Marie, 98: 'We felt it our duty to serve'

TEENAGER Marie Scott had no idea her job as a switchboard operator in 1944 would help change the course of history.

- By Giles Sheldrick Chief Reporter

She was 17 and working in a top secret bunker, passing coded messages from military commanders to soldiers landing on the D-Day beaches.

Women's Royal Naval Servicewoman Marie squeezed in the tunnels of Fort Southwick, Hampshire, the operations centre monitoring the invasion fleet - could hear every blood-curdling sound when the troops used their radios.

Marie, 98, said: “In my head, I was in the war because what I heard was machine gun fire continuously. Men shouting orders. Men screaming.

“The Germans had machine gun nests that were very well concealed and they just mowed them down as they went on the beaches, and I could hear all that.” Eight decades have not dimmed the harrowing memories. And today Marie, of New Malden, Surrey, despairs at what the world has become.

But she firmly believes veterans like her should be able to pay their respects to those who fell. And long after the survivors are gone, they too should be remembered.

She is backing the Daily Express Respect Our War Heroes campaign, demanding PM Sir Keir Starmer helps some of the last remaining hereos to honour their comrades.