women in flight gear ww2

[dinomartino1]

WAFS ferry pilots lined up on the airfield during WWII. WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron), along with the WFTD (Women’s Flying Training Detachment) was a predecessor of the WASP program.

Mrs. Nancy Harkness Love, founder of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). The WAFS was created in September 1942 within the Air Transport Command, under Nancy Harkness Love’s leadership. WAFS were recruited from among commercially licensed women pilots with at least 500 hours flying time and a 200-hp rating. Their original mission was to ferry USAAF trainers and light aircraft from the factories, but later they were delivering fighters, bombers and transports as well.

Cornelia Fort (with a PT-19A) was a civilian instructor pilot at an airfield near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. The next year, Fort became the second member of what became the Women Airforce Service Pilots, and was working as a ferry pilot when she became the first female pilot in American history to die on active duty

WASP pilot Deanie Parrish in front of P-47 Thunderbolt on the flight line at Tyndall Field, Florida, circa 1943.

Three WASPs on flight line at Laredo AAF, Texas, 22 January 1944.

WASP trainees and their instructor pilot. WASP assignments after graduation were diverse — as flight training instructors, glider tow pilots, towing targets for air-to-air and anti-aircraft gunnery practice, engineering test flying, ferrying aircraft and other duties.

 

[dinomartino1]

Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn leaving their plane, a B-17 Flying Fortress named “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” at the four-engine school at Lockbourne AAF, Ohio, during WASP ferry training.

WASP pilot Elizabeth L. Remba Gardner of Rockford, Illinois, takes a look around before sending her plane streaking down the runway at the Harlingen Army Airfield, Texas, circa 1943.

 

[dinomartino1]

WASP's Pilots at Avenger Field - Sweetwater, Texas

Shirley Slade, WWII WASP pilot of B-26 and B-39

 

[dinomartino1]

First Officer Maureen Dunlop, the daughter of a British mother and Australian father, became a poster girl for ATA after the photo on the right appeared on the cover of the Picture Post

First Lieutenant Maureen Dunlop sits at the controls of her Spitfire fighter plane in September 1944

 

[dinomartino1]

Important work: A group of British and American fliers pictured at White Waltham Airfield, Berkshire, in 1942

Essential information: Good meteorological data was crucial for the RAF's success and women ATA pilots were called upon to provide it. Pictured are fliers from ATA's meteorological division in a photo from 1942

Ready for take-off: ATA pilots and engineers in the cockpit of a Percival Proctor training aircraft on the tarmac at the Elementary Flying Training School in Thame, Oxfordshire, in September 1944

 

[dinomartino1]

Third Officer Helen Ritchie, a Pennsylvania native, climbs into the cockpit of a Hurricane ahead of a delivery flight in 1942

Ready for take-off: ATA pilots and engineers in the cockpit of a Percival Proctor training aircraft on the tarmac at the Elementary Flying Training School in Thame, Oxfordshire, in September 1944

 

[dinomartino1]

Portrait of Mildred Axton, date unknown. Axton was "one of the first three Women Airforce Service Pilots to be trained as a test pilot" and was the first woman to fly a B-29. She passed away in 2010, age 91.

WASP pilot Susie Winston Bain, Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, United States, May 1944

 

[dinomartino1]

Phyllis Ryder (1919-2006), #WASP #pilot, flew #B-24 #bombers from factory to wartime destinations

 

[dinomartino1]

ATA pilot Joy Lofthouse

 

[B-Man2]

Great Photos Dino!

 

[dinomartino1]

A Contraband Camera: Photos Of World War II WASP
Lillian Yonally at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, in 1943. Courtesy of Lillian Yonally
Lillian Yonally was one of the few women with a camera during her WASP service from May 1943 to December 1944. Her color photographs offer a rare glimpse into the short-lived program and the female pilots who were ahead of their time.

WW2 Women Air Force Service Pilots Wasp | WASP pilots ready to fly.

With pillow for reaching foot pedals in front of AT-6 aircraft, Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, 1944. :: Women Airforce Service Pilots

 

[dinomartino1]

-marlene-dietrich-and-jean-gabin-

WWII Photo Female Pilot British Auxiliary Air Force RAF WW2

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) gather at the nose of a plane named "Miss Fifinella," the mascot designed for the women by Walt Disney Studios, circa 1944

 

[B-Man2]

Great Photos Dino!
Thanks

 

[dinomartino1]

 

[dinomartino1]

The original members of the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron: Barbara Towne (from left), Cornelia Fort, Evelyn Sharp, Barbara London and Bernice Batten.
Evelyn Sharp died in a P-38 crash in 1944.

 

[dinomartino1]

USO girls 3RD BOMB GROUP

 

[Lorenzo_l]

Amazing photos, Dino. Thanks for posting!

 

[dinomartino1]

Well those women sure had courage and the determination to overcome all the obstacles they faced to serve their counrty, good to read that Hap Arnold had the balls to stand up to congress for them.

WASPS. Thirty-eight members lost their lives in accidents, eleven died during training, and twenty-seven were killed on active duty missions. Because they were not considered part of the military by the guidelines, a fallen WASP was sent home at family expenseTraditional military honors or note of heroism, such as allowing the U.S. flag to be placed on the coffin or displaying a service flag in a window, were not allowed.

The WASP members were U.S. federal civil service employees, and did not qualify for military benefits.[Each member paid for her own transportation costs to training sites, for her dress uniforms and room and board.Although attached to the U.S. Army Air Forces, the members could resign at any time after completion of their training. On September 30, 1943, the first of the WASP militarization bills was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative John Costello. Both Cochran and Arnold desired a separate corps headed by a woman colonel (similar to the WAC, WAVES, SPARS, and the Marine Corps Women's Reserve heads) The War Department, however, consistently opposed the move, because there was no separate corps for male pilots as distinguished from unrated AAF officers. In January 1944, Costello introduced a bill, HR 4219, to authorize women's commissions in the Army Air Forces. General Arnold felt that there was room for women and men to work as pilots in the Army Air Forces.He testified in front of the House military committee that the WASP were all "good fliers and that he plans to send all the male pilots to fight."

However, the some in the media disagreed with General Arnold and began to write opinion pieces in some of the most important media of the day. TIME, The New York Daily News and the Washington Post all urged women to step down and give the jobs back to men.A journalist, Drew Pearson, questioned the legality of funding the WASP program, and even accused General Arnold of being manipulated by Jackie Cochran's "feminine wiles" in a Washington Times Herald column. The column caused male civilian pilots to increase their efforts to write letters against the program.
On June 21, 1944, the U.S. House bill to provide the WASP with military status, HR 4219, was narrowly defeated 188 to 169. The civilian male pilots lobbied against the bill: reacting to closure of some civilian flight training schools, and the termination of two male pilot training commissioning programs. The House Committee on the Civil Service (Ramspeck Committee) reported on June 5, 1944, that it considered the WASP unnecessary, unjustifiably expensive, and recommended that the recruiting and training of inexperienced women pilots be halted. The committee had found that the program had cost $50 million in government funds. Because of the cost, the program needed to request funding through legislation.

Cochran had been pushing for a resolution of the question: in effect, delivering an ultimatum to either commission the women or disband the program. The AAF had developed an excess of pilots and pilot candidates. As a result, Arnold (who had been a proponent of militarization) ordered that the WASP be disbanded by December 20, 1944 Arnold is quoted from a speech he delivered at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas on December 7, 1944:
"The WASP has completed its mission. Their job has been successful. But as is usual in war, the cost has been heavy. Thirty-eight WASP have died while helping their country move toward the moment of final victory. The Air Forces will long remember their service and their final sacrifice."


On December 7, 1944 the final class of WASP pilots, 71 women in total, graduated from their training regardless of the plan to disband the WASP program within the following two weeks.Following the announcement approximately 20 WASP members offered to continue ferrying aircraft for the compensation of US$1.00 (equivalent to $14.23 in 2018) a year apiece but this offer was rejected. Before the WASP were disbanded, General Arnold ordered all commanding officers at bases where WASPs served, that the "women pilots be issued a certificate similar to an honorable discharge."

Following the group's disbandment some WASP members were allowed to fly on board government aircraft from their former bases to the vicinity of their homes as long as room was available and no additional expenses were incurred. Others had to arrange and pay for their own transportation home.At the conclusion of the WASP program, 915 women pilots were on duty with the AAF: 620 assigned to the Training Command, 141 to the Air Transport Command, 133 to the numbered air forces in the continental United States, 11 to the Weather Wing, 9 to the technical commands and one to the Troop Carrier Command.The WASP members ferried fifty percent of the combat aircraft during the war to 126 bases across the United States. Because of the pioneering and the expertise they demonstrated in successfully flying military aircraft the WASP records showed that women pilots, when given the same training as men pilots, were as capable as men in non-combat flying

During November 1944 WASP members at Maxwell Air Field founded the Order of Fifinella organization.The organization's initial goals were to help the former WASP members find employment and maintain contact between themselves. Through the years the Order of Fifinella issued newsletters, helped influence legislation and organized reunions. The group held its final meeting in 2008 and was disbanded in 2009.

Many WASPs wanted to continue flying after they were disbanded.Commercial airlines turned women pilots away, "saying public opinion wouldn't stand for it." WASP, Teresa James, wrote to congress requesting veteran's status.In order to keep flying, some women wrote Madame Chiang Kai-shek and volunteered for the Chinese Air Force who were fighting in a war against Japan. The United States Air Force offered commissions to former WASP in 1949, through all 121 who accepted the commissions were given support and administrative duties and did not fly.

 

[dinomartino1]

The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up during the Second World War and headquartered at White Waltham Airfield that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, maintenance units (MUs), scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields, but not to naval aircraft carriers. It also flew service personnel on urgent duty from one place to another and performed some air ambulancework. Notably, some of its pilots were women, and from 1943 they received equal pay to their male co-workers, a first for the British government.

Initially, to comply with the Geneva Convention, as many of the ferry pilots were nominally civilians and/or women, aircraft were ferried with guns or other armament unloaded. However, after encounters with German aircraft in which the ferried aircraft were unable to fight back, RAF aircraft were ferried with guns fully armed

The women pilots were initially restricted to non-combat types of aircraft (trainers and transports), but they were eventually permitted to fly virtually every type flown by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm, including the four-engined heavy bombers, but excluding the largest flying boats. Hurricanes were first flown by women pilots on 19 July 1941, and Spitfires in August 1941.

The ATA recruited pilots who were considered to be unsuitable for either the Royal Air Force or the Fleet Air Arm by reason of age, fitness or gender. A unique feature of the ATA was that physical handicaps were ignored if the pilot could do the job, thus there were one-armed, one-legged, short-sighted and one-eyed pilots, humorously referred to as "Ancient and Tattered Airmen".

The ATA also took pilots from neutral countries. Representatives of 28 countries flew with the ATA.

Most notably, the ATA allowed women pilots to ferry aircraft. The female pilots (nicknamed "Attagirls")had a high profile in the press. On 14 November 1939 Commander Pauline Gower MBE was given the task of organising the women's section of the ATA. The first eight women pilots were accepted into service on 1 January 1940, initially only cleared to fly Tiger Moths from their base in Hatfield.They were: Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Rosemary Rees, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather, Gabrielle Patterson, and Winifred Crossley Fair. Overall during World War II there were 166 women pilots, one in eight of all ATA pilots, and they volunteered from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, the Netherlands and Poland. From Argentina and Chile came Maureen Dunlop and Margot Duhalde. Fifteen of these women lost their lives in the air, including the British pioneer aviator Amy Johnson. Two of the women pilots received commendations; one was Helen Kerly.

A notable American member of the ATA was legendary aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran who returned to the United States and started a similar all female organization known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

One of the many notable achievements of these women is that they received the same pay as men of equal rank in the ATA, starting in 1943. This was the first time that the British government gave its blessing to equal pay for equal work within an organisation under its control. At the same time American women flying with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were receiving as little as 65 per cent of the pay given to their male colleagues

 

[dinomartino1]

On 5 January 1941, while flying an Airspeed Oxford for the ATA from Prestwick via Blackpool to RAF Kidlington near Oxford Amy Johnson went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out as her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay.
As a member of the ATA with no known grave, she is (under the name Amy V. Johnson) commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede