One of the enduring images of the Battle of Britain are the dashing, young pilots of “The Few.� Impossibly young for such a grave task, they often entered combat with very little training under their belts.
Behind the scenes another group of pilots, no less brave or dedicated, performed the essential duty of ferrying aircraft from factories to the airfields. The pilots belonged to the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). And many of them were women.
The ATA was formed, like many of the behind the scenes operations, to ensure that the front line servicemen were to available solely for the battle at hand. Given there was an obvious shortage of manpower, women (though not without objections) were welcomed into the ATA as pilots (about 150 joined up during the course of the war).
The first women to join (under Pauline Gower) were Winifred Crossley, Margaret Cunnison, Margaret Fairweather, Mona Friedlander, Joan Hughes Gabrielle Patterson, Rosemary Rees, and Marion Wilberforce. It was dangerous work. They often had no radio and not weapons. Easy targets if found by the Luftwaffe (if they encountered any enemy aircraft, the instructions were to turn full throttle and head inland). Often the flying conditions were atrocious, with the pilots having to try and find their way with little or no visibility to a safe airfield. Equally good as their male counterparts this was recognized as they received equal pay (though this did not happen until 1943). The remarkable thing about ATA pilots is that they had to fly any of the aircraft available to the RAF. From Tiger Moths to Spitfires to heavy bombers such as the Halifax and the Lancaster. In a single day (as one pilot, Lettice Curtis did), they could be asked to fly a Spitfire, a Mitchell, a Mosquito and a Stirling.
Diana Barnato Walker in 1945 climbing into a Spitfire
Many of the pilots, such as Amy Johnson, and the remarkable Diana Barnato-Walker (as every bit as dashing and exciting as a Spitfire ace), were extraordinary fliers. It is a bit of little known World War II history that was uncovered reading Jonathan Glancey’s Spitifre: The Biography. Glancey could have easily focused on “The Few� and while he does recount their deeds and heroism , he gives the epilogue over to a conversation with Diana Barnato Walker. For Glancey, Diana Barnato Walker personifies the Spitfire.
The romance of being a RAF pilot in World War II was tempered by tragedy. 20 women died in the service of the ATA (including Amy Johnson) while Barnato Walker lost her fiance, Humphrey Gilbert, during the war in a Spitfire crash and her later husband, Derek Walker, in another aircraft crash in November 1945.
If given the chance, many of the women ATA pilots would have flown combat missions. That was never going to happen even though Lady Mary Bailey (an accomplished pilot herself) pestered Churchill demanding that she be made a Spitfire pilot (note that the Soviet Union did have women combat squadrons).
And while The Few are remembered well, the duties performed by the aviatrices of the ATA were vital to the war effort. Their stories as exciting and compelling as any RAF pilot who flew in the war.
Excellent post, Shaun. I’d love to have been an aviatrix in another life!
I found out about this from the Antiques Roadshow! A person had brought their mother’s or grandmother’s logbook in, a huge variety of aircraft flown by the pilot in question.
I’ve recently taken to advising female friends who are looking at a career change to consider becoming aviatrices. I think they think I’m joking!
Sweet!
That’s my feminism!
I have posted this before but let us remember the fabulous women combat pilots of the Soviet Union during WW2, espeically the “night witches” of the 588th Women’s Night Bomber Regiment, flying the Polikarpov biplanes. In the latter they were chosen because they were smaller and lighter than men and could approach enemy positions by gliding at night after having switched off the motor some 20 km before the target area and glide in (hence the requirement for lightweight pilots). They would then drop a couple of bombs, switch on, hopefully, the engine and get out of there. See link
Here is a book about them link
Less well known but just as brave.
The female soviet snipers.
I just can’t let this thread stand bereft of a photo of my favourite aviatrix:
Not being entirely flippant – since part of the inspiration for the film was the same era Shaun’s writing about.
Btw, where is Nabs these days? He’d love this thread…
Normally he’d be all over it like a cheap flying suit.
My grandmother was an aircraft fitter with a Hawker Hurricane squadron in SE England during the Battle of Britain. My grandfather was an aircraft fitter on a Spitfire squadron which shared the same field. It was how they met.
Kim:
Why not this life? Go for it, lady!
Ken Scott:
Thanks for that link ….. which mentioned aviatrices in zabaikalsku and dalny units – well, apart from their releasing male pilots to fight the fascists, I wonder how many Soviet avatrices took part in defeating the Japanese Imperial Army in Manchuria in mid-1945?
Nabokov:
Yeah, where the-bloody-hell-are-you?
I’d thought you like this thread Kim! I was also thinking of trying to
Ken, I did consider a longer post looking at aviatrices in general during the war but time constraints decided that I’d just focus on the ATA.
That is a nice bit of personal history cam.
And yes, where is Nabs?
Kim:
If you haven’t had a go already ….. why not head head down to your local aero club or flying school for a short TIF [trial intructional flight].
Don’t worry about your leg – if it’s a low wing aircraft then you don’t even have to climb up to dip the tank [check your fuel level - a handy thing to know] and if it’s a high wing, there are easy ways of doing it.. Anyway, the instructor will be the one to do that on a TIF. Getting in and out of most aircraft is a breeze once you get the hang of it. There are only two pedals [for the rudder and the nosewheel and brakes - one left; one right] and you can work them fairly easily from your hips and thighs. [No drinking beforehand though; aviation people tend to freak out about anyone doing things that bring pretty aircraft into unintentional contact with terrafirma].
Off you go …. into the Wide Blue Yonder.
Onya Graham! And Kim, give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose.
Spiffing idea. I recommend a Tiger Moth.
Heh!
Maybe I should. I mean, I can drive a car with a prosthetic leg.
And think of the spiffing outfits!
You’ve got one more leg than Douglas Bader, and he shot down 22 German planes.
I wouldn’t try and beat him, though, CASA might have words with you.
Kim,
Best places to have an introductory flight are away from main centres, hence, near Sydney, Illawarra Regional Airport does an 65-dollar intro flight ina Cessna 152. Excellent visuals over the ocean, diving down to the dolphins and so on. Brilliant fun. Speaking from experience…
From up Brisbane way? In which case
http://www.freeflying.com.au/brisbane.asp
flying from Redcliffe
Go for it , Kim.
Tiger Moths are magnificent crates and heaps of fun.
Must be a ‘drome around Brisbane where you could maybe “co-pilot” a test flight.
I dunno Kim, as a Queenslander why not take advantage of the perfect weather for a Drifter ultralight.
Though remember to strap your leg on tight, that day, or you might end up dropping it a few thousand, um, feet…
Redcliffe’s a nice spot.
Heh.
It’s attached by suction!
Typical hypocrites. Banging on about global warming one minute then flying lessons the next.
But there is the fact that Douglas Bader never met a machine a couldn’t crash.
Thanks for the troll, Peter.
Can I choose this time to link to aviation grade ethanol, or perhaps these aircraft diesel engines, which are radically more efficient than the ancient Lycoming and Continental petrol engines designs that dominate the light aircraft market?
And maybe I could point to the fact that a good ultralight will fly 250 kilometres on 12 litres of fuel in about an hour. That’s Prius type fuel economy at two and a half times the speed.
And I’m lighter than a person with two legs!
Kim:
] but you might prefer something fully-enclosed first up [Cessna152, Lightwing, etc].
Robert Merkel made a good suggestion about a Drifter [just like a flying motorbike
If it has toebrakes [at top of each rudder/nosewheel pedal], use them only when travelling [taxying] very slowly or not at all; the throttle and rudder pedals will be you most places you want to go – and stop – on the ground.
Have fun.
You still have to be careful if captured by Germans though Kim.
I was an avid watcher of Hogan’s Heroes, Christine, so I should be alright!
It’s a pity we missed Talk Like a Pilot Day http://www.talklikeapilot.org/
Next year they should combine it with Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Arrrrrrr Smudger, that would be just cracking if they could be blobbed up. Tally ho, aye.
Kim:
Christine Keeler warned
Yeah, they might put you in a Grob Egrett or something of similar quality and you’ld never want to fly second class again
L-O-L
Shaun:
Beaut post. No ferried aircraft, no Victory.
There was a great line in the Len Deighton book “Bomber” that describes a female ATA pilot delivering a Lancaster bomber to the squadron. It described the perfect landing – much better than that usually performed by the make pilots of the squadron, and the pilot getting out. Deighton describes the ’slim-hipped lothario’ of B-Flight who had a bet with his crew that he would take her out to lunch, but lost the bet. Deighton went on the recount a conversation between the female ATA pilot – who would, before the day was out, return to the factory and deliver maybe two more planes to airfields in the SE of the country, all by herself, no navigator or co-pilot – and her mother. I am probably paraphrasing it, but the conversation went along the lines of:
Mother: It sounds terribly dangerous, dear.
Female ATA pilot: Only after I’ve landed, Mother.
OK, it may be fiction, but anyone who wants a good, well researched and even-handed account of part of the allied bombing (terror) campaign against Germany from 1939-45 should have a read. Anyway.
Cheers…
You’d think any self respecting aero club would have a Blohm und Voss 141 kicking around the place somewhere: http://home.cinci.rr.com/estople/weirdair/bv-141_3.jpg
CK [re BuV 141 ]
Dunno. Would be fun for an instructor with a nervous ab initio student :-0
Tower – “Clear for take-off. Commence rosary”
Graham,
Most aircraft I know have toebrakes for turning on the ground, including the Cessna 152. The rudder is not vedry effective at low (i.e. taxying speeds) because there is not enough air going past it. Using the throttle as differential turning device would only work on twin engine planes. Obviously. The toe brakes are spit extensions of the rudder pedals and you rest the ball of your foot on the rudder pedal and deftly stab at the toe brakes to change direction. Kim may have some difficulty with this.
But never fear Kim! Have I just the plane for you! It is called the ERCO Ercoupe! The most wonderful aeroplane ever built. It has no rudder pedals! It is easy to fly. It is spin proof. It is cheap, cheap to run. It is not a ultralight. It has a sliding sliding copy and you can fly it with it open with wind in your hair. (Wearing leather and goggles is quite okay).
Why didn’t it become wildly popular? Why did the company go out of business? The story (a conspiracy theory) is that pilots, i.e. instructors, saw it as a threat to their livelihood and badmouthed it, and boycotted it as a instructional plane.
Be that as it may, it is a gorgeous Deco design. It has the most fanatical owners club in the world.
I am going to buy one before I die.
Put “ERCO ercoupe� into Google or wiki. Or go directly to LINK
Ken Scott:
L-O-L but Kim would need to have a fair bit of practice playing with toebrakes before taxying around tight places.
Certainly did not mean using throttle for turning a single engine aircraft!
ERCO Ercoupe? Had a demo in an Eagle [formerly Western Australian and now Malaysian]; terrific.
And Ligetis Stratos – just wait until someone puts THAT into production [I wish!] .