Dorothy Goudge was only 16 years old when she signed on to be a telephonist at England’s Bletchley Park the day World War II broke out.
She had no idea at the time she would play an instrumental role in relaying intelligence from the Germans to the Allied forces’ top-secret code breakers.
Bletchley Park played a major role in World War II, and housed English mathematician Alan Turing, who was in part responsible for breaking the Nazi Enigma code.
“We managed to collect everything that Germany sent across the airwaves. They didn’t know that we had a method of collecting all that they put out to air,” Mrs Goudge, now 94, said.
“They [the code breakers] were able to decipher it all and find out what the Germans were doing.
“Sometimes I was in charge of about 30 girls … I can truthfully say the four years I spent in the women’s service were the best years of my life.”
Mrs Goudge lived on base during her service, and was promoted to corporal. However, due to the secret nature of her work her role wasn’t formally recognised until decades later.
Mrs Goudge moved to Australia in 1962 with her husband Reg, who served in the air force. She now lives at Manor Court Werribee Aged Care.
