FANYS

Jill Price joined the FANY early in 1943, to train as a wireless operator in the new unit recruited for SOE. The initial FANY training was at Overthorpe Hall in Banbury, with Lady Hailsham as the C.O.
After some weeks there they were sent to Fawley Court in Henly-on-Thames, a Wren designed house in a big park on the banks of the river. They slept in attics which were freezing cold and learnt to send and receive morse code in huts in the grounds. When they reached the required speeds in morse they were posted to Grendon Underwood, off the A41 between Aylesbury and Bicester. It was another big house, but they lived in huts and worked shifts, including nights.
They sent and received messages from the Resistance movement in France, and later in Norway. The messages were all in 5-letter groups, which were then de-coded by FANY coders. The work could be exciting, an agent might suddenly stop sending when a German found him and his radio set, but a lot of the time it was very boring especially on night shift.
When off duty they cycled to to the A41, left there bikes unlocked and hitched the brick lorries to Aylesbury or Bicester to search of food!
Jill was de-mobbed when the Eurpean War ended, but some FANYS stayed on and went to the middle east.

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