most fuss and complained about the food were mostly from poor inner city families who had never been made to eat anything they didn't like or to leave a clean plate.

Nine months as a clerk at Southern Command, followed by an Officer Cadet Training Course from which I emerged with two pips on my shoulder. I then hastened to a tailor for a much smarter uniform.

The next year was spent as a platoon Commander in London looking after the cooks and orderlies who worked in the Guards barracks, Wellington and Chelsea. They were mostly from London's East End, and many of their families had suffered in the blitz. We had a fair number of problems, pregnancies, absence without leave etc. In fact one girl gave birth within hours of leaving the Sergeants Mess. I think the baby boy was named Wellington.

In 1944 I was lucky enough to get a job in the Cabinet offices. I was personal assistant to the head of Deception, which for security reasons came under the cloak of the Joint Planners. Our offices were underground in Great George Street. The corridor which runs parallel to the War Room etc which is now open to the public. From then, February till September 1945, when I married and came to live at Rise, I was privy to many secrets. In fact the first day I started work I was told the place and the date of the planned landing on mainland Europe. The job of our section was to coordinate the overall deception plans which were designed to mislead the enemy as to the place and date of the invasion. This was done in many ways, double agents, notional armies represented by wireless networks, dummy boats, tanks etc. to be seen by enemy reconnaissance aircraft.

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Thanks to the incredible success of Ultra - the code breaking machine, we had a good feedback on the effect our efforts were having on the enemy. We worked long hours and had of course to be extremely careful not to let drop even the smallest hint that we knew more than most people. I lived with my old Company in Eaton Place and took my turn on fire watch. A lot of incenderies were being dropped at that time.

When the great day came, we knew of the last minute postponement because of bad weather. We prayed hard that the elements would relent and they did. I spent many hours of the night the invasion set off in my attic bedroom hanging out of the window listening to the drone of the aircraft overhead. They were the ones towing the gliders containing the Airborne Division that spearheaded the landing.

The next few days were tense indeed, waiting to see if the Germans would realise that this was the main thrust and move the Panzer Division from the Pas-de-Calais which was the area our deception plan indicated as the main landing, and Caen the diversion. The plans were deemed to have worked very well, and undoubtedly made an enormous contribution to the success of the landing.

V.E. Day was one of great celebration. Thousands of people, myself included, crowded round the gates of Buckingham Palace, dancing, cheering and doing the congo behind Humphry Littleton playing his trumpet.

There had been many sadnesses and great personal losses during the six years. Some very frightening times in the bombing and the VIs and V2s. However there was also a great spirit that had us all working for the same end - the survival of Great Britain against very heavy odds.