At the start of the second world war, the government realised that the Royal Air Force (RAF) would play a pivotal role in defending Britain. The German air force, the Luftwaffe, had been devastatingly successful in invading first Poland then progressing through Europe. Fighter planes harried troops, provided intelligence and protected the heavier bombers. These strategically blew up important defence positions and infrastructure and demoralised the civilians on the ground. In response, the RAF needed to rapidly build its supply of modern planes, trained pilots and air fields.
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First Officer Maureen Dunlop on the cover of Picture Post magazine 1944 |
In response to this need, a organisation called the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was set up rapidly, starting at White Waltham in Berkshire. Originally formed out of volunteers who had already learned to fly, whether commercially, through the RAF or recreationally. The service was created to ferry planes to where they were needed, the active aerodromes, to support the combat pilots. Eventually, the ATA had fifteen ‘ferry pools’, with women making up about twelve percent of the total at 166. The male pilots were mostly unsuitable for active service with the RAF, being impaired in some way or disqualified by age. Many came from other countries who were not able to recruit for combatant roles as their countries were neutral.
The female recruits were different. Most had learned to fly for pleasure before the flying clubs closed in 1939. A few had worked in flying circuses or had taught flying. They ranged in age from teenagers to grandmothers. As well as the British recruits, led by Pauline Gower, groups of American and Polish pilots bolstered the number of active pilots. They were also joined by famous flyers like Amy Johnson, who had become a celebrity after flying solo to Australia in 1930. The press followed the story of the gallant band of diverse characters, calling them the ‘Attagirls’, as they worked through accelerated training to fly everything from low powered Tiger Moths to four engine American bombers like Liberators and Flying Fortresses. Much of their work was delivering new planes such as the Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes for fighter pilot units, and returning damaged planes back for repairs. Women of all ages joined up, married or not, and some had children during their service.
Women pilots were also teaching new pilots, especially in the more difficult planes. When the Bristol Beaufighter was introduced, the RAF refused to test it, considering it too unstable and temperamental. Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC described the moment one was delivered to an airfield in his book Enemy Coast Ahead (1944).
“There is a story that one particular squadron in the north had got to the stage when they almost refused to fly it. They said that it stalled too quickly and that it was unmanageable in tight turns. They were sitting about one foggy day on their aerodrome when there was no flying possible, and were discussing the subject heatedly, when suddenly a Beau whistled over their heads at about 100ft, pulled up into a stall turn, dropped its wheels and flaps and pulled off a perfect landing on the runway. Naturally, this attracted a lot of attention. They all thought that this pilot must have been one of the crack test pilots who had come up to show them how. As it taxied up to the watch office, they all crowded around to get the gen. However, a lot of faces dropped to the ground when from underneath the Beau crawled a figure in a white flying-suit, capped by blonde, floating hair; it was one of the ATA girls. I am told that this squadron had no trouble from Beaus from that day on.”
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| Diana Barnato Walker climbing into the cockpit of a Spitfire |
The ATA were required to fly their planes without radio or radar. They couldn’t phone ahead for weather reports or advice on enemy aircraft, they were on their own. They flew missions in weather conditions that were deemed unacceptable for RAF pilots. There was even a shortage of maps for the ATA, who had to carry out of date charts where they could. Each plane was described in a manual that covered all the most common planes with important information like weight, maximum velocity, fuel capacity and stall speed. Unlike RAF pilots who trained in the planes they were going to fly, ATA pilots were expected to fly anything in the manual. If they met an enemy plane (they did occasion) they carried no ammunition so the best they could do is try to evade the enemy.
The recovery flights of damaged planes were highly dangerous. Aircraft could be labelled ‘one landing only’ or given speed restrictions because they were so damaged they might need to be brought down in an emergency. Many ATA flights ended with a crash landing on a beach, field or road. The ATA soon needed their own engineers, both men and women, who often flew with the pilots to help with the bigger planes or where the damage was unknown or severe. Pilots often flew two or three missions in succession, making their way back from their final drop off or delivery by train.
Writing about a fictional ATA pilot in my latest book, I found it hard not to write about all the heroic women who defied social expectations and took on the most dangerous challenges. A US Army Air Force pilot caught a lift with one of the female pilots, to be absolutely horrified to see her hunkered in the pilot’s seat apparently reading a book while flying, single handed, a huge American bomber. He was not relieved when she explained she’d never flown one before and was just running through her manual before the landing. In many cases, I found true stories were more extreme than fiction.
The ATA women were recognised in 1943 when they were given the same pay as the male ATA pilots. This was the first time any government agency had paid women the same rate as men. By the end of the war, the women had lost eighteen pilots and engineers to crashes, including Amy Johnson. She had been forced to put her plane down on the Thames Estuary on 5 January 1941, in thick fog, attempted to bale out and despite efforts to save her, disappeared under the water.
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| Amy Johnson 1930 |
Over the course of the war, 1320 ATA pilots flew 309,000 delivery or recovery missions with a loss of 174 pilots in total. Without their efforts, RAF fighter and bomber pilots would have had to fly those missions, at a cost of half a million pilot hours flying.
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