The Spitfire Girls
Page 31
Nancy Love was the other American woman determined to fly and see women assist in the war effort. She wasn’t as ambitious as Jackie in that she didn’t want to run a big air corps, but she was an excellent pilot and wrote to officials in 1940, suggesting that women could ferry planes for the army. The army wasn’t interested in her plan until Pearl Harbor was bombed on 7 December 1941. The army didn’t have enough men to fly combat missions and also deliver new planes, and so they announced the establishment of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron on 10 September 1942. Nobody had told Jackie of this development, and when she read about it in a newspaper, she immediately returned home to the US, shocked that a women’s squadron had been established and that she wasn’t the head of it!
On her return, General Arnold worked out a compromise: Nancy’s squadron started at the same time as Jackie’s training programme, which was called the Women’s Flying Training Detachment. By the summer of 1943, both programmes had combined into one big group – the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Despite the resounding success of the WASP, in December 1944 the programme ended, much to the disappointment of its members. Earlier in the year, Congress had defeated the bill that would have finally made the WASP part of the Army Air Forces. It wasn’t until 2010 that the leaders of Congress would present the Congressional Gold Medal to the WASP – the signing of the bill to award the medal was unanimously supported by Congress and signed in the presence of some WASPs by President Barrack Obama. The speech by General ‘Hap’ Arnold in this story, at the final graduation ceremony, includes much of what he actually said in his speech at the end of 1944.
In England, female pilots made faster progress during the early 1940s, mainly because there was such a need for experienced pilots to transport planes from a factory outside of London to Scotland. It certainly wasn’t because the general public was more accepting, as these pilots faced much criticism from all fronts, and had to prove that they deserved to be in the air. But after the Battle of Britain, during which a quarter of the country’s 1,000 pilots were either killed or seriously injured, they simply couldn’t spare RAF pilots for any non-combat flying. That’s when women ferry pilots became crucial to winning the war.
Pauline Gower, the daughter of MP Robert Gower, was an inspirational pilot who cleared the way for women in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She was a pioneer in female aviation and insisted on women being paid equally to their male counterparts after finding out their weekly pay was 20 per cent less. Pauline welcomed Jackie Cochran to fly with them when she arrived from the United States, and although they were very different women, they respected each other’s abilities in the sky. This is another part of the story that is very much based on fact.
Pauline was part of the ‘First Eight’: the eight women pilots who were permitted to ferry Tiger Moths from London to Scotland. Each woman had to have over 500 hours’ flying experience, and to start with they were only allowed to fly light aircraft. It wasn’t long, though, before their numbers grew from 8 to 166 female pilots, and they were flying not only Tiger Moths, but 147 different types of aircraft, including four-engine bombers that even intimidated most male pilots. The First Eight were all highly experienced pilots, but when the squadron expanded many of the new recruits didn’t even drive a car, let alone fly planes! They were also from extremely varied backgrounds, from socialites to working girls, stunt pilots to architects and even ballet dancers. These incredibly brave women often flew several planes every single day once they’d completed their training; often they had never flown the plane they were told to pilot. They received a ferry notebook that gave them instructions and specifics for the aircraft, and away they went, into conditions that were often cloudy and dangerous, and with no way of defending themselves in the case of enemy fire. And with no instrument training or radios to use.
The favourite plane of the ‘Attagirls’ was the Spitfire, which was light to the touch, fast and incredibly sensitive. It was nicknamed the ultimate ladies’ plane, but it certainly wasn’t easy to fly despite being loved by all the girls. After reading about the love these brave women had for the Spitfire, it was the logical namesake for this book, and I wish to honour the memory of every single female pilot – true feminists before their time and women I greatly admire. Their story is certainly one that deserves to be told.
Of the 166 female ATA pilots in Britain, 15 died serving their country. Unlike in the United States, these women were recognised for their outstanding efforts immediately after the war, with the entire ATA (men and women included) credited with helping to win the war. In total, the ATA ferried 308,567 aircraft, with some women personally delivering in excess of 1,500 planes during their time with the ATA.
Many events in this novel are factual; however, it is very much a work of fiction, and I have had to make exceptions to fit within the parameters of my story.
As with all of my novels, I need to thank my incredible team at Amazon Publishing – Sammia Hamer, Victoria Pepe, Sophie Wilson and Gill Harvey. Thank you also to the design and author relations team at Amazon, as well as to my agent, Laura Bradford. And finally to my amazing readers – you are the reason I can write the stories I love! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for buying my books.
Soraya xx
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2014 Carys Monteath
Soraya M. Lane graduated with a law degree before realising that law wasn’t the career for her and that her future was in writing. She is the author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction, and her novel Wives of War was an Amazon Charts bestseller.
Soraya lives on a small farm in her native New Zealand with her husband, their two young sons and a collection of four-legged friends. When she’s not writing, she loves to be outside playing make-believe with her children or snuggled up inside reading.
For more information about Soraya and her books, visit www.sorayalane.com or www.facebook.com/SorayaLaneAuthor, or follow her on Twitter: @Soraya_Lane.