Corporal Janie Patricia Moyles, Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC)
Very few people talk about the discrimination that the CWAC’s faced as the emergence of a large group of capable, self-confident female soldiers created social tension. In 1943, many people believed a women’s place was not in uniform, but in the home. Many Canadians, men and women, held a dim view of women who did join the armed services, generally believing that only “loose women” with low moral standards joined the military.
Women served in the Communications and Electronics Branch in WWII but finding their stories is difficult. I would like to share an article written by Jim Hueglin in 2011, from his blog called Semaphore to Satellite. http://semaphoretosatellite.blogspot.com/2011/08/corporal-pat-moyles-canadian-womens.html Jim was a long-time volunteer at the museum and has always been interested in preserving C&E Branch history.
Janie Patricia Moyles was born on March 22, 1926 in Alberta. She was 16 years old when she enlisted in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. After passing basic training she was sent to the Canadian Signals Training Centre (CSTC), Vimy Barracks, Camp Barriefield as one of the first CWACs to begin trades training as radio operators. She was then assigned to No. 1 Special Wireless Station (SWS) the forerunner of CFS Leitrim, Canada’s oldest operational signal intelligence collection station as a signals intercept operator.
The work that Corporal Moyles was doing was so secret that she and the rest of the women she worked with had a separate wing at the Argyle Barracks in Ottawa, where the female soldiers were quartered.
In her interview with Jim Hueglin, Corporal Moyles recalled:
“At No 1 SWS we were copying subversive signals (HAM operators were prohibited from operating during the War), as well as high-speed radio traffic from Argentina, as I recall. I remember the high-speed receiver was a Hallicrafter. Simultaneously we were in training to copy Japanese military communications that used regular Morse code and modified Morse code, or barred letters, to represent elements of their Katakana phonetic writing system. The Japanese operators were well disciplined and we didn’t intercept much chatter in their Kana format.” Jim Hueglin, http://semaphoretosatellite.blogspot.com/2011/08/corporal-pat-moyles-canadian-womens.html
In 1943, Corporal Moyles was sent to the No. 3 Special Wireless Station in Victoria to intercept messages from the Japanese until the end of the war. Once the war was over, she remained in Victoria intercepting messages from the Russians and Chinese until the CWACs were disbanded on September 30, 1946.
Janie Patricia O’Buck (nee Moyles) passed away May 3, 2022 in Plains, Montana. She was 96.