The Girl from Station X (25 page)

Previously all naval intelligence would have come from the Admiralty, which as well as being a Whitehall department was an operational headquarters. With Hut 3 now operating as a second,
independent hub of intelligence, it was deemed necessary to boost the navy’s presence in the hut, and the Admiralty reluctantly sent a party of three naval officers.

Involved in the practicalities of this naval takeover of her hut, Anne grumbled, with secret pride,
I get nothing done and have to keep showing Haslam things
. She had
liked working under Lucas and was sorry that this had ended. However almost at once, Lieutenant Haslam, one of the three naval duty officers, instituted a Watch Book –
everything
is tidied up to an incredible extent, which I must admit does appeal to me!
She also found that she liked Lavers. However, typically, just as the new efficient system in the hut was
in place, Anne, having gone to London on 7 May, discovered there that she had
another
temperature, this time of 102, and Dr Moncrieff ordered a week’s sick leave.

As usual, she disobeyed the doctor’s orders to stay in bed –
when I have these temperatures, I get so depressed when I’m alone
. This reminded me of
when I had undergone chemotherapy. Despite being advised to rest after each treatment, I too had then hated being alone, and although physically exhausted and feeling sick, would often attend book
launches or parties. Similarly, my mother ill-advisedly went shopping with Lettice, and the following day was out again, when she glimpsed her former fiancé David (now about to marry) in a
London bookshop.
I didn’t feel equal to talking to him as I felt so ill.

I found myself becoming exasperated; after all, she had just been furious with Elizabeth for having got off night duty due to nervous exhaustion, and had even written in the diary that if
Elizabeth gave up the Bletchley job, Anne would have
no respect for her at all.
Now Anne’s sick leave was extended to three weeks.

During that time she visited women friends around the country. She and Jean walked on the shore at Lymington, and Anne felt

that glorious exhilaration that I always get from the sight and sound of the sea, a kind of wildness and sense of adventure. It is only now when I see the sea, as I
do so seldom, that I get the feeling of being cooped up here in this island and long to be free once again to roam the world at will . . . I tasted the sea and could have cried for the sheer joy of
living.

I was right to have associated my mother with the sea – it was her life-blood.

On Anne’s return to Bletchley, she recorded that Mrs Hunt had discovered her other lodger drinking gin before breakfast – the girl had even been down to the local grocer and ordered
a bottle in Mrs Hunt’s name.

I was often to experience this censorious, ‘goody-goody’ aspect of hers with regard to others’ drinking. Eva, the cook at Belgrave Square, sometimes got very drunk. I recall my
mother describing to me in shocked tones how she had had to help Eva up off the floor. Never did she admit to me that she drank too much herself. This perpetual denial, despite her often
frightening behaviour and the physical evidence of her broken limbs, gave me a feeling of vertigo, as though I had imagined the whole thing.

On 17 June, Anne met Edward Thomas, who was then new in that hut. He would become a lifelong friend. Years later, he would publish that excellent essay ‘A Naval Officer
in Hut 3’ about his time at Bletchley, and he would assist Harry Hinsley, a key Bletchley figure, in writing the official history of MI6.

When I was an adolescent, Edward had visited us in Sussex with his twins, a boy and girl, and his stepdaughter, all close to me in age. His stepdaughter had sworn loudly at him while he was
helping her climb a tree and I remember my surprise that he did not retaliate, as my explosive father would have done.

Edward’s manner towards my mother was also very unlike my father’s patronising, teasing way with her. Indeed, I sometimes found Edward almost too reverential. He spoke as if my
mother had never been given her due. When I was about twenty-five, I suddenly recalled, he had told me in front of her that she had written some very interesting diaries. I had not wanted then to
take this in, as I had felt he was implying that I, like others, did not rate my mother. This made me inwardly bristle; how could I respect someone who, much of the time that I knew her, was a
self-pitying escapist alcoholic?

On 28 June 1942, Anne went again to stay with Lettice, Lettice’s sister Dot and their parents, Lord and Lady Shaftesbury. They all sang songs together after supper.
They are all so fond of each other and it is such fun that the atmosphere is nice just being there and reminded me of us all being together at Palm Beach and Westbury
[Aunt Dita’s house on Long Island]
which is the only family life I’ve ever known and I adore.

I felt sorry for my mother, an only child, when I read this. Perhaps these brief experiences of families enjoying themselves inspired her to have four children.

My brother Nicky had commented to me in his early twenties that it must have been difficult for her being brought up by our grandmother and Chow. At the time I had not understood, but I was
reminded of his remark when I read her next sentence:
It made me realise just how much I have missed never having any brothers and sisters and always being so alien to Chow, who is
always ‘just wrong’ and his whole mentality and of whom I’m always secretly ashamed, as he simply does not belong to our world or to our way of thought at all.

Besides finding him difficult, she seemed to have regarded her stepfather as socially inferior, something which would not have bothered her in her friends but which in poor Chow gave her yet
another excuse to dislike him.

In July 1942, Anne found herself in the thick of the ‘brainpower’ action at Bletchley. Wing Commander Eric Jones had just taken command of her hut:

No one knows where they are. Chaos prevails . . . Bright missed transport last night, so Guy Haslam and I stayed on till one am. There was masses to do and I found
a whole lot of inaccuracies, which drives me frantic, as it is so dangerous now not to be dead right. As every little thing matters enormously and the whole of the German position in N. Africa is
dependent on supplies.

For some time the Americans had wished to land on the coast of German-occupied Europe, but had been held back by the British, who, based on their experience of Hitler’s might, cautioned
against it, fearing that such a move would almost certainly be defeated. A compromise was reached towards the end of July 1942, when the Allies decided to invade French North Africa, in what would
be called Operation Torch. It was a huge undertaking, the biggest movement of ships so far, and much planning was needed for these landings, scheduled for 8 November. Troops were to land at
Casablanca in Morocco, and at Oran and Algiers in Algeria. This would enable the Allies to advance on the German- and Italian-occupied territory of Libya, attacking from the west, as well as from
Egypt in the east. It was vital that the Germans should have no idea of the planned attacks, and one of the successes of the operation depended on misleading the enemy into believing that
preparations were being made for quite a different venture. Rumours were circulated that the objective was Sicily, Crete, the Balkans or the bolstering of British troops at Malta. Through Allied
interception of German signals, it became apparent that they had been successfully duped into believing that a resupply of Malta was the explanation for the increase in ships and planes
congregating at Gibraltar.

The main problem for both the Allies and the enemy during the war in North Africa was the lack of supplies and the difficulty of getting them. The British forces in Egypt were supplied by ships
which had to sail all the way round the horn of Africa, meaning weeks of delay, but at least the passage was safe. Conversely, the enemy could have supplies shipped across from Italy within
twenty-four hours, but thanks to the work of code breakers at Bletchley, their passage was by no means safe. The Italian convoys were escorted by the German air force, whose signals were being
intercepted and decrypted in Hut 3. The Italian C 38m machine cipher which carried shipping information had been broken in summer 1941, so now, between Hut 4 and Hut 3N, news of the convoys’
routes and their estimated times of departure and arrival at designated ports could be pieced together.

Between July and November 1942, during preparations for this Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, Anne was repeatedly praised for her good work. She felt encouraged, and even admitted in the
diary, on 22 July at 00.50 while working alone with Haslam
:
I love these evening shifts, though there is masses to do as a rule on them . . . I just live for the work at the
moment.

Two days later she was complimented by Lieutenant Commander Lavers.

July 24th 1942.

Lavers couldn’t have been nicer and complimented me tremendously in the work I have done here and said that he would write me a chit to be forwarded to Air
Ministry recommending me for as good a job as I could be given, as the responsibility we had here before the Navy took over was so great that now we were wasted in this job. Very decent of
him.
[She was still hankering to leave.]
I said that I was quite untrained for a job and I didn’t think I would get one, but he said that I was well fitted for a job
where I could say ‘yes or no’ and supervise other people and that I was fitted for a better job than he could offer me now, though he would be pleased to have me as an additional to the
D.O. I really felt very honoured as he sets a pretty high standard for efficiency and quickness of thought and decision, also for making decisions and acting on one’s own responsibility . . .
I was so worried I wouldn’t sleep all night as I had been on from 4 to 12 acting as NDO
[naval duty officer]
quite on my own and had a great deal to do. I have got
such confidence in myself now in this job and really feel I am worth something and on equal terms with those from the FO and other jobs, who have worked all their lives!

My mother emerges well here. Her modesty was pleasing. She had a tendency to self-doubt and, except for her prowess in tennis, skiing and water skiing, had not, until now at Bletchley, had the
opportunity to prove herself. She was particularly pleased to be praised by Connie Webb,
whose standard is 100 per cent and not the smallest slip tolerated.
Anne was
thrilled that Connie had told her
how magnificent I had been, taking over such responsibility at such short notice.

For almost the only time in my life, I could perceive my mother as someone who could take over, as someone steady who would not collapse under pressure.

At the end of the month, she had two lovely summer days at Knowle.

August 1st 1942 Knowle.

Perfect day. I am lying in a sunbathing suit on the tennis lawn, or rather, what was once the tennis lawn, near the new vegetable, once herbaceous, border and
revelling in the sun.

These were temporary changes brought about by the war. Years later, after Knowle was divided and sold, I would experience other changes when I occasionally visited – a new swimming pool
(part of a health club) on the old croquet lawn, a gravel path where my grandmother’s rose trees ‘The Bridesmaids’ had stood, and a blank stretch of earth in the sunken garden
instead of my grandmother’s favourite bed of yellow and white flowers. The changes brought about by the war were temporary; after the war was over the Knowle garden was restored to its former
beauty. But when it was sold in 1980 I would never see again the Knowle that existed while my grandmother was alive.

A
nne’s performance so impressed her seniors that she and Lettice were allowed to go on an intelligence course at Stanmore on 2 August. They
were there for three weeks, during which time Anne did not write her diary. At the end of September, she was dealt a disappointment. Lettice, with whom she was still hoping to share a cottage, had
found a new job, in Horseferry Road, London. This would leave Anne without a real friend at Bletchley.

For the next couple of months, while still often complaining, Anne concentrated almost wholly on her work, as preparations for Operation Torch were set in motion:
Lavers has made me
4th NDO, which is as good a job as I could possibly get, except that now I want to get back to the Air Side and away from this kind of killing life . . .

As a naval duty officer Anne’s responsibilities were many. She was expected to check and forward signals drafted by the Naval Section. She also had to draft signals from scratch based on
new information coming in from elsewhere in the hut – intelligence gathered from Enigma decrypts – and send them directly to commands in the Mediterranean. She was expected to act as a
naval adviser to other sections of the hut, and to study all Hut 3 material to ensure that any necessary annotation from the naval angle was made and that the Naval Section and even the Admiralty
were kept informed, when necessary.

All signals sent to the Mediterranean had to be logged and indexes maintained. The movement of enemy ships had also to be plotted on a wall chart and all data garnered from enemy decrypts had to
be checked against Admiralty charts before sending a signal to check whether the enemy had made mistakes, either in their facts or in their signalling.

October 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th 1942.

The responsibility in a way is so great. I am on the watch, the sole woman on it. Connie said to me ‘and you’re the best representative we could have
too’, which was high praise.