Remembering 'The Women Behind the Few' who helped to win the Second World War

"I saw a bloodstained satchel and a dress with blood on it as exhibits,’ Ms Miller recalled. “They had belonged to a female SOE (Special Operations Executive) agent in France who had survived after being shot as she tried to get away from a German roadblock.

"I found out that she escaped with a bullet in her leg, and then on another occasion too. Once she had been stopped by the Germans and managed to convince them she was carrying medical supplies, when in, fact she was carrying a wireless to communicate with Britain."

This inspired Ms Miller to find out more about the 39 female SOE operatives who were sent to occupied France, and in turn, this led her to become fascinated by the women who were largely missing from the official narrative of the Second World War.

Her new book, The Women Behind the Few: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force and British Intelligence during the Second World War, explores the conflict from the perspective of the WAAFs working behind the scenes to collect and disseminate intelligence that resulted in the Allied victory. WAAFs worked within the Dowding System, the world's most sophisticated air defence network, as well as in the Y Service, where they intercepted German communications. However, Dr Miller, who is a member of the Defence Studies Department at King's College London, found that many women were reluctant to talk about their wartime roles.

"A lot of women worked in communications at the time, but didn't realise their work was important; sometimes I have to get that point across that without their work, the intelligence collected would have been utterly useless,’’ she said. “Nobody told them they were special. They believed they were just doing their bit, along with everyone else taking part in the war effort.”

There has been a lot of focus on the work of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who became a code-breaker at Bletchley Park, but not on the women who enabled him to do his job. A lot of this is due to their humility and the extreme compartmentalisation of intelligence work for security reasons, according to Dr Miller.

"It’s highly likely that we would not have won the Battle of Britain without the folks working in the Dowding System, many of whom were women. Nothing was actually intercepted at Bletchley, the interceptions were made at Y stations around the country. Some of them had been debutantes who had travelled to pre-war German, which gave them a useful grasp of colloquial German. The historian Asa Briggs, who worked at Bletchley, said he and his colleagues couldn't have done any of their work without these women.”

During wartime, there could be dire consequences for anyone who failed to act with discretion.

Dr Miller said: "A 98-year-old veteran told me how she had signed the Official Secrets Act with a gun on the table, it was to remind her she would be shot if she ever breached the act. It shows how very seriously oaths were taken.

"There was also a belief that women might be gossipy, and may reveal secrets but not intentionally. There's a case of a man working at Bletchley going down to the pub and boasting about how important his work was for the war effort. But the women he was talking to at the bar were blamed for his bragging; it was said they were a subversive presence in the pub. It was part of an ingrained attitude that women could not keep their mouths shut. But the women who carried out these jobs were very much aware that lives were at stake; virtually all of them had a man who was a relative or lover who was in danger during wartime.

"They knew that what they were doing had a direct contribution to what was happening on the battlefield,’’ she added. “There was a personal investment in somebody they cared about. For example, I've written about a woman whose brother was working on a bomber crew, so her work had a direct impact on his safety. But they never thought anything of their work. Sometimes I have to tell them, 'Don't you understand how brilliant you were?'

She added: “I'm involved in a project to collect memories, stories and memorabilia from the Second World War, we're having a collection day in Yorkshire soon. It's not just letters and photos, recently a man brought in a wireless set.”

This project – Their Finest Hour- was established by the University of Oxford to collect and digitally archive the everyday stories and objects of the Second World War that have been passed down through the generations. The project is hosting a Collection Day at York Army Museum, on Monday 5 June from 10.30am to 3.30pm. Yorkshire people are invited to bring their diaries, letters, photographs, memoirs, objects or stories about their family’s experience in the war to be recorded and added to a freely-available, online archive. Dr Miller added: “I don't want to see any group of women go unnoticed. It really needs two lifetimes. I try and leave breadcrumbs for others to follow.”

For more information visit: https://theirfinesthour.enghttps://theirfinesthour.english.ox.ac.uk/event/digital-collection-day-05-jun-23lish.ox.ac.uk/event/digital-collection-day-05-jun-23