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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by volunteer Michael Stimson on behalf of Pauline of Brighton,and has been added to it with her permission. She fully understands the terms and conditions.

She was a WREN stationed in Portsmouth between 1943 and 1946. At that time they were restricted to shore duties.

One morning in 1944 she was walking with another WREN along the front at Southsea. They were amazed to see hundreds of boats,all sizes,anchored in the Solent. Some were warships,many were private boats.

Later that morning they saw thousands of young soldiers lined up waiting to embark for the Normandy beaches. Pauline,then only 19,noticed that the young men looked tense,pale and frightened. She remembers saying to her friend,”We may be the last women they will ever see.” For many of those men,they were because as Pauline herself believes,10,000 of them died on the first day.

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