The women who made D-Day possible: How crucial work under-the-radar helped the Allies stage daring Normandy invasion to liberate Western Europe from Nazi tyranny 100 years ago

One hundred years ago this week, 156,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy France on D-Day to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny.

It is one of the most remembered battles in history, with annual commemoration ceremonies held on the famous beaches where thousands of men died.

But some argue that celebration of the role women played in helping the Allies prepare for the invasion has been neglected by comparison.

As D-Day approaches its 100th anniversary on June 6, here MailOnline tells the stories of just some of the women who helped play their part in the world’s largest amphibious invasion.

Christian Lamb and Patricia Owtram were two of the able women who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, known as the Wrens, to help draw up the detailed plans.

Here, MailOnline tells the stories of just some of the women who contributed to their roles in the world’s largest amphibious invasion. In the photo: Christian Lamb, 25 years old

Christian Lamb (pictured) was one of the able women who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, known as the Wrens, to help draw up the detailed plans

Lamb, aged 103, flies a Miles Magister plane, 80 years after she was offered a lift home from a party in one by a Polish officer in World War II

Pictured: Troops of the 48th Royal Marines at Saint-Aubin-sur-mer on Juno Beach, Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Working alone in a small office LondonLamb tried to ensure that British troops were in exactly the right place as they clambered onto the beaches of Normandy under enemy fire during the D-Day landings.

The young Wrens officer prepared painstakingly detailed maps to guide the landing craft crews that brought the men to shore.

The maps “showed railways, roads, churches, castles, every possible feature that could be visible to an incoming intruder and from every angle,” Lamb, now 103, told The Associated Press.

‘It was intense and exciting work, and of course details were crucial. It was crucial that the maps were 100% accurate.’

Lamb remembers an atmosphere of tension as senior military and civilian officials around her prepared for Operation Overlord, the long-discussed Allied invasion of Europe that finally ended the Nazi grip on the continent.

While Lamb worked on the maps, Patricia Owtram (pictured) used the German language skills she had learned as a teenager from the Austrian refugees who worked as cooks and maids for her grandparents in Lancashire.

Later in life, Owtram became a TV producer for shows such as University Challenge and Sky at Night. Pictured at her London home on April 10, 2024

British troops at Juno Beach on D-Day in 1944

Many historians describe D-Day as the ‘beginning of the end’ of World War II

In total, D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history, with 153,000 troops, supported by 10,440 aircraft and 6,330 ships. In the photo: Canadian soldiers land on the beach of Courseulles in Normandy on June 6, 1944

Occasionally she passed Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the stairs on her way to work, and she wondered what pressure the British leader was under.

‘He was such a wonderful man. I mean, he gave speeches that everyone listened to,” she said. ‘And I could hear him now saying, ‘We will fight on the beaches, fight in the hills. We will never surrender.” We all felt the same way. Absolute.’

By June 1944, Lamb had already been doing her part to defeat the Nazis for almost five years.

In the summer of 1939, she was in France preparing to go to Oxford when her father, an admiral in the Royal Navy, sent her a telegram telling her to come home because war was about to begin. to break out. Arriving in Britain on the day war was declared, she immediately joined the Wrens.

A year later she was in charge of degaussing ships entering and leaving the Thames Estuary. This meant that she ensured that ships were demagnetized so that they were less susceptible to damage from magnetic mines.

Her next assignment was as a conspiracy officer in Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy. Lamb was part of a team of Wrens who used information from radar stations and coastguards to map ship movements through the English Channel on a large flat table.

Allied soldiers arrive en masse on D-Day with vehicles and equipment

Owtram saw Churchill (pictured in 1940) and General Montgomery on the cliffs of Dover in the run-up to D-Day

The Allies suffered approximately 10,250 casualties on D-Day, of which approximately 4,440 were killed. Pictured graves at Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers from World War II in France

She later took on a similar role in Belfast, charting the movements of convoys carrying supplies from North America. That included manning her post when news arrived that a convoy escorted by her future husband’s ship, the destroyer HMS Oribi, had been attacked by a U-boat wolf pack.

Twelve of the convoy’s 43 ships were lost, but HMS Oribi reached Newfoundland safely. The couple married six months later, in December 1943.

Lamb said she had a singular resolve to help drive the Nazis out of France, especially from centers of arts and culture such as Caen and Bayeux, where she had studied.

“I really wanted (to do) anything that would help me get France back to the French,” she said. “We wanted them to be together again.”

While Lamb worked on the maps, Patricia Owtram (maiden name Davies) used the German language skills she had learned as a teenager from the Austrian refugees who worked as cooks and maids for her grandparents in Lancashire.

She joined the Wrens as soon as she was old enough and was sent to listening bases on the south and east coasts of England to intercept messages from German ships.

Owtram said she had written down ‘exactly what we heard’ and if it was in code she would teleprint it to Bletchley Park.

In her role she would never know what she would hear during a shift, with some boring nights where she heard nothing, and ‘quite exciting’ ones with lots of action.

Her work was so secret that she couldn’t even tell her sister Jean, who she later discovered, long after the war, was also deciphering codes.

World War II Supermarine Spitfire fighter performs a flyover over the White Cliffs of Dover during Remembrance Sunday in 2019

In the run-up to D-Day, Owtram, then 20, was involved in scanning German radio from a secret base on the white cliffs of Dover.

While on watch atop the cliff reading a book, she was surprised to look down and see a small party approaching on the road below.

‘To my surprise, the first two I saw were Churchill and General Montgomery [who commanded the landing forces]. I thought, what the hell were they doing on our cliff at eight in the morning? “They all said ‘Good morning’ and stood and looked at France,” she said The Sunday times.

She later learned that the leaders on the east side of the Channel wanted to be seen as part of the plan to deceive the Nazis because the invasion would take place from the west side.

Later in life, Lamb had three children and became a gardening author.

Owtram became a TV producer for shows such as University Challenge and Sky at Night.

Both women have written memoirs and believe that not enough is known among young people about the war years, especially about the important role women played behind the scenes as spies, resistance members and code breakers.