The Women of the ATA and RAF Morale

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 In the environment of the Second World War, the women of the ATA also played a role that is probably impossible in today's world. Working at the interface between the civilian and military spheres, engaged in activities that were almost exclusively male, yet still -- in accordance with the customs of their age -- very feminine in behaviour, the women pilots of the ATA had an impact on the morale of the fighting men in unique ways. 

 This role is best illustrated by a series of anecdotes reported directly. 

In December 1944, a Mosquito Squadron suffered severe losses in a short space of time and needed a large number of replacement aircraft. These new Mosquitos were an newer Mark and had different flying characteristics. The CO contacted the ATA and suggested his men could do with some 'bucking-up' so a group of particularly attractive women pilots were assigned to collecting the replacement aircraft and told to fly them to the squadron with explicit instructions to 'stay for lunch at the Officers' Mess' rather than, as one of them put it, "gulping the issue chocolate as fast as possible." [1]  She continues:

Everyone of us except Lois arrived safely, being certain to make careful -- and beautiful -- landings. The squadron CO had sent a RAF transport with some of his officers up to the airfield, (a) to ensure they saw us land, and (b) to drive us back to their Mess. Whilst we were awaiting Lois' arrival, we joked and flirted with the young pilots, who asked us who was coming next.  Lois had married at 16, and her daughter, also 16, had herself a baby. So one of us chirped up, 'The flying grandmother!' The young men looked apprehensive but then we heard the sound of approaching Merlins, and said 'Ah, here comes Grannie in her Mossie.'

Lois did a dainty landing, taxied in, then emerged from under the under hatch looking her usual immaculate self. She apologized for keeping everyone waiting. The RAF pilots, who had obviously expected some grey-haired, doddering old thing, were entranced by the apparition of femininity that had at last turned up. We had a most enjoyable day. [2]

The Pool Commander Hugh Bergel reported a similar incident. The CO of a Operational Training Unit at which fighter pilots converted to Typhoons called the ATA to ask Bergel if he "would as far as possible arrange for any future Typhoons to be delivered by our women pilots, to reassure his nail-biting pupils." [3]

Similarly,  when 247 Squadron converted from Spitfire IXs to Tempests to chase 'doodle bugs.' The CO James Edwards noted that his pilots relaxed noticeably when the first Tempest delivered to West Malling by the ATA was delivered by a pretty young lady. [4]

Yet perhaps the best anecdote comes from none other than Wing Command Guy Gubson VC, DSO, DFC, famous as the commander of the Dam Buster Raid. He wrote in his wartime memoir Enemy Coast Ahead the following:

...one particular squadron in the north had got to the stage where they refused to fly the [Beaufighter]. They said 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 that this pilot must have been one of the crack test pilots who had come up to show them how. As it taxied 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 white flying-suit, capped by blond, floating hair; it was one of the ATA girls. I am told that this squadron had no trouble with Beaus from that day on. [5]

Nowadays, of course, with women routinely flying, this unique ability to 'buck-up' their male colleagues has been lost but it was very real in the Second World War.

A former ATA woman pilot is one of the leading female protagonists in the Bridge to Tomorrow Trilogy about the Berlin Airlift.  Find out more about the series at: https://helenapschrader.net/bridge-to-tomorrow/

Watch a video teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rS_Mwy3TU 

                                      

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 [1] Diana Barnato Walker, Spreading my Wings, Grub Street, 2003, 177.

[2] Walker, 178. 

[3] Hugh Bergel, Fly and Deliver: A Ferry Pilot's Log Book, Airlife, 1982, 70 

[4] David Oliver, Fighter Command 1939-1945, Harper Collins, 2000, 146. 

[5] Guy Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead,  Goodall, 1946/2000, 113.

 

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