Here's Where It Gets Interesting - How Women Won WWII: British Wrens at War

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Today in our series, How Women Won WWII, let’s head to Great Britain and learn about a military organization that recruited women into the war effort all across the country. Women volunteered in great numbers and, throughout the war, thousands of women participated. You might even call them…a flock. Hosted by: Sharon McMahon Executive Producer: Heather Jackson Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder Written and researched by: Heather Jackson, Sharon McMahon, Valerie Hoback, and Amy Watkin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey friends, welcome to the fifth episode in our series, How Women Won World War II. We've talked about a number of ways women influenced the war effort, from controlling the calutron machines in the secret city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to spying for the French and contributing to the science that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. Today, I want to tell you about an organization of British women who were instrumental in winning World War II. There were thousands of them. You might even call them a flock. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting.

Beginning in the 20th century in Great Britain, there was a military organization called the Women's Royal Navy Service. Shortened to its acronym, it spells W-R-N-S, but it's pronounced like the bird, Wrens. We're here to talk about World War II, but the history of the Renz actually begins in World War I. When World War I broke out in 1914, thousands of men across the United Kingdom entered the military in service of their country. But the war effort needed more help, and they needed to utilize the population that was still at home, the women. If women could step in, more men would be available to fight. The initial idea was that women would take on duties like cooking and secretarial work, but they ended up doing far

more than that. In 1917, the Women's Royal Naval Service was formed, making the British Royal Navy the first British military organization to not only recruit women, but to also form a specific armed services force for them. And women were eager to be recruited. While the acronym nickname of Wrens might feel like a fun coincidence, it wasn't. wrens might feel like a fun coincidence, it wasn't. It was actually decided at the same time that the official name Women's Royal Navy Service was chosen, likely because the wren has long had special significance in the UK. The wren is one of the toughest little birds in the whole feathered species, and it is Britain's most common bird. Wrens are able to withstand both hot and cold weather, are quick in getting around, and adaptable in a variety of situations. Members of the Women's Royal Navy Service were required to go wherever

they were told, and by the end of World War II, they were stationed all over the world, adapting to many new conditions and various situations, just like their small feathered mascot. What's really noticeable about Wrens is that although they're small and relatively nondescript, they can be exceptionally loud. be exceptionally loud. If you're ever standing near a female wren and can't hear yourself talk, it's likely because she is protecting her babies nearby and wants the intruder that is us, the humans, to go away. This trait among female wrens prompted some of the British to think of wrens in general as female, and they gave all wrens the nickname of Jenny Wren. Jenny Wren has been part of British vocabulary for so long that there's a character named Jenny Wren in Charles Dickens' novel, Our Mutual Friend, which was written in 1865. And it's a cultural touchpoint that still exists in modern times. Paul McCartney wrote a song called Jenny Wren that was released in 2005.

So the nickname of Wrens is apropos in both sound and metaphor for the collection of women who stepped up and filled positions in the naval forces of the United Kingdom. The formidable Dame Catherine I was the first director of the Wrens. She stepped into the role at the age of 42, after a career as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment. Catherine looked just as you'd imagine a high-ranking matron to look. Her dark hair was routinely pulled back into a sensible knot, and her angular face and high cheekbones gave her an air of a woman who did not tolerate nonsense.

But there are some images of her that suggest a bit of softness in them. She has gentle eyes and a hint of a smile on her lips. The Voluntary Aid Detachment was the group of civilian volunteers who provided nursing care for the military. A lot of middle and upper class women volunteered in this way because they couldn't take paid work and still be considered respectable women of their classes. and still be considered respectable women of their classes. The English writer Vera Brittain left college to volunteer for the Voluntary Aid Detachment during World War I and was traumatized by the experience. In her autobiography, Testament of Youth, she wrote, I feel as if I had been dragged through the gutter.

Possibly acute surgical is the heaviest type of work there is, I think, more wearing than anything else on earth. You are kept on the go the whole time, but in the end there seems to be nothing definite to show for it, except that one or two are still alive that might otherwise have been dead. It's no wonder that the voluntary aid detachment was sometimes called the filthiest task in the dirty war. Before World War I was even over, Catherine I received the Royal Red Cross and was appointed as Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. This is the award that earned her the title of Dame, and she was in the very first group to receive this honor after King George established it in 1918. One of the other women

to receive the Dame Grand Cross at the same time as Dame First was Queen Mary, to give you an idea of just how prestigious it was. Even though Dame First was successful in her role as commander-in-chief of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, she was frustrated that she was blocked from making some much-needed reforms to the organization, like improving the conditions of the volunteers. She resigned from her position and was immediately snatched up by the brand-new Wrens and made their director. Her new job and title were equivalent to the rank of Rear Admiral, which is like being a major general in the army. If that wasn't impressive enough, Dame First didn't slow down when World War I ended. Instead, she moved to Switzerland and took up skiing, as one does. She was elected into the role of

president of the Ladies' Ski Club, and she helped make the sport popular with British tourists. of the ladies' ski club, and she helped make the sport popular with British tourists. In the 1930s, Dame First also spent a decade as the very first director of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. She even drafted their constitution, so the next time you get asked to buy cookies from a Girl Scout, order an extra box in honor of Catherine, who was the ultimate go-getter. Remember when I said that at first recruited Wrens served as cooks and secretaries? It was Dame Catherine I who pushed for the expansion of their jobs. Wrens would move into all sorts of new roles over the years, becoming switchboard operators, store clerks, drivers, aircraft handlers, telegraph experts, and even codebreakers.

They excelled at the types of skills that women did not have the opportunity to obtain outside of Wren military service. By the end of World War I, the Wrens had 5,500 members and 500 of them achieved the rank of officer. And while the Women's Royal Navy Service disbanded after the war ended in 1919, they were called to serve their country again just two decades later. Let's listen to a Wren recruitment ad from the 1940s. While a Wren is taking down this message somewhere in Britain, somewhere else, Wrens are helping to cook and cater for the naval personnel. They are controlling stores at many naval establishments, including Malta. They are working in naval dental establishments, doing essential and interesting work. They are testing and maintaining radio equipment in naval aircraft.

These are only a few of the jobs done by the Wrens. The life is interesting and varied and is helping the Navy. A woman named Tavira Lawton-Matthews became director of the Wrens in 1939 when war broke out again across Europe. It's interesting to know that the Wrens consistently used Navy vocabulary, despite the fact that they did not serve on ships in the same way Navy men did. They called the floor of whatever room they were working in, the deck. And a bed was called a bunk, a kitchen, the galley, and the dining hall, the mess hall. By the time the Wrens were re-established as World War II began, Vera was ready to serve as the new director. Can we just let that sink in for a minute? Sometimes we forget how close together the two world wars were, which made it entirely possible for someone

like Vera to serve in World War I and then come back and serve again 20 years later. Vera was well-respected and spent the war years traveling all over the world to wherever her Wrens were located. She provided structure, encouragement, and training to those in leadership at each post, and eventually oversaw the work and well-being of over 75,000 women. These 75,000 wrens represented all sorts of British backgrounds. They were nobility and high school girls, housewives and widows, women who had careers and those who hadn't worked a day in their lives. Typically, wrens were around 17 to 25 years old,

although the National Service Act of 1941 meant that all unmarried British women and childless widows between 20 and 30 years old could be called to serve. The Navy was the first of the British armed forces to recruit women, and they did not waste time. Posters went up around the country with photos or drawings of women in smart-looking uniforms and slogans like, join the Wrens and free a man for the fleet. Acting as a recruitment agent, Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent, joined the Wrens in 1940 and filmed a promotional video for them that played in movie theaters across the United Kingdom. Here is the audio from one of them. Since February 1940, when I became Commandant of the Women's Royal Naval Service,

I have been able to visit a number of ports where units of the Wrens are employed. I had always heard what a wonderful spirit of friendship existed throughout the organization. As a result of my visits, I know this was no exaggeration, and I also know why. Wren officers are promoted from the ranks, and so they understand the conditions of life and work among the ratings with whom they have to deal. I should like to say a word of congratulation to the many thousands of Wrens who are already serving their country. We are very proud of the wonderful way in which you've carried out your work during air raids and at times of tension. We admire your courage and we know that danger is met unflinchingly because the future happiness of our families and homes depends on victory.

I feel sure that there are still many women who would like to do their bit by serving the Royal Navy, the traditional service of the Empire. Her movie shorts and military service were widely popular, and enlistments multiplied. In September of 1939, there were about 1,600 wrens. By late 1940, there were 10,000. And by June of 1944, the number of enlisted wrens was more than 10 times the number of wrens who served in World War I. Women may have joined the wrens to do their part in fighting the war, or because the wrens provided housing, wages, and food rations, which were all very valuable commodities, especially the longer the war dragged on. Many women signed on because they wanted training in skills that they didn't have any other place to learn. But, and this may come as a surprise, what really got women lined up at the recruitment offices was the Wren uniform.

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office. With insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve! It's Steve Carell in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from The Office and our friendship with brand new guests.

And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Ladies 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. I wanted to do my bit for the country. It was always going to be the Wrens. Always. The girls used to walk past in their navy blue uniforms and I used to just think how smart they looked.

So I decided a long time before I was actually called up that it would be the Wrens for me. These highly sought-after Wren uniforms were designed by Edward Molyneux, a British fashion designer who was basically the Louis Vuitton or Alexander McQueen of the 1920s and 30s. His work influenced the great Christian Dior, and Molyneux dressed European royalty like the Princess Marina and Hollywood stars like Greta Garbo and Vivian Leigh. One fashion expert described him as the designer to whom a fashionable woman would turn if she wanted to be absolutely right without being utterly predictable. Most women could only ever dream of wearing a garment designed by him. But it was more

than just Molyneux's involvement that drew women to the Ren's uniforms. The naval suits gave them status, confidence, and frankly expanded their wardrobes at a time when rationing made everything scarce. The Ren uniform consisted of a navy blue skirt and bell-bottom trousers, a white blouse, black necktie, and a navy blue double-breasted blazer with a Wrens anchor badge and a black beret-style hat made of wool and leather. Although in tropical areas, this was swapped out for a white linen hat. These finely dressed Wrens also knew that if there was a skill they wanted to learn, joining the wrens was a great way to do it. Dorothy Garland, who served from 1943 to 1946, shared that, I didn't need to be called up to do anything. I thought if I volunteered that I could

get into the wrens because that was the only one I wanted to get into. And I wanted to learn to drive. Some of the most daring wrens were dispatch riders, women who carried top secret messages by motorcycle around the country. They carried messages that could not be trusted to telephones, mail, or telegraph. Only a Wren on a motorcycle with a canvas messenger bag slung across her chest could be trusted to hand deliver the secret correspondence. By 1940, all of the British Navy's dispatch riders were women, every single one. And these were not women who were just buzzing around on motorbikes, enjoying the sunny days out from behind the desk of an office. They were experts at speeding through

the country, often under the cover of darkness. The Wrens wore crash helmets, goggles, boots, gloves, and riding breeches. If it was raining, they would just put on a long raincoat and tall rubber boots. Wren dispatch riders had to know their routes backwards and forwards because many city street signs had been removed to increase the likelihood that enemies would get lost trying to find their way around. The Wrens not only knew how to ride their motorcycles, but they also learned how to repair them. They rode alone, and if their bikes broke down, they had to repair them quickly so they could continue to deliver messages. broke down, they had to repair them quickly so they could continue to deliver messages. Wren dispatch riders trained in evasive maneuvers to avoid bombs and debris, and they learned how to take cover behind their motorcycles when they didn't have time to get to a bomb shelter. Talk about nerves of steel. Like 22-year-old Pamela McGeorge, who on April 22, 1941, was asked to deliver an important message

from one side of Plymouth, England to the other. She hopped on her motorcycle and drove through the night while Germans dropped bombs across the entire area. As residents holed up in bomb shelters, Pamela stayed the course, dodging explosives for hours in service of her mission. Her biography describes the journey. As searchlights and anti-aircraft guns lit up the sky, in the blackout gloom below, dotted with fires and explosions, a single headlight cut through the darkness. Onward, the writer came through the rubble-strewn streets, message bag at her side, riding through hell and flame like a woman possessed. A few miles from her destination, a bomb landed next to her on the road.

She and her bike were both flung into the air. The wheels on the motorcycle were completely mangled, so despite having just been thrown about from the bomb blast, she took off on foot, running the remaining miles to deliver the dispatch to the commander-in-chief at Admiralty House. She arrived and offered to immediately head out again with a response to be sent back. For her heroic efforts that night, Pamela was awarded the British Empire Medal. At the start of World War II, a dangerous and deadly situation broke out in the Atlantic waters surrounding the island country of Great Britain.

German submarines used a naval war tactic called the Wolfpack attack that made it nearly impossible for supply ships to reach the country's ports. This Wolfpack attack strategy had German submarines or U-boats travel in groups of 8 to 20 and then attack Allied convoys of ships at night and overwhelm the Allied ships with sheer numbers. In the first four months of the war, German U-boats sank 110 British ships carrying food, fuel, and building materials. Within the next year, 1,300 more British ships sank and only 12 German U-boats had been taken out of commission. In 1940, Britain started rationing basic food supplies like milk, tea, eggs, meat, and cheese. King George VI feared that his country would starve and be forced to

surrender to Hitler, And even the usually unflappable British Prime Minister Winston Churchill admitted that the U-boats were the only part of the war that truly scared him. So at the beginning of 1942, Churchill issued an order. Find out what is happening in the Atlantic. Find ways of getting the convoys through and sink the U-boats. He believed that the outcome of the entire war depended on what happened in the waters off of Great Britain. Ultimately, a man named Captain Gilbert Roberts was tasked with executing Churchill's generic decree of find out what's happening. Roberts was a British naval officer who retired before the war in 1938 because he contracted tuberculosis. Captain Roberts took a year to recover and then became a game designer,

which made him very valuable given Churchill's order to sink U-boats. And a game designer in this context isn't someone who designs heroic fights for busty babes in video games, no. What Captain Roberts brought to the table were real-life war tactics. In 1942, Captain Roberts established a program called the Western Approaches Tactical Unit. And as he began to flesh out his plan, he knew he was going to need some assistance. Most of the Royal Navy officers in the Western Approaches Tactical Unit, or WATU, who were skilled in wargame tactics, were already stationed on ships. So the Wrens, with their motto, In the Navy, but never at sea, stepped into staff positions on land. At the beginning, 36 Wrens were chosen to work with Captain Roberts and simulate wargames for the WATU's mission called Operation Overlord. Roberts and his staff of Wrens set up shop in a building called the Derby House behind the Liverpool Town

Hall and hung huge maps of the Atlantic Ocean on the walls of their operations room. There, Captain Roberts and his team of Wrens developed war tactics to defeat the German submarine Wolfpacks. The first set of usable war tactics created by Roberts and the Wrens were called Raspberry, named by one of the Wrens because she said the defeat would be like blowing a raspberry with your mouth at Hitler. Raspberry with your mouth at Hitler. And Raspberry became the longest and most successful military campaign in the entire Second World War. The cheeky name stuck. Codenames for other tactic sets followed the fruit trend and were called Pineapple Gooseberry, Strawberry, and Banana. They started a war games training school for naval officers, and from 1942 to 1945, there were 66 Wrens who worked in the highest levels to train over 5,000 naval officers at the WATU Center. When I say training school, we're not talking about

an ostentatious military academy. No, picture something much more primitive, a large room with a linoleum floor and young women in uniform using balls of string, pieces of chalk, and a dividing wall made of canvas to design a game that simulated the cat and mouse battles happening at sea. The wrens painted the floor into sectors, pretending it was an ocean, and moved pieces representing battleships and merchant ships around in those spaces according to directions from Navy officers participating in the game. The officers stood behind the canvas and could only peek through small holes cut in the cloth that was positioned so that they could only get glimpses of part of the ocean represented by the linoleum floor. They even simulated radio chatter, having a Wren move back and forth, passing information between the officers, while another Wren talked in an officer's ear with urgent information like ship torpedoed.

The simulation was intense and chaotic, but it all served a purpose. Each simulation lasted two minutes, and then officers were allowed to see the entire ocean and review their decisions and mistakes. Make your mistakes here on the oil cloth, said Captain Roberts, and you won't make them at sea. The officers left with lessons learned and renewed confidence for fighting those German U-boats. In just one month, in 1942, the Allies sank four times as many U-boats as they had in the month before, and from that point on, the numbers would consistently increase. Captain Roberts was quick to praise the WATU's Wrens,

stating that they never lost their drive or focus and could go toe-to-toe with any man who thought they could outsmart the girls and their war game. He also cheekily shared an antidote from the training school, saying, the only time I saw the girls' focus slip just a little bit was the day that an officer named Philip Mountbatten came through the training. The Philip he was referring to, of course, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. The same Prince Philip Mountbatten, who married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 before she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II. And you'll remember that Princess Elizabeth did her part for the war too, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army.

One of the most remarkable things about the Wrens' war games was that it was the first time in history that the scenarios were created, recreated, and analyzed in real time during an ongoing war to create solutions that could be used immediately. The team at WATU also trained officers from around the world. America, Australia, Denmark, France, India, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and South Africa all sent servicemen to the little derby house in Liverpool to be schooled by the Wrens in war games. A satellite school opened and used the same curriculum created by the Wrens. Churchill himself also praised the work of the Wrens at WATU, writing that without Roberts and the Wrens' work, the Battle of the Atlantic may well have been lost, and perhaps the war with it.

The Wrens who worked at WATU were sworn to secrecy about their activities and actions at Derby House for 50 years. Elizabeth Drake was the last surviving Wren from the first batch of women there, and in the early 2000s, she finally shared stories of her time there. It is thanks to her that we know much of what we do about the Wrens who served at WATU. And because their names are often erased from history, I think it's important that we name them here and now. Apart from Captain Roberts, high-ranking Wren officers whose expertise in game theory changed the course of World War II include the aforementioned Elizabeth Drake, Mary Poole, Nancy Wales, June Duncan,

who was one of WATU's longest-serving members, and Janet O'Kell, who at age 20 bested Max Horton, one of Britain's most decorated submarine admirals, five out of five times when he played her at Derby House. Horton implemented her strategy called beta search into his next round of fleet orders. The women's Royal Navy services continued until 1993, as I mentioned earlier, and then were fully integrated into the Royal Navy as one service with both men and women. Every year, the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Britain holds Red Month in March with special exhibits and speakers in honor of the women who were the backbone of support and strategy for their country. And next time, I want to talk about

six key women scientists who were instrumental in the success of the Manhattan Project. For better or worse, World War II may not have had an atomic bomb without them. I'll see you then. Thank you for listening to Hearer's Work. It's interesting. This show is written and researched by Heather Jackson, Sharon McMahon, Valerie Hoback, and Amy Watkin, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and is hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. We'll see you again soon.