D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Mary Cholwill
Mary Cholwill, Age 100, Auxiliary Territorial Service
Interviewed 1 October 2024
Joining the ATS at 17 in 1941 with her parents’ consent, Mary Cholwill was working as a telephonist and plotter in Dorset when D-Day took place.
After her training at Aldermaston in Berkshire she was attached to the Royal Artillery Searchlight Regiment.
"They said you are too young for the Royal Artillery with the guns,|" Mrs Cholwill said.
"So I was on the battery headquarters that controlled all the sites with searchlights on."
According to the National Army Museum website: "Searchlights were an important component of Britain's defence against the German bombing campaign during World War Two.
"Searchlights were used to locate and illuminate enemy bombers, providing targets for anti-aircraft gun batteries. With increasing numbers of male soldiers serving overseas, in North Africa and the Far East, women from the ATS were drafted in to operate searchlights from 1941."
Mrs Cholwill said: "Also with the searchlights, if there was a bomber coming home from Germany that was damaged and they were having a job to find their way.
"Three searchlights in different areas in Dorset would bring their lights up to a point where the pilot knew that’s where he could land.
"We often had phone calls saying ‘thank you, you have got our plane home safely.’ That was always very satisfying."
In the weeks leading up to Normandy she was in and around Wimborne Minster.
This was close to Tarrant Rushton which played a key role in Operation Overlord. The first Allied troops flew in gliders from the airfield there and were dropped behind enemy lines hours before the beach landings.
They were a unit from the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
Mrs Cholwill added: "More often than not when you’re posted you’re not told where you’re being posted to until you get there.
"I was on plotting and switchboards. With the plotting we had to plot the course of the aeroplanes and the big plotting boards were at Middle Wallop so we were taking map references for (the Army) to be able to follow the course of the aeroplanes as they flew over.
"There were soldiers and lorries and all sorts of things that were stacking up but I don’t think we really noticed it and then we get to the sixth (of June) everybody’s gone.
"We woke up one morning and all the squaddies had gone so there was nothing for us to do. The squaddies gone and the ATS left behind. Of course that was D-Day.
"We milled around for days, all the ATS, the WAAFS and the Wrens (Female air force and naval personnel) - anyone who didn’t have a job. We went up to a holding unit in Northampton and there we were sorted out for our new jobs. We didn’t have much to do then because all the action was over in France."
Mrs Cholwill retrained as a driver and drove ambulances until the end of the war.
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...