Myfanwy Avril James's Experiences as a Wren
Creators: name: Project Team, Their Finest Hour
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: Myfanwy Avril James joined the WRENS on March 29th, 1944 and turned 18 a few days later. Following two weeks of probation, she was sent, with other probationers to Portsmouth and she chose to become a chart corrector. As a result, she was sent to Boom Defence Depot in Gosport, where they added drawing duties to her work. Chart Correcting was carried out on navigation charts which were issued to all naval ships. Myfanwy explains the work as "Each week lists of corrections concerned with such items as changing positions and types of buoys, new mine-swept channels, positions of wrecks, submerged rocks etc were issued to ships and these had to be plotted on the charts." Myfanwy worked for the Lieutenant-Commander who was the Navigator at the depot. "In addition, the Engineer Officer designed changes to the depot ships which laid the boom defences and I drew up the details."Just before D-Day (June 6th, 1944), Myfanwy was seconded to work on charts which were distributed to ships taking part in the invasion from the Portsmouth area. This work was carried out at HMS Vernon in Portsmouth. "The billet where we stayed was a hotel close to the Southsea pier so we were able to observe the landing craft etc at anchor in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. We watched the troops embarking on the craft on June 4th to take them over to France. However, because the weather was not suitable they did not leave immediately but remained for an additional day. When we went to bed on June 5th the Solent was packed with ships and craft and when we came down to breakfast the next morning, there was not a ship to be seen." We were told they had landed in France.Myfanwy then returned to Gosport and one day, she and a friend took a bus to the YWCA hostel in Fareham for lunch and walked the five miles back to Gosport. Halfway along the road they"Heard the putt-putting of a flying object, then heard it crash. Not knowing what it was, we did not chance our luck and when a second and third flew overhead, we dived into and out of the ditch. It was the first indication that the flying bombs were being aimed at London and the South Coast. For the next 3 months, we had to sleep in bunks under the parade ground.""After VE Day I was transferred to the Fleet Air Arm. I travelled from Lee-on-Solent Air station on a six-seater plane called an Expediter, to Arbroath Naval Air station in Scotland. It was my first flying experience and one which was not repeated at that time because all the WRENS were thereafter grounded. Three radio mechanics (all Wrens) were killed when an aircraft they were testing crashed. One of the idiosyncrasies of the "Barracuda" they were testing was that once the crew were inside the aircraft, the canopy could not be opened.""At first I was working on the staff of the Commodore Flying Training at HMS Condor in Arbroath, but we were later sent to Donibristle Naval Air Station near Inverkeithing to work on the staff of the Admiral Flying Training. The other two members of our department, the Planned Flying and Planned Maintenance Department consisted of a Lieut. Commander and a Sub-Lieutenant, both of whom had been, respectively, a pilot and a navigator in the Fleet Air Arm. The work here was concerned with statistics of aircraft involved in flying training throughout Great Britain. As reports had to be prepared for daily meetings, we were constantly kept on our toes.""When I was in Scotland, some of my lasting experiences were the kindness of the people and my visits to Dundee and Edinburgh, a city I still love. A few of my friends had come from the Shetland and Orkney Islands and knowing that I was a knitter, they showed me how to knit fair Isle and aran knitting.Myfanwy was demobbed in February 1946.