"Sketches of Everyday Wren (WRNS) Activities" Topic
5 Posts
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emckinney | 06 Feb 2014 1:00 p.m. PST |
Slate has some fascinating casual sketches of Wrens going about everyday activities link Of particular interest--the caption of the third sketch seems to indicate the Wrens served on combat vessels (well, trawlers). Is this correct, or was she just about to do dockyard maintenance? In the second sketch, is she opening or closing a valve on a pipe or is that a torpedo tube? (Pardon the ignorance!) |
John D Salt | 06 Feb 2014 3:09 p.m. PST |
Wrens did not serve in fighting ships; indeed they were seldom seen afloat, boat Wrens being quite a rare breed. Of particular wargamerly interest, the large staff or Wrens who ran Capt Gilbert Roberts' ASW game at Western Approaches command acquired an extensive knowledge of ASW tactics. "I Only Joined for the Hat" is a splendid book that gives sketches of several Wrens' service. All the best, John. |
Sparker | 06 Feb 2014 6:43 p.m. PST |
Yes the demise of the Wrens in the late 80's was bittersweet – the end of a fine Service, but made a happy occasion by welcoming females in the the RN proper and allowing them to serve at sea – where they soon earnt a place through their guts and determination to pull their weight. And in a refusal to tolerate substandard living conditions and routines just because 'that's how its always been
' If there was a valid reason for it – fine. If it was BS – they wouldn't take no for an answer, God Bless Em – the Service is so much better for them serving alongside the blokes now. An unintended consequence of allowing Wrens to transfer to the RN and serve at sea was that professionalism in communication centres and MHQs ashore took a temporary dip – whereas the blokes had been used to spending short periods of a year or so in these Long Haul Strategic Communications environments, and so never really mastered the skills required different to tactical, point to point, communications at sea, the long term 'Corporate Knowledge' was carried by the Wrens. When they left to go to sea – hitches! Yes that looks like a temporary fueling pipe to me. With the Torpedowoman working on the phones, in the old days Sonar rates were also qualified for light electrical
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Charlie 12 | 08 Feb 2014 9:38 p.m. PST |
Very nice sketches. The first especially struck a cord; anyone who has served and pulled a loooong watch will appreciate that one! My mother was a WAVE during WWII and served in DC. One of the smartest things I did before she passed was to sit down with her and record about 18 hours of her reminiscences from her time in service. BTW, that's getting harder and harder to do as we lose more and more of their generation
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DBS303 | 10 Feb 2014 7:30 a.m. PST |
Indeed, if circumstances required a Wren to spend a night aboard a warship at sea, the commanding officer had to issue a certificate confirming that nothing untoward had occurred
A famous case was when a group of specialist signals / crypto Wrens had to be rushed out to Alexandria on a light cruiser from Gibraltar; I think the previous batch had suffered heavy losses when their troopship was torpedoed. |
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