Nicky Campbell Women at War: 100 Years of Service


Nicky Campbell

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It's 100 years since the first pioneering women

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joined the British Armed Forces.

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Today, women serve alongside men

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together in combat on the front line.

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If you can do it and you want to do it, you should be able to.

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To see how much things have changed...

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-Love it!

-How do I look?

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..five well-known faces revisit either their own...

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Morning, ma'am. I'm the captain of HMS Puncher.

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You called me ma'am. How sweet.

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..or a family member's military past.

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They just got stuck in.

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It was exciting.

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Always intense.

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From defending land...

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..sea...

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I don't want to go that way.

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..and air,

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these are the extraordinary stories of a century of women at war.

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Today, broadcaster and journalist Nicky Campbell

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discovers his mother's untold stories

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of her time as a radar operator in World War II.

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We were praying that you got your measurements right

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and that the troops weren't going to be hit by you.

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And gets a taste of the pressure she experienced

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when Britain was under attack.

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I felt myself panicking because I didn't know what to do or how to do it.

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As they face up to the realities of war

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and the importance of his mother's work..

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A thousand bomber raids flattened everything.

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..Nicky meets the women keeping watch over Britain's skies today.

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What aircraft are we concerned with? What do we know about it?

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The Typhoon jets will get airborne and intercept.

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And there's a family celebration as mum Sheila

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receives a recognition she never knew she was due.

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Splendid!

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Well, I am delighted to have it at long last!

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It's Five Live Breakfast and it is Thursday morning.

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For three decades,

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Nicky Campbell has been one of Britain's best-known broadcasters,

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hosting some of the biggest shows on radio and TV.

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Text us on 85058, and we'll be having a look at your comments

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on social media, @bbc5live.

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But today he's facing one of his most challenging

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interviewees to date - his mum,

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who spent three years in the forces, from 1942.

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Mum is an extraordinary woman.

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Everybody loves her.

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She was a psychiatric social worker all her life.

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She dealt with people with mental health issues

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and she was absolutely brilliant at her job.

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And with absolute professionalism.

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So I suspect that manifested itself during the war...

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..in what she was doing,

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and I'm looking forward to finding out exactly what she was doing.

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Nicky was adopted not long after he was born,

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by Frank and Sheila Campbell.

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Before they met, both his adoptive parents served in World War II.

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I knew about Dad's experience in the Indian Army

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and I found out that he had been on the Battle of Kohima,

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which was perhaps the most savage, barbaric battle

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of the Second World War.

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But Nicky knows precious little about the crucial role

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his mother Sheila undertook, taking on the Nazis

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as a servicewoman in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

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I've not spoken to her about her feelings,

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her motivations,

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what she felt about what was going on in the world.

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We never know, do we, when we're in the epicentre of history?

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We only realised that we have been after the event.

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Originally from Harrogate in Yorkshire,

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Sheila settled in Edinburgh after meeting her husband Frank.

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Today, Nicky has returned to the house he grew up in

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to discover exactly what his mother experienced

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when the country went to war with Germany.

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Oh, here he comes.

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So when did you first become aware of Adolf?

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I think during the year that I was leaving school.

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He sounded rather horrible and was doing terrible things

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but I didn't really know anything about him

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and I wanted to find out more

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so I went and bought a copy of Mein Kampf!

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Oh, dear!

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And I can't remember it now

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but I read that to get some sort of idea what the man was like.

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I was 17, I think, and I went up to St Andrews.

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And it was left on the windowsill of my bedroom...

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..and the window cleaner came and he saw it there

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and he reported my father to the police!

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It was 1941 and Sheila was studying for a degree

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at St Andrews University.

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But midway through,

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she made the decision to drop out of university

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and enrol in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, or WAAF.

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Much to my parents' fury.

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Really?

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They were furious because I was reserved

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and I should have finished my degree.

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They went to their lawyer and tried to get me out of my volunteering

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for the WAAF and joining up...

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..but they couldn't, so I travelled off to the WAAF.

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Did you feel that you were part of a cause, defending the country,

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-helping the effort against Hitler?

-Yes, definitely.

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And the excitement of it all and being with a group of others.

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Sheila was selected to become a radar operator,

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helping to track the enemy bombers attacking Britain's cities.

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Do you remember the feeling of intensity?

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Yes.

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It was exciting, always exciting, always intense,

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and one played hard in between.

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You know, when you were off duty, you went to dances,

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you went here and there, you went out drinking.

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This women-only corps that Sheila joined

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was a successor to the Women's Royal Air Force,

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created towards the end of World War I

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and disbanded not long after.

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It formed again on the eve of World War II, to recruit women

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to fill posts as clerks, kitchen orderlies and drivers.

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'Not only from the British Isles, but from all over the empire,

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'there are girls serving with the Royal Air Force

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'and thus they've enabled hundreds of men

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'to be released for operational duty.'

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But as the war progressed, the work they undertook diversified.

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Many like Sheila took on the role of gathering intelligence.

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From the codebreakers to the mechanics,

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every woman who signed up to the forces over the last 100 years

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has played a crucial role.

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And some details, like their service number, stay with them for ever.

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Sheila Lock.

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2135200.

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Leading Aircraft Woman.

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2142733.

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I was Captain Paula Croser-Neely,

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service number 549705.

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460293.

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Never forget that. You never do.

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Being back in Edinburgh and hearing his mother's war stories

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has inspired Nicky to visit a memorial in the city

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to all the men and women who served.

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This is the section commemorating...

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..women in war.

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Those from Australia, those from New Zealand,

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women's services.

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Civilians.

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I'm looking at surnames that I'm just so familiar with,

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having grown up in Edinburgh.

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I feel profoundly moved when I come to these places

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and, erm...

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one can't but...

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..feel a sense of reverence.

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And to discover more about Sheila's own experiences,

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Nicky's been given a diary kept at that time.

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What was great, Mum gave me this book...

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..obviously, I'm giving it back,

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which was a record of where she was and what she was doing

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before the war, during the war and beyond,

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which was kept, unbeknownst to her, by her mother.

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Erm, and so, this is...

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..actually, from a family point of view, invaluable.

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So where was she, the 18th of February...

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"31st of May 1944.

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"Posted to Beachy Head...

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"..in Sussex.

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"D-Day, the 6th of June."

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There it is, written down there.

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Screaming from the page, leaping out, capital D, capital D-A-Y.

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"6th of June."

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To get a clearer understanding of Sheila's role

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in such landmark events, Nicky is meeting historian Dr Linsey Robb,

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who is a specialist in the social and cultural history of Britain

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during the Second World War.

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So, Linsey, this is Mum's record of service.

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Her diary of service.

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Interesting, that's Morecambe, "Where I did my marching."

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If you look just before that, she's got a week in Gloucester.

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It would be her initial depot, where they go and they get uniforms,

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they are given inoculations and a medical

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and then, in Morecambe, where she did her marching,

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that would be roughly six weeks of initial training.

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-So volunteered?

-Yes.

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It wasn't uncommon.

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When the Women's Auxiliary Services restarted

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before the Second World War, they are completely voluntary.

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In 1941, they institute conscription,

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which means that all women between 20 and 30 who are unmarried

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are liable for either service or industry,

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and your mother obviously felt so strongly about it

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that she decided to volunteer.

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Sheila's work as a radio operator was a role in which men and women

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often worked side by side in the operations room

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helping to make Allied aircraft stay one step ahead of the enemy.

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It was essential work

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but, in keeping with the prevailing attitude of the times,

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it also kept women well away from face-to-face combat.

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In the Second World War, the combat taboo is incredibly strong.

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You know, women could not take up arms.

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The most obvious example is anti-aircraft batteries,

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which actually comes under the Auxiliary Territorial Service,

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and they could maintain the gun, they could load the gun,

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but they could not fire the gun,

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so they very carefully, in the Second World War,

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keep women from anything that would mean

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that they themselves would have to fire a weapon.

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But even with the ban on taking up arms,

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many women were still in the line of fire

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doing the jobs they were tasked to do.

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-How many women were killed?

-Roughly, in the WAAF, 730.

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Airfields were a legitimate target of bombing.

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The British bombed German airfields as well

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so women, like women in industry, knew they were sitting in a target.

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The most, sort, of obvious...

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A famous example is Biggin Hill near London,

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which was hit 12 times between 1940 and 1941,

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once quite destructively,

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killing 39 people with a direct hit on the WAAF quarters.

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For WAAFs like Nicky's mother, Sheila,

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the threat of attack from a German bombing raid was real.

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But they had a crucial job to do.

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So Nicky's keen to get a taste of what day-to-day life

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would have been like for his mum in the pressure-cooker environment

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of a World War II radar operations room.

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I've come to this former RAF base here in Norfolk,

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not far, actually, from where Mum served,

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and it's a radar museum.

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You can feel the atmosphere already. It's going to be fascinating.

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George Taylor is a volunteer at the museum

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after himself working as a radar operator during the Cold War.

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This is an amazing bit of technology.

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Is this what my mother would have been looking at?

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That's correct. On the A-scope.

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'Radar, once a top secret, is still a mystery to most people.

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'Special pictures now help to elucidate the device.'

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So when a raid's coming in, what would the atmosphere have been like in a place like this?

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Well, they would just say,

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"Another raid coming in, strange so-and-so, hide so-and-so."

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That would be it. Then you'd concentrate on the next one.

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-Professional.

-It's no good getting panicky

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because otherwise you wouldn't do your job.

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-This is a scenario that people will recognise from the movies.

-Yeah.

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So how did it exactly work?

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You'd have about 15 WAAFs round a table like this

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and they'd all be getting information in

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from different radar stations and plotting it on this table.

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So Mum is gathering the data

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-and then the data is being passed over here...

-Yeah.

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..which informs this process.

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Yeah.

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'When next you see a plane in the sky,

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'think of these people down in the operations room.

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'They can see it too, right here on these plotting tables.'

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-So all that information is immediately put on there?

-Yeah.

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These tracers, they would be moving three or four times a minute.

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-Do I move these arrows?

-You move these arrows.

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-Like that?

-Like that, that's right.

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Have we got any aircraft in that area?

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Ours have come back now.

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That would have told the plotter it was hostile.

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So what we had to do then is scramble aircraft to intercept.

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Hopefully, we'd shot one or two down.

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It's an impressive system for the 1940s.

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It was, yeah.

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Yeah, I can just remember it.

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Having seen close up the equipment his mother would've used

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during the war, Nicky has come upon a diary

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written by a World War II radar operator

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that vividly reveals not just how closely the men and women

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worked together, but how tough a typical shift could be.

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"Midnight. I've been on duty for one hour

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"and my eyes are telling me I should be in bed.

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"But there's a long night ahead until we go off duty at 0800hrs."

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It must have been absolutely exhausting.

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The levels of concentration that were needed as well.

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What it brings home, an account like this,

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is the real atmosphere in there and how frantic it was,

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how stressful it was and how important it was,

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and how, actually, this was a matter of life and death.

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I love the bit at the end.

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"11:00pm.

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"Get into pyjamas, clean teeth, wash, comb hair...

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"..and creep into bed."

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By 1944, the tide was beginning to turn on the Nazi war machine.

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And on June the 6th,

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the Allies began perhaps the most critical mission of the whole war.

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The Allied invasion of occupied France.

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Sheila's job was right at the heart of that,

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helping the RAF bombers target the German positions

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blocking the advance of Allied troops.

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I was on duty that day and I shall never forget it.

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I mean, one was aware of what one was doing, you know?

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Just bombing a little ahead of the troops,

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praying that you got your measurements right

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and that the troops weren't going to be hit by you.

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'Bombing behind the lines and supplying cover

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'for our advancing armies are only an indication of the many jobs

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'assigned to the air forces,

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'while on the ground, the advance continues.'

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As the Allies battle their way through France,

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Sheila and her female colleagues expected to be

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in the mobile operations room that followed the British advance

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but they were left behind.

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And then the annoying thing was, of course,

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they sent all the men and none of the women.

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We were very angry.

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Were you?

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Yes. Furious!

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All the young men that I'd trained that had been in it so recently,

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they went, took our trailers and did the work, and we were left behind.

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And you wanted to get out there?

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Yes, we wanted to carry on doing what we were doing.

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From a peak of 182,000 serving women in 1943,

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only a few hundred remained by 1949,

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when they became part of the renamed Women's Royal Air Force.

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Today, radar is just as essential to Britain's air defences

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as it was when Sheila served in World War II.

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But, of course, the technology and attitudes have changed.

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Well, we're on the road heading to RAF Boulmer,

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which is about 30 miles north of Newcastle,

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and this is the centre of Britain's modern-day air defences,

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so it's kind of the equivalent of what Mum was doing

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in the Second World War.

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RAF Boulmer is home to

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the UK's Air Surveillance and Control Systems Force.

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The men and women working here are the country's eyes and ears...

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..protecting our skies from attack and defending our shores.

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Nicky's meeting one of the women currently serving on the base

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as part of the weapons control team.

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Why particularly the RAF for you?

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Well, my grandad was in the Royal Air Force about 60 years ago now.

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He was a mechanic in the Air Force. He was always very proud of that.

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So I had an inclination towards that.

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I joined when I was 19 and I thought,

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the RAF is going to give me a diverse career

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for many years to come.

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After six months' specialist training,

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Sergeant Jo Stanley is now qualified as a weapons controller.

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It's her role to direct the RAF's Typhoon aircraft

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to intercept and, if necessary, destroy hostile targets.

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Things have changed in the Armed Forces for women over the years.

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Now it's just no holds barred, anything goes, anywhere goes.

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-It's a great thing, isn't it?

-Yeah, definitely.

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Recently, the RAF regiment have allowed women

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to join on the front line alongside the men.

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It was the only role in the RAF that only men were allowed to join.

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Now, across the Royal Air Force, you know, we allow all genders,

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sexualities, all diverse and inclusive.

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During her career, she's been based in the UK

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and drafted to the Falklands.

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What's it like?

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It's cold, it's...

0:19:160:19:18

small, but it's really, really interesting, actually.

0:19:180:19:21

It's a completely different climate, completely different environment

0:19:210:19:24

and a completely different airspace but it's the same principle,

0:19:240:19:27

as in, the job is the same - we're still there to defend the nation.

0:19:270:19:31

-Making a difference, really.

-Definitely, yeah.

-Yeah.

0:19:310:19:35

But it's a very important job and we're trained to do it and that's what we're here to do.

0:19:350:19:38

-Multitasking involved, isn't there?

-Yeah.

0:19:380:19:41

I don't want to be sexist here, but if it's multitasking,

0:19:410:19:44

-men are going to be useless at it.

-No.

0:19:440:19:46

-We've all had the same training so we're all as good as each other.

-Well, I get all that.

0:19:460:19:51

I get a thing from my wife, saying, "You cannot multitask!"

0:19:510:19:54

-So that's why we have a diverse environment.

-Yeah.

0:19:550:19:57

LAUGHTER

0:19:570:19:59

Nicky wants to find out from today's recruits

0:20:000:20:03

what it takes to control the skies in the way his mother did.

0:20:030:20:06

To do that, he needs to head underground to the control centre.

0:20:070:20:12

-So it's like the TARDIS, this, isn't it?

-Quite big, yes.

0:20:150:20:18

-Huge on the inside because it goes down.

-Follow me.

0:20:180:20:21

I will.

0:20:210:20:22

It's quite chilly.

0:20:270:20:28

It is a little chilly, yes.

0:20:280:20:31

It's here where the RAF personnel on duty monitor our airspace.

0:20:320:20:37

Even in times of peace, the RAF Air Surveillance and Control crew

0:20:420:20:47

work around the clock 365 days a year.

0:20:470:20:51

-My goodness, look at our airspace!

-Yeah, very, very busy.

0:20:520:20:56

-It's unbelievably busy.

-Yeah.

0:20:560:20:58

So if a threat does come in or if something suspicious is happening

0:20:580:21:02

that shouldn't be happening, what happens in this room?

0:21:020:21:05

So we've got the battle phone over in the surveillance director's position.

0:21:050:21:08

-We'll get a phone call..

-Is that the red phone?

-Yeah.

0:21:080:21:11

-Right, OK.

-Yeah.

-I just thought it was, kind of, chic 1970s.

0:21:110:21:16

SHE LAUGHS

0:21:160:21:17

Retro phone!

0:21:170:21:19

Air Traffic Control call the RAF at team at Boulmer

0:21:210:21:24

as soon as they detect suspicious behaviour

0:21:240:21:27

on any aircraft flying in British airspace.

0:21:270:21:30

If deemed a threat, the team here

0:21:310:21:33

known as the Quick Reaction Alert Watch responds immediately.

0:21:330:21:37

And it's their decision to scramble our air defence units if needed.

0:21:370:21:42

-Have you ever been in a situation where that phone went and there was genuine concern?

-Yeah, yeah.

0:21:450:21:49

-Does the heart race?

-Yeah.

0:21:490:21:51

Wherever I am in the bunker, I've got to run here, get my headset on.

0:21:510:21:55

I've got to find out the information.

0:21:550:21:57

What aircraft are we concerned with? What do we know about it?

0:21:570:21:59

So the atmosphere would be of urgent, efficient...

0:21:590:22:03

-..controlled professionalism?

-Yeah.

0:22:040:22:07

Watching the team at work helps Nicky visualise like never before

0:22:100:22:13

exactly what his mother did in the war.

0:22:130:22:16

What I'd like to do is just do a little swap

0:22:170:22:21

and to put my mum here, right? Sitting here and do a bit of this,

0:22:210:22:25

and then you try to do it the way she did it in the Second World War?

0:22:250:22:28

-That would be fascinating, wouldn't it?

-It would, yeah.

0:22:280:22:31

One thing that hasn't changed over the decades

0:22:310:22:34

is the pressure under which the radar operators have to work.

0:22:340:22:38

Nicky's about to get a true sense of how that feels.

0:22:390:22:42

Right.

0:22:440:22:46

So, there we are. That's what we're going to intercept.

0:22:460:22:49

Then he's getting hands-on in a simulation exercise,

0:22:490:22:52

where his job is to intercept a potential threat

0:22:520:22:55

from an incoming enemy aircraft.

0:22:550:22:58

So that's at 350.

0:22:580:23:00

350?

0:23:010:23:03

What does that mean? 250 feet?

0:23:030:23:05

No, erm, 35,000 feet.

0:23:050:23:08

35,000! I was just thinking, we've got a bad situation going on here.

0:23:080:23:12

35,000.

0:23:120:23:14

So what do we do now?

0:23:140:23:16

We're waiting for the jet to get airborne.

0:23:160:23:18

-Oh, right, we're scrambling our jets?

-Yeah.

0:23:180:23:21

When Nicky's mother Sheila first sat in front of a similar screen

0:23:220:23:26

during World War II, the threat was very real.

0:23:260:23:30

We were checking for planes coming into our area.

0:23:300:23:34

Those that were friendly had a certain little blip that came down.

0:23:340:23:39

You knew it was friendly aircraft, but the ones that didn't

0:23:390:23:42

have that were questionable and possibly enemy.

0:23:420:23:46

But without his mother's training, Nicky's struggling to keep up.

0:23:480:23:52

MACHINES BEEP

0:23:520:23:54

-Hello.

-Hi, Nicky. It's Gallagher here.

0:23:550:23:57

We're concerned about this aircraft so I'd like you to go faster.

0:23:570:24:00

I'd like you to ask QRA-1 to go gate.

0:24:000:24:03

QRA-1, go gate, please.

0:24:030:24:05

'QRA-1, going gate.'

0:24:050:24:07

-What does it mean, go gate?

-Supersonic.

-Oh!

0:24:070:24:10

-Isn't that interesting? The language.

-Yeah.

0:24:110:24:14

I felt myself panicking because I didn't know what to do or how to do it.

0:24:160:24:20

Jo was brilliant in instructing me.

0:24:200:24:22

Initially, I found it really complicated and confusing

0:24:220:24:25

but as it went on, erm, I also found it complicated and confusing.

0:24:250:24:28

They don't know we're coming. They can't see us. We've not flown in front of it.

0:24:310:24:34

That final turn's going to put it right in behind,

0:24:340:24:37

in order for the Typhoon

0:24:370:24:39

to carry out whatever mission it's been assigned to.

0:24:390:24:42

We've achieved our mission.

0:24:420:24:44

Well done, QRA-1.

0:24:440:24:46

'Thank you, controller.'

0:24:460:24:48

The professionalism of Jo and Lowri and their cool, calm,

0:24:480:24:53

confidence in actually addressing the job in hand

0:24:530:24:56

was just magnificent.

0:24:560:24:58

It's not just training, I think it's something inside them as well.

0:24:580:25:01

Something brings out the best in people, I think. It was really impressive.

0:25:010:25:05

Come home. Let's have a gin!

0:25:050:25:07

'Will do. Wilco.'

0:25:080:25:10

Very good. Brilliant.

0:25:100:25:12

-I can see how there's so much training going into it.

-Mm-hm.

0:25:120:25:15

Since women joined the military in 1917,

0:25:210:25:24

they have excelled in the intelligence field

0:25:240:25:27

and at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire,

0:25:270:25:29

the Army, Navy and RAF worked together alongside civilians

0:25:290:25:33

to make incredible advances that changed the outcome

0:25:330:25:36

of the Second World War.

0:25:360:25:38

I was about 18 and a bit.

0:25:380:25:40

I came to Bletchley not knowing what I was in for, if you like.

0:25:400:25:44

Charlotte was one of the 8,000 women who helped to intercept

0:25:460:25:50

and translate coded enemy messages.

0:25:500:25:52

Being as young as I was and very inexperienced,

0:25:520:25:55

I was given all sorts of little jobs to do

0:25:550:25:57

until I went into the Japanese section in Block F,

0:25:570:26:01

where I was transcribing messages

0:26:010:26:04

which had actually been decoded.

0:26:040:26:07

Dr David Kenyon is the research historian for Bletchley Park.

0:26:080:26:12

Women here at Bletchley Park played a huge part in the process.

0:26:130:26:17

By 1945, just over 75% of the staff were female

0:26:170:26:22

and they were involved in every part of the code-breaking process,

0:26:220:26:25

from the interception of messages,

0:26:250:26:27

through the various decryption departments

0:26:270:26:30

up to teleprinting out the messages at the end.

0:26:300:26:32

Bletchley Park wasn't necessarily unique

0:26:320:26:35

in the number of female employees it had

0:26:350:26:37

but it was certainly one of a number of organisations

0:26:370:26:40

that were using women in those roles for the first time.

0:26:400:26:42

Once a year, surviving veterans return to Bletchley Park

0:26:440:26:47

to mark their achievements.

0:26:470:26:50

These reunions are a valuable opportunity to piece together

0:26:500:26:54

the detail of their work - a pivotal contribution to the war

0:26:540:26:58

that was kept secret until the 1970s.

0:26:580:27:01

They were using our decodes

0:27:010:27:04

to know where the ships were.

0:27:040:27:07

Most of my friends, they hadn't a clue where I'd disappeared to

0:27:070:27:10

for ten days on end.

0:27:100:27:12

You just said, "I was working in an office.

0:27:120:27:14

"Something to do with the Foreign Office, I think."

0:27:140:27:17

I feel sad that my parents died before they ever knew

0:27:170:27:22

because I think they thought that I was, sort of, not doing

0:27:220:27:26

my bit for the war, really, just working in an office, you know.

0:27:260:27:30

But now it's the opposite.

0:27:300:27:33

You know, my family are terribly proud of me

0:27:330:27:37

and people are terribly interested and want to know all about it.

0:27:370:27:40

It took until 2009 for the work of the codebreakers to be officially

0:27:420:27:47

recognised with a Bletchley commemorative badge.

0:27:470:27:50

Well, that was quite a landmark, and a very gratifying one,

0:27:500:27:54

to have some recognition after all that time.

0:27:540:27:58

I think it's enormously important that we should celebrate the work

0:27:580:28:01

that these people have done

0:28:010:28:03

and acknowledge the contribution they made.

0:28:030:28:05

Wars are not only won on fighting fronts.

0:28:050:28:07

Wars are won in places like Bletchley Park.

0:28:070:28:10

It's not anything I did in particular,

0:28:100:28:12

I was just part of the team.

0:28:120:28:14

And as a team, yes, very proud of it.

0:28:140:28:18

To dig deeper into his mother's experiences,

0:28:290:28:32

Nicky's taken Sheila to meet with fellow radar operator Bessie Thomas.

0:28:320:28:37

Though they've never met before, the two have plenty in common.

0:28:370:28:41

It's a privilege to be with you both today.

0:28:410:28:44

-Oh, isn't that nice?

-It really is.

0:28:440:28:46

It's the first recognition that the poor old WAAF radar operators

0:28:460:28:51

have got known about, aren't we, Sheila?

0:28:510:28:55

We are.

0:28:550:28:56

Yes, I'm pleased your mother thinks the same thing as me because...

0:28:560:29:00

-We got no recognition through the years.

-..we really felt let down.

0:29:000:29:03

Bessie tracked not just enemy aircraft,

0:29:050:29:08

but one of the Nazis' most feared weapons, the V1 rocket bombs.

0:29:080:29:12

What's a V1?

0:29:130:29:15

A flying engine with a bomb on.

0:29:150:29:19

-Is that the same as a doodlebug?

-Yes.

-Yes, that's the doodlebug.

0:29:190:29:22

And when the engine stops...

0:29:220:29:25

it comes down and you get the explosion.

0:29:250:29:29

So if you hear the engine, then you suddenly hear the engine stop.

0:29:290:29:33

-If you were in London...

-Do you remember that?

-Yes, I remember them.

0:29:330:29:37

You would know, when you were in London.

0:29:370:29:39

-Did you ever hear it stop?

-Oh, yes.

0:29:390:29:41

-Did you?

-Yes.

0:29:410:29:43

Hitler hoped these flying bombs would terrorise Britain

0:29:450:29:48

into submission.

0:29:480:29:50

V1 rockets killed over 6,000 people.

0:29:510:29:55

But thanks in part to the work of radar operators like Bessie,

0:29:580:30:01

the RAF soon worked out how to spot and intercept them.

0:30:010:30:05

-You plotted a V1, did you?

-Yeah, I followed it in.

0:30:060:30:09

I was saving Great Britain.

0:30:130:30:15

For Nicky, hearing Sheila talk with fellow servicewoman Bessie

0:30:160:30:20

has brought into sharp focus just how critical her contribution was.

0:30:200:30:25

By May 1945,

0:30:260:30:28

victory in Europe was officially declared

0:30:280:30:30

and Bessie and Sheila enjoyed the national celebrations.

0:30:300:30:34

We lit a bonfire, and we all sat,

0:30:340:30:37

and it was the only time that I've been drunk.

0:30:370:30:41

I had a pint of beer!

0:30:420:30:45

-Is that the only time that you've been drunk?

-Yes.

0:30:460:30:48

-In your life?

-Yes.

-She's been drunk slightly more than that!

0:30:480:30:52

Oh, dear.

0:30:520:30:53

Yeah. Maybe, I don't know, six or seven times?

0:30:530:30:56

-I don't know how many times!

-She's lost count!

0:30:560:31:00

-Haven't you, Sheila?

-Absolutely, Bessie.

0:31:010:31:04

Yeah.

0:31:040:31:05

So, thinking back, you've got every reason

0:31:050:31:08

to feel very proud of your part in defeating Hitler.

0:31:080:31:11

Oh, I still do, actually.

0:31:110:31:13

Did you ever get a medal of any kind?

0:31:130:31:15

I mean, just for having served?

0:31:150:31:18

One. I didn't get the two.

0:31:180:31:20

-I didn't get any.

-Did you not?

0:31:200:31:22

-I feel quite put out.

-Oh, you definitely have that.

0:31:220:31:25

You're entitled to it. Why didn't you get one?

0:31:250:31:27

I don't know. Nobody ever sent me one.

0:31:270:31:30

Oh, it's lovely meeting you and talking to you.

0:31:330:31:36

You're bringing back all sorts of memories.

0:31:360:31:39

-Yes.

-It's very interesting.

0:31:390:31:41

Whether the service of individual women at war

0:31:430:31:46

has been recognised with a medal or not,

0:31:460:31:48

the value of their collective service over the last 100 years

0:31:480:31:52

alongside their male counterparts isn't in doubt.

0:31:520:31:55

Some men thought we were just there, erm, as decoration.

0:31:580:32:02

Erm, they didn't actually think we could compete with them.

0:32:020:32:07

It took them a while to realise we could,

0:32:080:32:11

we were just as good as they were.

0:32:110:32:13

We had the job to do and we did it

0:32:130:32:16

and we worked very hard and women did things in the war

0:32:160:32:20

that they never thought they could do.

0:32:200:32:22

When you're in uniform, it doesn't matter if you're male or female.

0:32:220:32:26

It's the rank that you hold and the position you're in.

0:32:260:32:29

Throughout history,

0:32:300:32:32

men and women have worked side by side in the forces.

0:32:320:32:35

Every one of them a cog in the military machine.

0:32:350:32:38

During World War II,

0:32:390:32:41

airmen like Len Manning relied on the intelligence gathered by women

0:32:410:32:44

like Nicky's mum to identify their targets.

0:32:440:32:47

-Hello, sir. How are you doing? Nicky Campbell.

-I'm Len.

0:32:490:32:52

-Len, nice to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

0:32:520:32:54

-Allow me to carry your pint. We'll have a chat.

-Cheers.

0:32:540:32:57

I might drink it!

0:32:570:32:58

My mother was doing the radar

0:33:000:33:02

and she was sending the bombers ahead of the front line.

0:33:020:33:05

Did you think about the radar people and the job they were doing?

0:33:050:33:08

It was all integral, the whole thing.

0:33:080:33:11

It made bombing easier.

0:33:110:33:12

While the work of women like Sheila was critical

0:33:140:33:17

in helping Bomber Command strike their targets,

0:33:170:33:19

they couldn't help when, in 1944,

0:33:190:33:22

Len was shot down over occupied France.

0:33:220:33:25

Even then, it was women who, in the, end kept him safe.

0:33:250:33:29

All of a sudden there was a massive explosion in one of the wings.

0:33:290:33:33

The flames started to come past the turret.

0:33:330:33:36

I thought, well, we've got to get out of here,

0:33:360:33:39

so I just went to the door and just jumped straight out

0:33:390:33:42

and I landed flat on my back.

0:33:420:33:45

By this time, I was pretty badly burned.

0:33:450:33:47

It was painful and I staggered on for about eight miles, I think,

0:33:470:33:52

and then I collapsed on a farmer's doorstop.

0:33:520:33:55

And, fortunately, they were members of the resistance

0:33:560:33:59

and they took me in, which was dead lucky.

0:33:590:34:02

-Were they nice?

-Very nice.

0:34:020:34:04

Yeah, they looked after me that night.

0:34:040:34:06

In the meantime, the Germans had started looking for me,

0:34:060:34:09

so, the following day, having got a doctor to me,

0:34:090:34:13

they decided to move me on and they moved me to this cafe

0:34:130:34:17

in a little village called La Tretoire.

0:34:170:34:20

The cafe was owned by two ladies.

0:34:200:34:23

Madame Beaujard and her mum.

0:34:230:34:25

One morning, they said that the Germans were coming into the village

0:34:250:34:30

and, not thinking,

0:34:300:34:33

I walked into the cafe

0:34:330:34:35

and there were two Germans sitting there having a drink.

0:34:350:34:39

She realised what had happened and she got a tea towel

0:34:390:34:42

and beat me around the head -

0:34:420:34:44

"Get out, get out! Go and do your work!"

0:34:440:34:47

That was good, yeah. That's good.

0:34:470:34:49

She was really with it.

0:34:490:34:51

-That's bravery, isn't it?

-Yeah, well, she got the Legion of Honour.

0:34:510:34:54

-Did she?

-Yeah.

-Oh, wow. That's...

0:34:540:34:56

-That's courage in war, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

0:34:560:34:58

-If they'd been found, they'd have been shot out of hand.

-Yeah.

0:34:580:35:02

They wouldn't take them away. They would shoot them there and then.

0:35:020:35:06

Len spent three months being hidden by the women at the cafe

0:35:060:35:10

until the Americans arrived, driving out the Nazis for good.

0:35:100:35:13

Two incredible, profoundly moving examples of women in war,

0:35:130:35:17

-those two French women were.

-Yeah.

0:35:170:35:19

Wow.

0:35:190:35:21

To Madame Beaujard. Cheers.

0:35:210:35:24

-And to you, sir.

-Thank you.

0:35:240:35:26

A century since women joined the military,

0:35:300:35:33

the RAF is the first force to open 100% of its roles to women.

0:35:330:35:38

In today's Air Force,

0:35:380:35:39

they also train alongside men from the day they join.

0:35:390:35:43

The best way of finding out about someone

0:35:430:35:45

is to do a training course with them that's physically demanding.

0:35:450:35:49

When you're tired and you're grumpy and you really need a cup of tea,

0:35:490:35:53

then that's when you see a real person.

0:35:530:35:56

Women still only account for 14% of the RAF personnel

0:35:580:36:02

but unlike when the force formed,

0:36:020:36:04

they are now on a level playing field.

0:36:040:36:07

I'm expected to be at the same standard of training as the men are

0:36:070:36:11

and therefore, if I trained with only females,

0:36:110:36:15

they would never know what my training involved.

0:36:150:36:18

Opening combat roles to women has sparked controversy

0:36:190:36:23

and a retired Army Colonel has spoken out against the move,

0:36:230:36:27

believing women in combat

0:36:270:36:28

will reduce the capabilities of the troops.

0:36:280:36:31

And a truly balanced force could be a long way off.

0:36:330:36:36

I don't think that trying to make the Air Force 50-50

0:36:370:36:41

would necessarily work, because you won't necessarily get 50%

0:36:410:36:45

of all males from all backgrounds that want to join either.

0:36:450:36:48

It's a personality type.

0:36:480:36:50

But fighting alongside men means women in the forces

0:36:510:36:53

have to be prepared for the horrors of conflict too.

0:36:530:36:56

And long before women were on the front line,

0:36:570:37:00

that's something Nicky's mum Sheila also had to come to terms with.

0:37:000:37:04

There were aspects of the war

0:37:040:37:06

that he knows trouble his mother to this day.

0:37:060:37:08

She has spoken about her mixed feelings about what...

0:37:090:37:13

..she was doing ultimately led to.

0:37:140:37:16

And the disconnect...

0:37:170:37:19

between having a board in front of you

0:37:190:37:22

or a radar screen in front of you and, erm, people being incinerated.

0:37:220:37:27

There's huge controversy about some of the bombing

0:37:280:37:31

that we did in Germany.

0:37:310:37:33

And I think any right-minded person can understand

0:37:340:37:36

both sides of the argument.

0:37:360:37:38

How much was necessary? How much was proportionate?

0:37:380:37:42

How much was...

0:37:430:37:44

..stuff that happens in war?

0:37:460:37:48

Disrupting the industrial might of the Nazi war machine

0:37:490:37:52

was the chief aim of the RAF raids into Germany

0:37:520:37:55

but the homes of civilians were destroyed too.

0:37:550:37:58

We were supposed to be precise

0:37:580:38:01

but winds changed and...

0:38:010:38:04

..perhaps our accuracy and our measurements wasn't as perfect as...

0:38:050:38:10

And the thousand bomber raids, they just flattened everything.

0:38:110:38:15

In February 1945,

0:38:190:38:21

up to 25,000 civilians died

0:38:210:38:24

during the bombing of the German city of Dresden.

0:38:240:38:26

What did you think about that? People dying.

0:38:260:38:30

Well, that's the thing.

0:38:300:38:32

It was like a game. You didn't think of people.

0:38:330:38:36

We never thought of the people that stayed there.

0:38:360:38:39

It was a precision game of bombing.

0:38:390:38:43

The fact that people are involved or lived in some of the places

0:38:450:38:49

we were bombing, I mean, just never entered our heads.

0:38:490:38:52

-We didn't think about it.

-Didn't you?

-No.

0:38:520:38:55

But then there were civilians, weren't there?

0:38:550:38:58

Well, we never thought about those.

0:38:590:39:01

Or at least, if anybody did, it was never discussed, never talked about.

0:39:020:39:08

If somebody had raised it, would it have been shot down, if you like?

0:39:080:39:13

Not the thing to do.

0:39:130:39:15

I don't know.

0:39:150:39:17

You never discussed it?

0:39:190:39:20

And it would have been difficult to carry on, in a way.

0:39:200:39:23

You know, to do the job.

0:39:260:39:28

You couldn't entertain the thought, no?

0:39:290:39:32

When did you start thinking about that?

0:39:320:39:34

Not till way after the war.

0:39:360:39:39

It's all such a long time ago.

0:39:430:39:45

Like many people who served their country through war,

0:39:480:39:52

Sheila Campbell has mixed feelings about some of the things

0:39:520:39:55

she was called to do, but she had a job to do

0:39:550:39:58

and her role in the WAAF and the Allied victory

0:39:580:40:01

has always been a source of great pride and personal satisfaction.

0:40:010:40:04

Since women first joined the military in 1917,

0:40:060:40:09

their service in conflicts from World War I to Afghanistan today

0:40:090:40:13

has often resulted in them being awarded a medal.

0:40:130:40:16

Sheila never received one but now that's about to change.

0:40:160:40:21

Today, Group Captain Gus Wells has invited the Campbell family

0:40:210:40:25

to the RAF Museum in Hendon.

0:40:250:40:27

Hello, family.

0:40:270:40:29

And it's his privilege to invest Sheila with the war medal

0:40:290:40:33

she never received, recognising her service to the WAAF.

0:40:330:40:36

What the hell are you doing here?

0:40:360:40:39

On behalf of the Royal Air Force, it's a pleasure

0:40:400:40:43

and actually a privilege as well to be able to present you

0:40:430:40:46

with this long overdue 1939-45 Medal.

0:40:460:40:50

The work that you and your contemporaries did

0:40:500:40:52

throughout the war is very much part of our heritage and it guides

0:40:520:40:56

what we do today, so you really are an inspiration to us all.

0:40:560:41:00

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Oh, my goodness!

0:41:000:41:03

At last!

0:41:030:41:04

How lovely!

0:41:050:41:07

-Thank you so much.

-That's all right. It's all our pleasure, it really is.

0:41:070:41:10

I feel, sort of, rounded-off so to speak, war-wise!

0:41:100:41:15

-Completion.

-Completion of the war, yes.

0:41:160:41:19

The war is over!

0:41:190:41:21

Well, that's just a perfect ending, isn't it?

0:41:230:41:26

Wonderful. I'm delighted. I never thought I'd ever see it.

0:41:270:41:31

For the youngest member of the Campbell family,

0:41:350:41:37

as well as being an opportunity to celebrate her grandmother,

0:41:370:41:40

it's a valuable insight into the part women have played

0:41:400:41:44

in Britain's Armed Forces.

0:41:440:41:46

She was such a pioneer for what she did in the war.

0:41:460:41:49

Even though I've studied it at school,

0:41:490:41:51

I didn't realise how much they really affected the war effort,

0:41:510:41:54

and without them it could have been a different story.

0:41:540:41:57

She's really inspirational.

0:41:570:41:59

And for Nicky, this proud moment is more than just a tribute

0:42:000:42:03

to his mother.

0:42:030:42:04

It's official recognition of the role that she

0:42:040:42:07

and thousands of other women have performed

0:42:070:42:09

in the service of their country over the last 100 years.

0:42:090:42:12

I've met some fantastic people.

0:42:150:42:17

Hello, sir. How are you doing?

0:42:170:42:19

Heard some spine-tingling...

0:42:190:42:21

amazing stories, which have made me feel very...

0:42:210:42:25

very humble.

0:42:250:42:27

Erm...

0:42:270:42:29

But most special of all and best of all, to be here,

0:42:290:42:32

and to see Mum get her medal, I feel that she...

0:42:320:42:35

..kind of represents so many women and what they did

0:42:360:42:40

and what they believed in and how their role has...

0:42:400:42:44

erm, in the Armed Forces, become from a small role to what it is now,

0:42:440:42:50

which is absolutely indispensable.

0:42:500:42:54

It's been such a proud day for the family and a fantastic day for Mum

0:42:540:42:58

and that is going to go right on her mantelpiece.

0:42:580:43:02

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