Extra - E32 - Audrey Wind

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2014

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

January 2014

In this episode we bring you the entire interview we recorded with Veteran Wren Bombe Operator, Audrey Wind, who recalls how she was plucked from filthy cleaning jobs in basic training & recruited to do a very, very secret job.

Audrey was posted to Eastcote, an outstation of Bletchley Park, where she operated Bombe machines. She says “The pressure was enormous. It took me a long time after the war to get over it and I’m sure it did for everyone. It was terribly stressful.”

Audrey’s story will be featured as a DVD extra, when the second series of the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle is released.

Image ®ITV

#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #ITV, #TheBletchleyCircle, #ladynerds, #audiowrangler, #mcfontaine

Transcript

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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.
0:37.3	Welcome to another Bletchley Park podcast Extra.
0:41.0	In this episode, we bring you the full interview with veteran Wren bomb operator Audrey Wind.
0:46.2	She was handpicked for this secret job from doing filthy cleaning jobs in basic training.
0:51.5	After the war, working in a school, she was spotted as a fellow alumnus of Bletchley Park
0:56.4	by a colleague.
0:58.0	Here's Audrey's story.
1:06.5	So first, let's talk about how you were recruited.
1:09.4	You can tell me about that?
1:10.2	Well, I had to join up in the summer of 1944.
1:15.6	Towards the end of the war, I was called up in early August,
1:20.2	just before I became 19 later in the month, at the end of the month.
1:25.8	And the Wrens was the only one of the three women's services
1:30.1	that had a pre-service training. The other people went straight in. We didn't. We had a pre-service
1:38.2	training of a fortnight. And during that time, if they didn't like the look of us, they would tell us to go home.
1:46.6	And we'd immediately be called up for the Land Army or some ATS or something else.
1:52.3	And some people were sent home.
1:54.7	It wasn't a myth.
1:56.1	So you'd chosen the Wrens wanting to be in the Wrens, yes.
2:05.1	I had a big, a great family connection with the Wrens. I had a cousin who was commander on HMS formidable and my great grandfather
2:13.3	was captain of the ship that brought Prince over to Mary Queen Victoria. Great, great
	...

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