D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Patricia Owtram

Patricia Owtram, Age: 100, Women’s Royal Naval Service

Interviewed 8 Sep 2023

Fluent in German, Patricia Owtram was a Linguist Interceptor for Special Duties Y Service and was posted to top-secret listening stations along the coastline, including Abbots Cliff in Kent. 

Abbots Cliff was at Capel le Ferne between Folkestone and Dover and had been operational since 1940.

There were about 50- 60 people working there in secret according to a news release from GCHQ marking the organisation’s 100th anniversary.

It read: "This base collected Very High Frequency (VHF) communications from Germany directing aircraft or fast moving E-boats in the English Channel. VHF has a very short range which meant that German linguists, mainly young women, were sent to the front line to live log the communications. This type of interception had never been done before for voice communications and the tactical nature of this job meant that every day the information collected by these young women was helping to protect British pilots and sailors. German forces would try to capture British pilots."

Patricia Owtram was posted to top-secret listening stations along the coastline, including Abbots Cliff in Kent.  Credit: ITV Meridian

While there Patricia learned to fire a Sten gun. 

She said: "Because we were right on the coast there could have been the equivalent of a commando raid.

"Some of us thought we would like to be able to use a machine gun, and there were military police on guard and they very kindly allowed us to practice using the machine guns.

"So we thought if there was a German raid, perhaps we could help the police defend our station."

The Allies introduced a successful deception plan which helped fool the Germans into thinking the invasion would come from Kent.

"And you saw some really important people while you were at Abbots Cliff," Patricia added.

"One day I recognised to my great surprise Winston Churchill, Prime Minister and General Montgomery, and I wondered what they were doing in the morning.

"On top of our rather remote cliff in Kent - I think they wanted to be seen

"A very successful red herring."

The job was to intercept voice and coded radio messages from German vessels in the English Channel.

That information was then sent to codebreakers at Station X - Bletchley Park. The intelligence gathered from these transmissions was factored into Allied plans for D-Day.

Abbots Cliff also housed acoustic mirrors designed as an early warning system for enemy aircraft. 

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