"I enlisted in 1942 as a Stenographer but became seconded, along with about 50 other girls from all over Australia, to the first Fighter Sector to be set up. Firstly we were sent to New Lambton in Newcastle where we moved into the local school. We were trained here and then later posted to Sydney to work with the Americans who had just arrived.

"We marched each day up to Macquarie Street and down a hundred wooden steps into the railway tunnel between St. James and the Quay where Fighter Sector had been set up. There were no trains there in the tunnel at that time. Here we worked eight hour shifts day and night with the Army, Navy and Airforce and we had a squadron of fighter planes located at Bankstown. We were connected to Radar Stations along the coast and to V.A.O.C. (Volunteer Air Observer Corps) by direct line.

"We knew a lot about unidentified aircraft and ships sunk off the coast of Australia, but were sworn to secrecy. Actually we were on duty when the Japanese submarines were in the harbour and were anxious that their target may have been to come through the Botanical Gardens and throw grenades into Fighter Sector to disrupt Sydney's defence. They were in the harbour for a long time and one fired a torpedo which resulted in the deaths of some cadets on the training ship Kuttabul. One submarine was destroyed by depth charges, one became entangled in the boom across Sydney harbour and blew itself up, and the other escaped but never reached Japan."

EILA M.C. FOX (FORMERLY ACW EILA PICKUP)