D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Christian Lamb

Christian Lamb, Age 103, Women's Royal Naval Service 

Interviewed 8 Sep 2023

The daughter of an Admiral and then a naval wife, Christian Lamb was a Plotting Officer who helped prepare detailed maps of the French coast for D-Day. 

She said: "I was working in Whitehall where Churchill was at the top of the building and I had a little office right in the basement.

"It was entirely my office. Nobody else in it except for an Admiral to tell me what to do and my job was to make these maps."

Working in great secrecy the aim was to help landing craft crew and then soldiers on the beaches instantly identify where they were. 

Mrs Lamb said: "They were for shipping that were coming into the coast of France and there was five different landing places.

"And to make sure she was in the right place where they had to be I had some detailed maps I made for the officers.

"They wanted to know exactly where they were. So the whole of the walls around my office were big-scale maps of the French coast.

"Each compass bearing on the picture I had to draw a special map so as you looked out the window you could see a railway or a church or some big site that we had put on the map so they could identify themselves as where they were.

"They were close enough to the coast to see these people and whatever they were busy doing. 

"That’s why the maps were important I suppose. I felt it was something useful and I was glad of that.

"I didn’t want to do anything that was useless."

In fact it was some of the most important work carried out in the lead up to Operation Overlord.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...