A PICTURE of Wrens stationed on Portland, recently featured in Looking Back, stirred up memories for two women who were also stationed with HMS Attack on the run-up to D-Day.

Velmia Watson (nee Ruffley) of Preston and Jean Rawson (nee Moir), who lives in Pulborough in West Sussex, got together to reminisce on Jean's recent trip to Weymouth.

Both were drafted to Portland in 1943, a tense time by all accounts, with Chesil Beach covered with American equipment to go overseas for the invasion and Mulberry Harbours built to protect the ships against rough water. Both remember these details and prisoners of war coming in to Portland.

Jean has a particularly good anecdote from this time. She said: "This was just before D-Day and I was in overalls and a head-square, which is what we worked in - it was all blue.

"I was walking across the base to pick something up - it could have been paint or something -and these two big cars came into the base and the driver of the first car was trying to locate where he was. They were going up to HMS Attack.

"I waited for the cars to pass me and in the front on the left of the chauffeur, on my side of the car, was Churchill. Behind him was George VI and on the right hand side of him was Eisenhower. There was nothing I could do but jump to attention and salute, and I think Montgomery was in the car behind. They were laughing at me. They were obviously coming down to check things out before D-Day."

Velmia added: "It was like that then - things happened and we did not talk about it."

"We were all very young," said Jean. "I was a Leading Wren.

"When I got my good conduct badge, which said you had been good for a certain length of time - or that you had not been caught - my sister sent a telegram: To Leading Wren Moir, Congratulations on your three years of undetected crime'."

Was the run-up to D-Day a frightening time?

"It was," confirmed Jean. "We were here when the exercise on Slapton Sands went wrong and we were attacked by German E-boats."

The practice landings at Slapton Sands in Devon - the codename for the operation was Exercise Tiger - took place in the early hours of April 28, 1944. But, without warning, the Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs) suddenly found themselves under attack. Unbeknown to the American servicemen, a flotilla of nine German E-boats had been ordered to investigate unusual radio activity in the area.

HMS Attack ordered six Rescue Motor Launches (RMLs), each with a 16-man crew, to Lyme Bay. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived the damage had been done and, as the RMLs prepared to take survivors on board, they were issued with orders to return to port. HMS Attack had become aware that the LSTs were firing indiscriminately and it was feared that the RMLs would be mistaken for E-boats.

Jean said: "The dead came in on the MTBs (Motor Torpedo Boats) covered with Union Jacks. We were in the base when it was happening.

"On the night of D-Day itself, which had been delayed, we did not have any lights at all.

"I was extremely frightened then because there were lights in the sky which, to us, meant tracer bullets. I was in charge of one of the cabins at HMS Attack and I got everyone into the air raid shelter."

Velmia interjected: "They were dropping troops over the other side. Our cabin was Tormentor cabin."

The Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944 began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments and an early morning amphibious landing. During the evening, the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed.

Jean and Velmia worked in different departments and never met at HMS Attack. Val worked in Supply; while Jean worked in Qualified Maintenance and went on to take a course in safety equipment at HMS Raven at Eastleigh in Southampton. It was there that she learned about rubber dinghies, how boats were to use them in case of emergency; and how to give lectures on such aspects of safety.

Describing a highlight of the war for her she said: "There was a flotilla of Fairmile Ds, which were the 120-footer MTBs, they were shot at coming in by American patrol boats. They sank one and they damaged the second one so badly that the third and remaining one had to sink it but all the men got away in my rubber dinghies and the senior officer came to thank me for doing the sessions."

The Americans play a big part in the women's memories on the run-up to D-Day. Velmia said: "I remember Leading Hand Electrician Barbara, an American - she came in and I think there was a ship that had been on an Arctic run. The ship needed re-painting but the men were worn out, so Barbara was asked if she had any spare hands and she said yes. When the Americans realised that there were girls coming, suddenly there were a lot of volunteers."

It was not all work and no play. Jean pointed out a man in a photograph on board the Florinda, a houseboat in Weymouth.

"He was on HMS Attack. He was on one of the MGBs (Motor Gun Boats) - they used to go out on patrol every night. He was called Cecil Wilson - Tug' Wilson - I was engaged to him."

The Wrens used to go ashore' in their leisure time, as Weymouth was called, where they could stay with landlord and landlady Ma and Pa Bateman'.

"In Weymouth, what was the name of the smokescreen?" Jean asked Velmia. "They were like big litter bins with smoke coming out of them at night," she explained to me.

Velmia said: "We would come back on the train along what's now the Rodwell Trail - the station was in Victoria Square. We had to be back at 10.30pm. We used to have to run to HMS Attack but the men didn't need to be there at 10.30pm, so they would saunter along."

Jean added: "There was a dog at the bottom of the hill by the dockyard gates called Spiro. He used to come back up the hill and march down with us when we did drills."

After HMS Attack, Jean moved on to HMS Vernon in Portsmouth to work with experimental mines. Velmia stayed in the area. HMS Attack, meanwhile, carried on as part of the general Navy.