- Contributed byÌý
- Denisebrujis
- People in story:Ìý
- Renee Shalom
- Location of story:Ìý
- Uxbridge, UK
- Background to story:Ìý
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2707751
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 05 June 2004
Looking proud: Renee Shalom in her Royal Air Force Uniform
It’s a morning in June, 1944 at Uxbridge Base west of London. Everyone is underground because the work they do out there is top secret. It is the Air Force Signal Control Centre. These headquarters were principally meant to test the operation of weapons when landings were taking place at the port of Dieppe, in France.
Renee Shalom is on duty. She is constantly watching Allied movements on screen and on controls. She works in the telex, and her boss is off today so she is in charge of anything that might be needed.
All of a sudden, a group of high-ranking officers comes in, all wearing uniforms with many important medals. They say they must send a coded message and it must be sent very carefully and with no mistakes. Renee is nervous but she sends the message, apparently without any problems.
The following day she finds out what she had sent - it was the communication instructing British troops of the launching of D-Day.
My mother was born in Manchester and came from an orthodox Jewish family of nine children. She was the first child to volunteer in the Air Force, quite courageous in that context and at that time.
Denise Chrem Shalom de Brujis - Maryland, US
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