A Hampshire woman has spoken for the first time of her role in an underground army set up during World War II.

Prudence Battersby, of Malvern Close, Bishop's Waltham, was a member of one of the "secret army" units set up to harass the enemy in the event of invasion.

While the men were trained in sabotage and to kill silently, the women operated radios and broadcast false messages. Like the men, they worked in total secrecy. Friends and families were never told. All signed the Official Secrets Act.

"I never told a soul at the time and have never spoken publicly about it," said Prudence (81), who ran an antiques shop Botley for 18 years until she retired in 1989.

The men were mostly farmers or other reserved occupations who used membership of the Home Guard as a cover story. But the women were full-time officers in the Auxiliary Territorial Service: Prudence was a junior commander. "There were about 50 of us, all chosen for our voices. We were taught to broadcast.

"Our role was to confuse the enemy. We used to broadcast gibberish and make things up. We were also taught how to shoot and each station was given a pistol."

The women were under orders to shoot any German soldier who discovered them and, if they missed, "to shoot each other". They operated from underground bases, often dug in woodlands.

Prudence was based firstly in Doncaster, then in Suffolk and finally in Reigate. In one of the bases, access was by a trapdoor hidden in a tree, while another was beneath a woodman's hut. "Nobody even knew we existed," she said.

They worked in eight-hour shifts around the clock and part of their duties was to communicate with other "cells" of the organisation.

"We had a code and used to send proper messages to auxiliers around us. We got to know them without knowing them," said Prudence, who said the farmers among would ask if they needed any food and drop eggs off at pre-arranged points.

Conditions were spartan, with just two beds, two chairs and two radios and the three women in each unit just had each other for company. Perhaps not surprisingly, they often fell out, said Prudence.

"It was terribly lonely and it really got me down after a bit. I did almost two years. It was boring work and tremendously claustrophobic. A lot of the women committed suicide. In the end they did finally take the pistols away from us."

Prudence got herself transferred on medical grounds and continued her war career, first looking after women bombed out of their homes and then in the Special Operations Executive, helping put troops behind enemy lines.

It was there she met her late husband, Eric, an army major in the Special Intelligence Corps. They had five children and Prudence is now a great-grandmother. "I had an interesting war, but then, I've had an interesting life."

Meridian TV is broadcasting a series on the auxiliary units, Secret Army, on Fridays at 11.30pm. The women auxiliers feature in episode six on March 28th.