women in flight gear ww2

[dinomartino1]

Some of Amelia Earhart's jackets.

 

[dinomartino1]

Hard at work: Pauline Gower, an officer of the Air Transport Auxiliary's No 5 Ferry Pilots Pool, was based at Hatfield in Berkshire during the war years

 

[dinomartino1]

Pauline Gower (far left), Commandant of the Women's Section of the ATA, stands with eight other founding female ATA pilots at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, by newly-completed De Havilland Tiger Moths awaiting delivery to their units. The other pilots are; (left to right), Mrs Winifred Crossley, Miss M Cunnison, The Hon. Mrs Fairweather, Miss Mona Friedlander, Miss Joan Hughes, Mrs G Paterson, Miss Rosemary Rees and Mrs Marion Wilberforce

Second Officer Jadwiga Piłsudska, a Polish female pilot serving in the ATA. Maidenhead, 19 March 1943. She is a daughter of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, the prewar leader of Poland. Before war she was a renowned glider pilot. In September 1939, together with her sister and mother, she escaped from Soviet-occupied Wilno to Sweden and then to Britain

Allied women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary service. Their job done, four female ATA pilots (three Americans and one Polish) leaving an airfield near Maidenhead, 19 March 1943. They are from left to right: Roberta Sandoz of Washington; Kay Van Doozer from Los Angeles; Jadwiga Piłsudska from Warsaw; and Mary Hooper from Los Angeles.
Second Officer Jadwiga Piłsudska is a daughter of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, the prewar leader of Poland. Before war she was a renowned glider pilot. In September 1939, together with her sister and mother, she escaped from Soviet-occupied Wilno to Sweden and then to Britain

Pauline Gower, Commandant of the Air Transport Auxiliary Women's Section, waving from the cockpit of a de Havilland Tiger Moth at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, prior to a delivery flight, 10 January 1940.

The first WAAF nursing orderlies selected to fly on air-ambulance duties to France, standing in front of a Douglas Dakota Mark III of No. 233 Squadron RAF at B2/Bazenville, Normandy. From left to right: Leading Aircraftwoman Myra Roberts of Oswestry, Corporal Lydia Alford of Eastleigh and Leading Aircraftwoman Edna Birbeck of Wellingborough

Portrait of Flight Lieutenant Stefania Wojtulanis, a Polish national and one of the first foreign pilots employed by the ATA, with her parachute on her back, 1941. Note a military censor's mark on the map.

Lucille Parker, Red Cross Aeroclub in a B-17 Flying Fortress of the 303rd Bomb Group. Image stamped on reverse: 'Passed for publication 27 november 1943.' [stamp] and '39692.'[Censor no.] Printed caption on reverse of photograph: 'Passed for publication 27 November 1943' [stamp].'OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY AIR FORCE PHOTO DISTRIBUTED THRU OWI. Pro-HQ.-43-421. Lucille Parker, director of an Aeroclub at an 8th Air Force Bomber Station. She has parachuted from planes 189 times. She has 1,619 hours flying time as a pilot. She flew Civillan Air Patrol early in the war. Back when this field was young and the 8th Air Force was struggling with navigation and mud, Lucille Parker and Adelaide Noaks, of Westchester, N.Y., arrived here to find there was need for a Red Cross club, but nothing to start with. That was in Febrary, 1943; two months later the Aeroclub was opened and Lucille began darning socks. Lucille was able to describe for the boys just what it was like to have to bail out, what to do to protect themselves in falling, how to handle shroud lines and direct their course in descent. Col Charles E. Marion, of Detroit, then commanding the B-17 field. heard about the informal talks to the combat crewmen and stopped at the Aeroclub. He asked Lucille to speak to all the airmen about parachutes; it would be one of dispelling doubt about the unknown, which is mostly the only thing gunners and pilots and folks with similar jobs worry about. Lucille addressed half a dozen gathering of fliers, and told them about parachutes from the lore she acquired with Howard Mays' flying airmen in exchange for being taught to pilot a plane. She offered to do stunt jumping with Mays' flying circus in exchange for being taught to pilot a plane. "For a couple of years, then , " Lucille explains, " I was out at what now is Roosevelt Field at every opportunity. I learned to fly planes up to 800 horsepower, and in exchange I made 189 parachute jumps for Mays' circus all over the states." '

 

[Southoftheborder]

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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

I remember a few years ago an ex member of an AA battery admitted that his battery had almost certainly shot Amy Johnson down by mistake.

I just found the story:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/06/6

 

[dinomartino1]

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

 

[dinomartino1]

The new WAFs, dressed in flying suits and helmets, at flight training on Sept. 23, 1942.

Alice Rhonie, one of the first WAF (Women in the Air Force) pilots to arrive at their East Coast air base on Sep. 23, 1942

 

[dinomartino1]

Women pilots of the “Night Witches” receiving orders for an up-coming raid

Taking flight: Lydia Litvyak prepares to board her fighter plane during the Second World War.
Members of the squadron were dubbed the Night Witches.

Soviet pilot Yekaterina Ryabova examines a map as she leans against the wing of her Second World War fighter plane in Russia

Rufina Gasheva and Nataly Meklin - heroes of the Soviet Union's famed Night Witches squadron

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin introduced an order on October 8, 1941 to deploy three women's force units, including the 588th regiment. Natalia Meklin, Sofia Burzaeva and Polina Gelman are pictured

On a mission: Captain Maria Dolina poses for a photograph in front of her fighter plane during the Second World Wa

 

[dinomartino1]

Yevdokia Bershanskaya (right), commander of the 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, instructs her crew - Yevdokia Nosal and Nina Ulyanenko in this photograph, which was taken in 1942

Lilya Litvyak, Katya Budanova and Mariya Kuznetsov are pictured examining a map ahead of one of their missions in Stalingrad

 

[dinomartino1]

Crimea in 1944as they push a truck up a hill

 

[Pilot]

Great!, real Beauties... Impressive...Thx for sharing

 

[Changeling]

It is little thought of, how these women would fly large bombers and smaller fighter planes to airbases across Great Britain when ever they were needed, imagine one person being able to fly a dozen or more different types of aircraft and in all weathers, they did a remarkable job and a very important one. They must never be forgotten.

 

[B-Man2]

This is another great thread!
Thanks Dino

 

[dinomartino1]

Bernice “Bee” Haydu, a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot, or WASP, during World War II, prepares to fly a Stearman Kaydet during flight training at an auxiliary field near Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, in 1944. Because the plane was an open cockpit bi-plane, during the winter months, the pilots wore winter gear such as a fleece-lines helmet and pants. They would make flight notes on the adhesive tape on the pants. (Courtesy photo)

 

[dinomartino1]

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]

WASPs with PT-19, the first plane usually flown in primary training. Women on far left in dark glasses is Gertrude “Tommy” Tompkins

 

[dinomartino1]

Three WASPs on right wing of A-25 checking the flight plan before a tow mission. The Curtiss A-25 Shrike was a single-engine, two-seat dive bomber deemed to be too vulnerable to enemy fighters, and were therefore redesignated for use as trainers or light personnel and cargo transports. WASPs also used them to fly gunnery training missions.

 

[dinomartino1]

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

 

[dinomartino1]

WASP Dora Dougherty, third from left in front of B-29 “Ladybird” with Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (left), Dorothea Johnson (2nd from left) and B-29 crew.

 

[johnwayne]

Interesting to see how 'glamorous' the US girls look in comparison the the Soviets, not helped I'm sure due to weather conditions when pics were taken! Lots of great pics and thread.

 

[Southoftheborder]

Not much glamour in the Soviet Union in the war. My father was there a couple of times serving on a cruiser escorting convoys to Archangel. He told me that no one was allowed to speak to them when they went ashore and everyone turned away and ignored them. They were the enemy as far as the authorities were concerned and fraternisation was not allowed. That's not how it tends to be portrayed in films now but that was how it really was.

The fact that they were delivering war materiel which was a lifeline to Russia - mostly paid for by Britain BTW - and that many ships and lives were lost made no difference. He told me once that no one bothered to keep life jackets handy on those Arctic convoys because if you went into those waters you would be dead of the cold in less than a minute.