This account was written by Margaret Slater in April 1999. The account follows her personal experiences as a WAAF Radar Operator and was sent to CHiDE (now DEHS) as part of this Women in the War project.

Introduction

I grew up in Blackburn, Lancashire, where my father taught History and was Second Master (i.e Deputy Head) at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. I attended Blackburn High School for Girls from the age of five to eighteen, my one miniscule claim to fame being that I was the last pupil to go right through the school from Kindergaten to VIA.

In 1942 I went to Bedford College for Women, University of London, to study for a BA degree on Classics. At that time the College had been evacuated from its premises in Regents Park, London to Cambridge, where the students were billeted on local residents.

Before I had started my first term the Government ruled that all university students who reached the age of 20 before 1 July 1944 would, after that date, be called up into one of the Services or directed into war work such as the munitions industry, coal-mining (for the men or Women's Land Army for the girls). The only exception to this ruling were certain engineering students, medical students, and those who signed as official and binding agreement to enter the teaching profession on completion of their degree course. I fell into none of these categories, as in those days teaching was regarded as a vocation, not just a job, and I did not feel I had that vocation.

Consequently at the end of my second year at college I sat the first part of Finals hoping that I would be back when the war was over to take the third year of my degree course. I reached the age of 20 on 25th June 1944 which meant I was six days too old to complete my course without a break. Within a week I volunteered to join the WAAF, thus avoiding the chance of being drafted into work which might have been uncongenial but against there could be no appeal. In any case I was delighted to have the opportunity to 'do my bit' as I wanted to join up two years earlier as soon as I left school but my father considered I was not old enough either in years or maturity. Maybe he was right as I had never lived away from home, and during those two years at college I learned to stand on my own two feet.

Wilmslow

From mid-August to mid-September 1944 I did my 'square-bashing' at Wilmslow, Cheshire, which was then the only WAAF Initial Training Centre. I had hoped to become an MT Driver but the trade was closed at the time I joined.

Following various intelligence tests for colour blindness I was told I was to be trained as a Radar Operator 'because you are good at geometry'. This comment amused me but at the same time made me slightly apprehensive as to what I was being let in for since at school my very worst subject had be geometry. Later on when my fears proved to be unfounded I realised that the examiners probably were under the impression that radar required much more skill in geometry / trigonometry than was actually the case - at least as far as the operators were concerened.

Following my disappointment at not being able to become a driver, I decided to volunteer for overseas service. But in this, too, I was thwarted as at that time the RAF would not send any airwomen overseas who was an only child (as I was) or who had brothers serving overseas. So I had to be content to stay in the UK.

Dunnet Head

Following a six-week training course at Cranwell we passed out as Radar Operators U/T ('U/T and U/S as some people unkindly remarked). We would remain under training for a further six months until we took our first Trade Test. From Cranwell we were given seven days leave prior to being posted to one of the Wing Headquaters of the Radar Chain. My destination was 70 Wing HQ at RAF Bunchrew, near Inverness. 70 Wing covered the whole of Scotland, including the Hebrides, the Orkneys and the Shetlands, and also Northern Ireland. A few months later, early 1945, it also included the Faroes.

The day after our arrival at Bunchrew we were posted to our allotted radar stations which in my case was Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the mainland. When I learned that the train journey from Inverness to Thurso would take six hours and that this was to be followed by 18 miles in RAF transport I could hardly believe there was that much land north of Inverness!

Map showing the coverage of the CH Stations

For more information on radar research and CH / CHL Stations please visit the Radar Research pages on this website

Dunnet Head radar station was established to guard the Royal Naval base at Scapa following the disastrous sinking on 14 October 1939 of HMS Royal Oak by a U-boat that had penetrated the harbour.

There were three types of radar on the station: CHL, Type 57, and CD (Type 30). All Operators were trained on each type of equipment. In addition there was a stand-by CHL Receiver Block which was used when the Radar Mechanics were doing major repairs or maintenance work on the main CHL. This standby receiver had a manually turned aerial and turning the wheel to rotate it through 360° every 20/30 seconds. When there was a gale force wind blowing outside it was quite hard work.

Type 57 was housed in a small cabin manned by two Operators. It covered very low-flying aircraft, below the coverage of CHL. The aerial was fixed so the whole cabin rotated as it swept its field of operation through 270°(?). The turning was done manually from inside the cabin by one of the Operators. They passed their plots to the CHL Teller who passed them through to the Filter Room at Inverness.

CD was a type of Naval radar to cover shipping in the Pentland Firth and the approaches to Scapa Flow. Plots were passed to Kirkwall Royal Navy Plotting Room every 15 minutes on each vessel together with its speed in knots. This equipment was also manned by two Operators.

We worked a three-watch system:

Even for a radar station, RAF Dunnet Head was very isolated. The village of Brough was two miles away where ther was a small shop and Post Office; the nearest public transport was a very infrequent bus service between Thurso and Castletown, a village six miles from camp, which boasted a small hotel. We were much too far from civilisation to have newspapers, and it was impossible to listen to a wireless as the sweep of the CHL aerial blotted out the programme every 20 seconds. Consequently apart from when we were on leave we knew little or nothing about the way the war was going or any other news for that matter. Even the news of VE Day we learned from the Plotters in the Filter Room at Inverness.

Click here to read more of Margaret's written account in the WAAF