Battle of Britain Heritage Walk – London CELEBRATING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN 75TH ANNIVERSARY


walk whilst in London. W R


The walk takes approximately one and half hours and starts where you pick up your Battle of Britain Heritage Walk leaflet – St Clement Danes Church, the central church of the Royal Air Force.


The leaflet outlines the route plus snapshot information on the six key RAF landmarks. After a wander round St Clement Danes (such an amazing church), you’ll then head on to the Royal Air Force Memorial, Battle of Britain Monument, Parliament


A personal story – Ruth Ure


uth is one of the many men and women who worked so hard during the Battle of Britain to secure our skies.


Ruth was 21 years old when WWII broke out and living in Hampstead with her mother; her father having died a few years before the war. She immediately left her secretarial job and started working for the Red Cross. The general feeling in the country was that everyone had to ‘do their bit for the war effort’.


Ruth remembers that on the first night of the war everyone expected to be bombed and every night for the first week she and her brother drove out of London.


In 1940 she and her best friend Mary joined the WAAF and after a short period of training she was sent immediately to her RAF station, RAF Northolt. In July 1940 she started work as a plotter in the Sector Operations Room from which aircraft were controlled in ‘Sector Z’ to


the west of London, enabling our fighters to be guided on to the waves of enemy aircraft as they swept across the Channel.


The role of a plotter was crucial, receiving information from the Royal Observer Corps and the radar stations around the south east coast. The plotters received detailed information about the position, height, number of aircraft and their heading enabling the sector controller to scramble fighters and then direct the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter squadrons into a good position for an attack before the Germans reached their targets.


A typical day would involve watches from 09:00 until 15:00 or 15:00 until 21:00 and a fill-in shift from 21:00 until 09:00. The work was very intensive, standing up for long periods of time, and wearing headphones to receive the information. They moved little wooden markers called plots around a huge map of the south of England. Each plotter had their own section of the map and had to listen carefully to pick out their information. Being accurate was very important as the fighters were directed to their targets using the information plotted on the maps.


Ruth said: “There was very little free time because of the shift system. You were always on standby to man a back-up table in a shop in Ruislip in case the main plotting room, which was housed in a normal RAF building on the airfield, was attacked.


“The work was very demanding and needed long periods of concentration. In the back of your mind was fact that being on a fighter station we could be attacked at any time. We certainly earned our


24 Envoy Summer 2015


hy not mark the Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary with a free ‘leaflet-led’ guided


Square, Waterloo Place to finally end at Westminster Abbey.


Further information: www.raf.mod.uk/ stclementdanes, email stcelmentasst@ btconnect.com or telephone 0207 242 8282


Directions


St Clement Danes, Strand, London WC2R 1DH On foot: half an hour’s walk from London Kings Cross Underground: Temple or Holborn. Buses: 4, 11, 15, 23, 26, 76, 172, 341 The church is open daily from 9am to 4pm for visitors (except bank holidays) or for a service: • Sundays at 11.00am for the Eucharist or Matins


• Wednesdays and Fridays at 12.30pm for Holy Communion


• First Tuesday in each month at 12:30pm for RC Mass.


(Please note that Special Services may be taking place on the day or your visit)


cup of tea after a six-hour shift!” She is rightly proud of being mentioned in Despatches.


The role of the plotter was very important and helped the fighters find and attack the German aircraft, saving countless civilian lives in the major cities in the south and London in particular. Ruth stayed as plotter throughout the Battle of Britain before being commissioned and becoming a Cipher Officer in the War Cabinet office working directly with Winston Churchill. This job took her to Marrakesh in 1943 with Churchill, when he was recovering from pneumonia and a heart attack.


After the war Ruth spent two years as a Lady Clerk at Buckingham Palace, where one of her jobs was typing up speeches for King George VI. She remembers spending Boxing Day at Sandringham, as well as visiting Balmoral and Windsor.


Ruth is one of many plotters who worked hard to ensure the Fighter Squadrons were in the right place at the right time.


www.raf-ff.org.uk


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