Extra - E11 - Eileen Younghusband WAAF Veteran

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2012

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

November 2012

This week we have a talk recorded at this year’s Veterans Day.

WAAF Veteran & author Eileen Younghusband gives a first-hand account of The Vital Role of the Secret Filter Room in Air Defence in WW2.

Hear about the part they played in the Battle of Britain & later as the tide of war turned, against the V1 & V2 attacks.

Eileen sadly passed away on the 2nd of September 2016. RIP

Find more information about Eileen & her two autobiographies at www.onewomanswar.co.uk

#BPark, #Turing, #WW2, #BattleofBritain, #Radar, #VRockets

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The From the home of the co-breakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:37.1	Hello, this is M.C. Fontaine welcoming you to another Bletchley Park podcast Extra.
0:43.1	This week we're bringing you a talk that was given by Eileen Younghusband at this year's Veterans Reunion Day.
0:48.8	It's about the vital role of the secret filter room in the air defence during World War II.
1:00.3	Thank you. of the secret filter room in air defence during World War II. Well, good afternoon, everybody. Nice to see a big audience, and I hope you will enjoy the
1:06.7	afternoon. I'm first of all going to read two little paragraphs. You all know how Mr. Churchill
1:14.0	told how wonderful the few were. Well, since then, there is something else, he said, so I will read
1:21.6	this. The wonderful achievement of the few is a remarkable story of courage and rugged tenacity. Their achievement is
1:30.0	worthy of the highest and most enduring recognition which they richly deserved. But another quote of
1:37.7	Churchill has not unfortunately entered the lexicon of the Royal Air Force. All the ascendancy of the hurricanes and spitfires
1:48.0	would have been fruitless but for the system known as the Dowding system
1:54.0	instigated by Air Vice Marshal Stuffy Dowding.
1:58.0	But it is the pivotal role of the filter room within the system which allowed
2:05.2	commanders at all levels to manage the battle from a common picture of the air. Now how many people here
2:12.7	have ever heard of the filter room? Not a single one. In fact, it's almost become more secret than
2:21.3	Bletchley. Now, somewhere else in Bletchley, you will find a plotting table, and it is an
2:28.8	op-room plotting table, which there were many. And I'm sure all of you have heard of the radar chain, which
2:36.7	encircled our coast. Has anyone ever thought, how did the information from the radar station
2:44.3	turn into a little plot on the end of a stick, pushed along the table by a young waft. Well, I will tell you a little
2:53.4	bit about it, because I had the privilege of finding myself involved in that very process.
3:01.1	What does it have to do with Bletchley? Well, we were actually an outstation for Bletchley,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bletchley Park, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bletchley Park and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.