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Mrs Joan Jones served in the WRNS at The Naval Signal Station at The Tutt, Bracelet Bay, Mumbles and has kindly shared her experiences and loaned two pictures, which show her with colleagues.
The Coastguard Station on Tutt Head
On the west side of Bracelet Bay is Tutt Head coastguard station where, during the war, there were two searchlights
The Royal Navy took over at The Tutt in 1942 and were there until 1945, when Mumbles Coastguard took over the work again. The lookout became a Port War Signal Station, which controlling all shipping in that part of the Bristol Channel.
The W.R.N.S stationed here were responsible for signalling to ships and convoys in the channel and every night, at midnight, they had to burn the secret codes from that day, before using the new code which was stored in a safe. Former Wren, Joan Jones, recalls her time serving there-
A group of the WRNS, the names of whom are lost to her memory. However, on the left is herself Joan S (Jones), then Peggy, and fourth from left is the Cook, Jean. Peggy has a badge on the sleeve of her jacket, which comprise two crossed flags denoting her rank - ‘Visual Signaller WRNS’.
All the girls, except one are wearing a shirt & tie. One girl has a jumper & another has a Navy style shirt, with no tie. The cook wears a hat and she seems to wear a different jacket to the other girls. Others girls are carrying their hats. Behind the group is a low barbed-wire fence.
From the left:-Jean-the cook, Peggy-a blonde girl, Joan S (Jones), and Grace. All except the cook are in service uniform trousers, issued for work outdoors
On the top of the Hill behind the group is Mumbles Hill 6in Gun Battery, Royal Artillery.
The Visual Signallers, worked Dog Watches (details below) with two ratings on each watch, two sleeping & others resting or on leave. Joan found it spooky to go on watch in the dark at 4am, walking up the steps to the Signal Station, the old Coastguard Hut where she worked. [now replaced with a new complex.] The Wireless Telegraphy Hut was next to and separate from them.
Every night at midnight they had to burn the secret codes from the previous day. The new code was in the safe, ready for the next day. They sent signals by Aldis lamp and 10 in. projector to the ships and convoys about stores and orders.
The searchlights at the Tutt, designed to light up the sea, were operated by specialists and the other local defences were manned by forty men of the Home Guard.
A plan of the defences at The Tutt, on the west side of Bracelet Bay. It includes the Port War Signal Station (The Coastguard Station) the two searchlight emplacements (EMP) and the 'Engine House'.
There were two searchlight emplacements at Tutt Head, which were positioneso that they could sweep the surface of the water and aid the defenses. The searchlight mechanism and lens were set within the building, behind a metal shield made up of a number of sliding steel shutters, and were powered by electricity generated in the engine room, now used as a storage room by Castelamare Restaurant. Around 1960, the two searchlight emplacements were demolished and only the bases remain.
HMS Erebus, an old Monitor ship, now acting as a Target Towing Ship [launched in 1916 and scrapped in 1947] would steam into the bay some evenings about 5 pm. The 6 in Guns on Mumbles Head would then fire at the target it was towing.
They lived in brick built accommodation on the site of the current Castellamare Restaurant, where they had a cook, Jean. There were only twelve of them and the rations were not marvellous, but adequate. That is until the Americans came along when we had all sorts of items, such as canned fruit & meats of all kinds, not forgetting the coffee, which had not seen for a very long time.
The Americans were billeted in the eight Nissan huts, a little way from us, on what is now the car park in Bracelet Bay [vacated in 1942 by the men from the Royal Artillery whose battery of two 4.7in. guns was on the Lighthouse Island.]
Before D Day the bay was chock-a-block with ships, signalling at all times for stores. All left in the middle of the night, of 4th June 1944, so as to arrive off Omaha beach, Normandy, France on the afternoon of 6th June. [The invasion was delayed for one day because of the bad weather.]
As told to John Powell by Joan Jones on Sat 9th April 2005
HMS Erebus:
One of the most powerful and successful monitors built during the Great War. She was launched in 1916, had a 7200 tone displacement, was 450 ft in length, 88 ft in breadth and had 6,000 hp engines. She was scrapped in 1946.
Watches in the Royal Navy are named as follows -
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