Wren encounters German prisoners of war on sailing to Douglas

In the summer of 1944 Kathleen Oates - a Wren assigned to the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War - was transferred to the Isle of Man. During her time on the island, she wrote dozens of letters to home which provide a unique commentary on the operations at Ronaldsway and what life was like on the Isle of Man 80 years ago. Her daughter, CHRISTINE SMITH, pores through her mother’s letters as part of a series of columns based on Kathleen Oates’s writing.

.. Eighty years ago this week, on November 21 and 22, Kathleen Oates returned from her first leave away from the Isle of Man.



It was a complex journey. She had a couple of hours’ sleep on Tuesday evening at her home in Leicester, and was taken late that night to the station by her parents, where she boarded a night train. It had set out from London hours earlier, said the Land Army girl with whom she shared a carriage.

They would both journey to the Isle of Man together; the Land Army girl was rejoining her family in Port St Mary. The train pulled into Manchester around 5am, Wednesday morning: ‘the Services Bus wasn’t there, but the trams were running’, and Kathleen crossed Manchester to another station, where she had tea and a roll while waiting for a 6:45am Fleetwood train. This pulled into Fleetwood at 9:15, and Kathleen bought a 1/- breakfast of porridge, fried bread and bacon, marmalade and tea, and continued writing from ‘a lovely cosy lounge occupied by about a dozen girls all waiting for the boat’.

Once a little hut opened on the station, she would exchange her ticket for a boat pass. She posted her first letter home from Fleetwood, as it would arrive sooner than if posted on the Isle of Man, and she wanted to let her family know that ‘there’s a rumour going round that German prisoners are going over with us’. Another letter was sent on November 23, with an account of the crossing, which was ‘pretty lousy.

The sea was pretty rough, and the ship pitched an awful lot. I stayed on deck most of the time, then went into the lounge and tried to sleep. When the man came round, telling us we were almost in harbour, I was sick.

Luckily there was a tin at hand.’ German prisoners were indeed on the ferry. ‘Half of it was occupied by them – quite interesting.

They wore their long greeny-grey greatcoats and peaked caps. The majority of them were blondes. They say hundreds of them are coming over to Douglas and that was the first contingent.

’ On her return to Ronaldsway, Kathleen checked in at Sick Bay, where she had been for two weeks, prior to going home on leave – presumably to confirm that she was fit to return to work. Luckily, her initial duties were light: Night Flying started at 6:30pm and she was even able to read a letter from home when there was a lull in operations, until an early finish at 9:30pm.She reflected: ‘I’ve quite enjoyed being back at work; we’re really busy now with 3 squadrons flying.

The Lieutenant who was Duty Operations Officer last night has just come here for 9 months’ rest after doing his 2 1⁄2 years with an Operational Squadron. He met one of his pals here - and again we listened to an account of who was still alive and who wasn’t - and how they all disappeared! ’Sadly, this was another week in which tragic news made its way back to the family in Leicester, as another Barracuda was lost while she was on leave: He was low flying at night and just popped into the sea’. Kathleen was still at Scarlett Camp, but hoping to move on.

‘All the W/T [Wireless Transmitter] Wrens have changed camp and I’m going to try and move too...

I was very fed up about not going to Castletown Camp. I miss the two Janes because I’m the only watch-keeper in the cabin now..

.I haven’t done any more work on my nightdress, now that Jane is at Castletown.’ On the afternoon of November 23, Kathleen went to Douglas with the two Janes.

‘Everyone was trying to do Christmas shopping – I guess the Manx make plenty of money out of the Navy. They had steak and chips for tea, saw a film and as ‘it was pouring down as usual, we dived into the YWCA till it was time for the train’. Ronaldsway routine had resumed after Kathleen’s first leave, with the quotidian and the tragic mixing in her letters just as it did in everyday life on the base.

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