Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos (26 page)

Jeanne Adams plots a sortie on to map sheets by marking the locations where the photographs were taken.

Elspeth Macalister was still languishing as a clerk at RAF Duxford:

I was bored, bored, bored. I shared my tiny bedroom with the dirtiest girl on the camp, a cook, she never washed. She had a different man in bed with her most nights – I learnt quite a bit about sex. She stole everything of mine that she could lay her hands on, money, ornaments, even my mother’s photograph.

In desperation I wrote to the Air Ministry and pointed out that I had joined up to do photographic interpretation and would they please post me to a proper station ie Medmenham. I got my posting there within a week. On arrival I had to report to Wing Commander Hamshaw Thomas and while I was waiting, the transport arrived from Phyllis Court and out tumbled some WAAF officers who I recognised from Cambridge, including my three fellow recruits – Ena, Sophie and Lou. And they expected me to salute them!

I was allocated to the Plotting Section. Our job was to see what route the PR pilots had followed and whether they had covered the target. Each pilot had a flimsy piece of tracing paper which showed his route. These were invaluable and we worked with countless maps. First job was to see where he had crossed the coast as the cameras were always switched on there. Then we had to follow his route marking the photographs in black squares, each relevant square picking out landmarks, such as churches, canals etc – challenging but fascinating work. Not being artistic, at first I made an awful mess with my mapping pen and black ink and my plot would be a puzzle of inexplicable black lines.

I made some of my very best friends on my shift. I loved the countryside – the smooth flowing Thames, the woods so beautiful in all seasons, lovely Henley, friendly Marlow, discreet little villages – we all had our bikes so we could explore. I always enjoyed night duty and having 24 hours off-duty ahead. We would rush up to London and probably see two plays, getting free tickets from the YWCA – London theatres were thriving – we ate in Lyons Corner House. How often we puffed up those steps at Paddington station to get the last train to Maidenhead and transport back to Marlow as being late meant being on a charge.
8

In 1943 ten of the plotters, including Elspeth, made their way to an officer training unit in the Lake District for their course in preparation for being commissioned:

In due course the final exams came up and London tailors appeared to measure us for our new uniforms should we have passed. I chose Austin Reed for my first uniform, but not for my second when I saw they had written by my measurements, ‘Thick Thighs’. Our new uniforms came while we were on leave. I wore mine down to Cambridge and met a squad of new recruits marching along St John’s Street. The command ‘Eyes Right’ was given so there I stood, taking my first salute.

Personnel of all services drawing previous photographs out of the print library to compare with new cover.

After plotting, the photographs were passed to the PIs for examination and analysis, and then filed in the print library where 2½ miles of shelves were stacked with boxes and boxes of photographs, ready to be retrieved for comparison purposes at any time.

The WAAF largely staffed the Library, Signals, Communications and Typing Sections. The teleprinter operators were the essential link in co-ordinating the work of the interpreters at Medmenham and the reconnaissance operational sorties, the teleprinter being the means by which an immediate signal could be sent with the highest priority. The telephonists who manually connected over 300 extensions on the switchboards also played a vital part in linking all the different sections at Medmenham and Nuneham Park. The typing pool frequently had to tackle reports from sections that ran into many pages. One, when completed, covered over 37ft of manuscript. Fine weather meant the typists faced an in-tray overflowing with top-secret and priority jobs and an average of 100 copies of each report to be rolled off the duplicators. Filing clerks ensured that papers and photographs were kept efficiently to ensure quick retrieval. All these essential support services relied on the accuracy and efficiency of the WAAFs who operated them and by all accounts they did an excellent job.

When the Press and Publicity Section, ‘J’, was formed in May 1940, its function was to select suitable material for the press and for exhibitions. Photographs of a spectacular or topical nature were chosen from current sorties being flown if they were thought suitable for reproduction in the daily newspapers and weekly magazines. These provided a great boost to wartime civilian morale in Britain and overseas – and if some photographs did find their way into enemy territory they would provide encouragement to the people of occupied lands and excellent propaganda for the Allied cause. In some cases where good comparison could be made it was possible to provide the press with ‘before and after’ photographs of raids. There were also numerous requests for photographs to illustrate books, pamphlets and government publications.

Telephonists at the RAF Medmenham and RAF Nuneham Park exchanges linked the many sections of the stations.

Margaret Price had an unexpected beginning to her war. Her husband had already joined the RAF and on 1 September 1939 four little girls aged 6 and a helper arrived at her house:

They were from the Royal Soldier’s Home in Hampstead – my evacuees. After ten months they left to join all the other children from the Home and I decided to join the WAAF and was posted to HQ Coastal Command in Northwood to be a teleprinter operator.

Ten months later I applied for, and passed, the PI course then joined ‘J’ Section at Medmenham. I also became assistant entertainments officer in my spare time. My husband of seven years was killed in early 1942 – he was training to be a night fighter navigator.
9

One aspect of Margaret’s work was to select the photographs for albums covering important and interesting incidents of the ‘Air War’. These were prepared at intervals for special presentation to His Majesty the King; Prime Minister Winston Churchill; the Chief of the Air Staff; the Secretary of State for Air; and Mr John Winant, the US ambassador to Great Britain.

One of the most remarkable and successful publications of the Second World War was called
Evidence in Camera
, which was a legal term for testimony given in secret, and an appropriate title for a magazine that provided confirmation by photographs taken covertly. Although it may seem contradictory for a secret establishment such as the ACIU to publish a magazine full of operational photographs, it had the lowest security category of ‘Restricted’ and fulfilled a valuable purpose. Shirley Eadon explained how it came into existence:

I was posted to Medmenham in 1942 with several others after passing my PI course. The officers’ mess was an enormous Nissen hut like Paddington Station and that was where we were sorted out to work in the various sections and I ended up in ‘J’. Group Captain Peter Stewart was the station commander – he was a rebel, wickedly mischievous and great fun. His greatest wish was to produce a weekly publication of some of the brilliant photographs taken by reconnaissance pilots flying solo and unarmed. Their results were seen by so few and he wanted more people to see these marvellous photographs. At that time the Air Ministry issued a dreary document – AMWIS – ‘Air Ministry Weekly Intelligence Summary’. It had a dark red cover, no illustrations and very few readers among the aircrews of Bomber Command for whom it was intended.
10

Shirley Eadon in the Press and Publicity Section prepares photographic material for inclusion in
Evidence in Camera
.

Constance Babington Smith relates how Group Captain Stewart first got the idea for a picture magazine. Visiting HQ Bomber Command one day, he sat for a while after lunch in the anteroom:

He glanced idly round the room, and then suddenly caught his breath. He had just noticed that Air Vice-Marshal Saundby was deep in the ‘Illustrated London News’ and that all round the room the picture magazines and the illustrated papers were being looked at, while most of the other papers were lying untouched. What photographic intelligence needed was promotion. The raw material was flowing in every day; all that was wanted was the right presentation to make it really interesting.
11

Shirley continues:

Peter Stewart pushed things along relentlessly against much murmuring and dire prophecy of breach of security from higher quarters. We pressed on and produced a mock up of No. 1 Evidence in Camera in an attractive blue cover designed by one of the many artists on the station and containing full page photographs and brief captions.
12

The mock-up of the proposed magazine was sent to the chief of the Air Staff, who replied, ‘Excellent. Proceed’:

Eventually, in September 1942 we produced and circulated the first edition, the printers generously carrying the cost - it was a member of the printing firm who chose the title. So, with a touch of individuality and dash, characteristic of many another Air Force operation, the first number was launched from the banks of the Thames, like a new missile.

Copies were distributed to all RAF establishments and a number of naval and military units. It was an immediate success and there could be no withdrawal. The Air Ministry took over financial responsibility and ‘Evidence in Camera’ became an official publication showing selected air photographs taken on operations by the combined Allied Air Forces and aimed at the pilots. Each week the publication had a different cover design and cartoon frontispiece.

Winston Churchill obviously inspected it from time to time and reprimanded us on one occasion for using the German word Muenchen in a caption instead of Munich. Quite rightly I think.

The co-editors, Flight Lieutenant Howard Simmons (head of section) and me, Section Officer Shirley Eadon, remained unchanged throughout until it came to a close in March 1945. I feel really lucky having had such a wonderful job.