Codebreakers, cartographers and coxswains: Barred from combat, women helped ensure D-Day success

What did you do in the war, Granny?

For women who came of age during World War II, the answer to that question is often, “Quite a lot.”

The history of D-Day is normally told through the stories of the men who fought and died on the beaches of Normandy as the Allies struggled to regain a toehold in Northern Europe and begin the march to Berlin.

But behind the scenes were hundreds of thousands of women who helped make the landings a success through their work as codebreakers, cartographers, ship plotters, radar operators and dozens of crucial non-combat jobs.

One of them was Marie Scott, who as a 17-year-old radio operator in the Women’s Royal Naval Service heard the chaos of battle through her headset as she calmly funneled messages to and from the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

“I think I grew up that day from being a stupid 17-year-old. I think I honestly grew up on D-Day. So I shall always remember it _ at least I hope I will,” Scott said recently at her home in London.

More than 1.1 million women served in the Allied armed forces during the war, including 640,000 in Britain, where invasion was an existential threat after Nazi troops drove to the shores of the English Channel and the Luftwaffe bombed cities from Belfast to London.

Even Princess Elizabeth, the future queen, did her bit, training to be a driver and mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army during the war.

The pitch on recruiting posters was simple: by joining the military and taking over support roles, women could free men for frontline service. Although technically barred from combat, 865 women were killed during the war.

For those who chose not to join the military, there were still opportunities to serve.

Millions of women worked in defense factories, grew crops and rode motorcycles through the blacked out streets of London to keep firefighters up to date on the latest bomb damage as the British government asked them to keep the economy going after men went off to fight.

The Allied nations’ decision to mobilize women was an important strategic choice that contrasted with Nazi Germany, where the authorities relied on forced labor, according to Ian Johnson, a historian at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

“Part of the intent was to take it _ use the economic and material advantages of the Allies and really … put that to greatest use compared to the way the Germans structured their military,” he said. “So those support roles were crucial in providing the logistical advantages that help the Allies win.”

Altogether, some 7 million British women served their country in some capacity during World War II.

Their sacrifices are honored with a sculpture in central London, just a few meters from the Cenotaph, the national war memorial.

The bronze monolith is decorated with 17 different uniforms hung symbolically on pegs to represent the variety of jobs women took on during the war, then gave up when the men returned.

They include the uniforms of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and the Women’s Royal Naval Service. But there are also police overalls, a nursing cape and a welder’s mask.

“I get a certain satisfaction from my wartime experience,” Scott said. “And I do allow myself, occasionally, just a tinge of pride in my younger self. ″

Here are a few of their stories.

Dorothea Barron

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Marie Scott

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Pat Owtram

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Christian Lamb

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