WRCNS Training

Transcription

WRENS Training

Some WRENS officers from England told us that if we were interested, they’d start a women’s corps for the Canadian navy, and that if we joined we could continue doing our work, because it was truly special work. Well, days and then months went by and finally, I said to myself, why not? I applied, passed my medical tests in Québec and in the space of less than one month I was called up in June 1943. So I left for Cambridge (Galt, it was called at the time) and had a month of training. It was a blur. We didn’t walk between the buildings—we ran. We couldn’t walk. We always had to run. We didn’t get a minute’s rest. Then we had to write the exams. We had to know the names of the ships, whether they were destroyers, what a destroyer looked like, the signals, all kinds, how to march for funerals, just really incredible stuff. Naturally, my English was not good at all, and I didn’t pass the exam. And the officer, she was a really extraordinary woman, she called me into her office and said, “Listen Duchener, I know it’s hard for you. I’m going to give you two days to go over your coursework and I’ll make sure you pass the exam.” I was the only French Canadian woman. And I passed on the second try. I can’t ever thank her enough for that, because it opened the door for me to go to St-Hyacinthe where the Signal School was. That’s all it was called at that time, the Signal School, which included not only encryption but lights, flags, signals, everything they used to communicate from ship to ship. So we had to learn all those signals. When we got there, there weren’t any barracks for the women. So National Defence rented a dormitory from the nuns and we had to go up and down the fire escape so we wouldn’t disturb them. Once we got to the street we marched in military formation to the base at St-Hyacinthe. We studied for a month and a half, learning Morse code and encryption, which I was already a bit used to, and lots and lots more information and techniques. There were 23 young women in all, and midway through the course, I almost quit. I told the officer, “I can’t go on, it’s too hard and my English isn’t good enough.” And we were using terms you don’t use every day. It was technical, with lots of new and different words. And he told me, “I’ve got 23 students and you’re all going to pass.” He made me come in during the evening, into the mess with my books—actually there were a few of us—and he reviewed what we’d learned that day, and we all passed.