Radar operator and WAAF veteran involved in D-Day landings dies aged 107
A Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) veteran who was involved in the D-Day landings has died aged 107.
On 6 June 1944, during the Normandy landings, Rose Davies, as a radar operator, would play a key role in its success alongside hundreds of personnel in the UK, supporting Operation Overlord.
She was also a recipient of the Legion d'Honneur – France's top military honour – for her radar surveillance work during the Second World War.
During the D-Day landings, Rose Davies operated a radar surveillance system to monitor shipping in the English Channel.
Usually Rose and her colleagues worked in six-hour shifts but on D-Day she worked for 10 hours without pause.
She recalled to the RAF Benevolent Fund in 2021: "We had no idea what was going on but we could feel something in the atmosphere, something important was going to happen.
"But until we got into the ops room we had no idea.
"It was awe-inspiring, very exciting but sad too because you did not know how many of those boats and little ships were going to come back and that is a very sobering thought.
"It was exciting as well, to think we were part of something that was so important to the war effort."
'You never forget'
Rose was stationed at RAF Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, having joined the RAF at the age of 25.
Her fiancé Wilfred Dawson was stationed overseas in the Middle East and she decided to join the war effort, in the hope of bringing him home sooner.
The pair would later marry, and settle in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. Wilfred, who served as a wireless operator on RAF Bomber Command in North Africa and Malta, flying on Wellington and Lancaster aircraft passed in 2021 aged 99.
She added: "It never leaves you, you never forget. I forget the details but I remember the feelings of that day."
Rose downplayed her role in history when talking to the RAF Benevolent Fund, saying: "I always felt my role in D-Day was insignificant in comparison to those brave lads who risked their lives and in some cases lost them."
D-Day 80
On 5 and 6 June this year, a series of major commemorations in the UK and France will honour the brave personnel who risked their lives for freedom and peace.
You can find out what events are on and how can you get involved here.
The British Normandy Memorial recently revealed the Standing with Giants stillages ready to travel to the British Normandy Memorial for D-Day 80.
Standing with Giants is a community project set up in 2019 by artist Dan Barton and a group of local volunteers. They create large-scale art installations using recycled building materials and provide meaningful spaces for people to visit and reflect.
They will install 1,475 silhouettes across the wild meadow fields of the British Normandy Memorial called 'For Your Tomorrow'.
The giant silhouettes represent the servicemen under British command who fell on 6 June '44, making their "return" to the shores where they landed nearly 80 years ago.
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