WITH THE WRENS IN THE "FRONT LINES"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 257, 13 January 1941, Page 3

WITH THE WRENS IN THE "FRONT LINES"

KEEPING SECRETS By a Woman Writer. To watch the Wrens working in the <K front line" of the Battle for Britain, respected and admired by the die-hard Senior Service, shows you just how essential the women's army has become. The Wrens arc neat and purposeful, and trusted with secret duties afforded to neither the Ats nor the Waal's. I was actually standing by a Wren's side when one of the biggest battles 3*et was in progress. She was facing a switchboard. Automatically, Avhen the guns are in action, the telephone enquiries drop. The board is still in it is just that folk have other things to do at such time. Firing made hearing difficult, and J consecutive thought almost impossible for the uninitiated. But was that Wren, young and pretty, dismayed? Not in the very least. She just sat watching the board quite intently, as if she expected the calls to bound in. Naval officers were 1 peering out a window at the raiders. They would say; "He's missing every time. Hi, though. Just look at that one. Pretty close, don't you think?" Then, as the thrust of Avater subsided* a sigh of relief rose. "Missed," we all shouted. Undeterred by our impromptu running commentary, the Wren sat on before her switchboard. She had been posted to mind it, and mind it she would. Inevitably, these Wrens contact official Secrets.. A leakage might well prove disastrous, so it does not take a person of great imagination to realise how r trusted the girls have to be. ' From the moment they step under the gabled roof of their lovely community home away from home,, the Wrens encounter a naval atmosphere, Their little bedrooms are "cabins," the passages the "decks, ,r the kitchen naturally the "galley," the housemaids "stewards" if they tend officers, orderlies if they look after the feminine ratings. Although they disregard Sunday, for in wartime it is no day of leisure, thev certainly have their fun. For while I was in Dover, they were hostesses at a fine party to Mhich everybody, from admirals to middies, was asked.