'We called ourselves the spies,' Wren veteran says of service at HMCS Coverdale

Unlocking secret messages Meet a woman who intercepted Morse code messages from the Soviets during the Cold War.

RIVERVIEW, N.B. -- When you think of Canadian naval bases in the Maritimes Halifax is usually the first to come to mind, but there was another one in Riverview, N.B.?

HMCS Coverdale was a special wireless station built during the Second World War.

Ann Connolly, a women's Royal Canadian Navy veteran, spent much of the 1950s there wearing headphones and spying on the Soviets.

"We called ourselves the spies," says Connolly, who's proud of her time in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service -- better known as the "Wrens." It was a Canadian variation of the British Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

Connolly grew up in Toronto and had just finished high school in 1951 when she heard the Wrens were recruiting.

She also knew she had a special skill that would come in handy because of her time in the Girl Guides.

"We all learned Morse code," Connolly said.

So, at 18, Ann boarded a train and left for training at CFB Cornwallis in the Annapolis Valley.

"I don't think I'd been outside of Toronto really," Connolly says.

That summer the trainees travelled to Halifax to take part in the Natal Day parade, but only one woman could be atop the Wrens' float.

"The girls all voted me to be the princess in the parade," Connolly said. "You looked like royalty, so that was kind of fun!"

Later in the year she was stationed to HMCS Coverdale, which was built on farmers' fields across the Petitcodiac River from Moncton during the Second World War.

The Wrens stationed there listened for transmissions from German U-boats.

A Wren at Coverdale was the first allied service member to learn of Hitler's death.

"It was heard down the road at this little station," Connolly said. "Their supreme leader was dead. And another one came out shortly after that telling the submarines to surface and be ready to surrender."

Connolly and her generation of Wrens listened to dispatches from a new enemy -- the Soviet Union and she spent her time intercepting Morse code signals from Russian subs and ships.

"The Russians had a certain way of sending things," Connolly said. "You could pick it up and after a while you could even know who was sending them. The same person because of the way they were sending Morse code."

Occasionally, the signal came from within our borders.

"We picked up messages that there were spies in Canada," Connolly said. "We picked up those messages and when the cross sectioned them they found them."

They were Soviet spies.

Marriage ended Connolly's time at Coverdale in the mid 1950s. Women were expected to leave if they were starting a family.

"I would have liked to have stayed because it was a lot of fun, but I don't know how I could have done it having four kids in about four years," Connolly said.

Now 86, Connolly still proudly volunteers.

"I've been a member of Girl Guides of Canada for 76 years!" Connolly says.

But when Remembrance Day comes around, she looks back at a time when she was an Able Seaman.

"All I can rememberisde-de-de-dot de-de-de-dot," Connolly said. "That's Morse code! That's one of the Russian signals!"