What did you do in the War…Auntie Daph?

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“Actually, your Granny could have flown one.”
Voice from the back.
“I did!”

Classic! : )

I have a very good friend ( she is a retired AAC Lynx pilot) whose Gran is still going strong and is Ex-ATA.
She took her on a guided tour of an aviation museum last year when the guide, answering a question about the difficulty of flying a Spitfire, gave a very informative chat concluding with the line.
“Actually, your Granny could have flown one.”
Voice from the back.
“I did!”

All I ever knew was that she was a ‘radio operator’.

She was not aircrew or ATA although her uncle, my great uncle, was ground ATA.

It may just be ‘a jolly for the girls’ after it was all over.

Mark

R6915 are you thinking of Pamela Tulk-Hart? – she co- wrote a book “Paid to be safe” based on her experiences.

She is wearing a Telegraphist badge in the first pic – maybe flew as a radio operator on ferry flights?

The ladies standing second and third from the right have faces vaguely familiar. Are they ATA by any chance? I talked to one ex ATA lady pilot some twelve or so years ago at her book launch. She had written a fictional story about those times. Can’t be sure of her name, now, Peggy ??????

She told me a hair raising story of flying a Swordfish down from the north of Scotland intending to arrive (eventually) back at Fairey’s at ‘Hounslow Heath’. It was desperately needed for inspection and rectification as a development aircraft.

The weather was terrible, high winds and snow most of the time, even the seagulls, were not flying, she told me. The best (Met) route was down the west coast of the UK. She got to Bristol / Filton after a day and a half battling the easterly gales. Worse still, there was a torpedo attached that the armaments people at the FAA base could not get off without some chance of detonation!

The aircraft range was severely limited due to the weather and her inability to find open airfields to land and get fuel. She said the final insult was that the aircraft had a G suffix to the serial number and as a consequence had to be close guarded and she was therefore a very unpopular lady. She did get it to Fairey’s factory and was given a couple days off to get over the ordeal.

Consequently it was the worst flight she ever undertook for the ATA! I cannot see any rank badges on the ladies either that may be supports the theory?

Very true. I only found a couple of years ago out that my wife’s aunt was a WAAF in Hut 3 latterly Block D(3) at Bletchley Park. She enjoyed her 90th earlier this year with a memory as sharp as a razor and with the energy of a 70 year old!!

Im only guessing here but i would have thought it could have something to do with delivering aircraft types from factory’s to units ?

That Swordfish had a lot of seats. Wing walking perhaps?
It is a shame so many stories have been lost, especially when they would bring a photograph alive. My late aunt Fran filled in forms and accident cards as a wartime WAAF, the same cards my very much alive aunt Philippa consulted at the Air Historical branch back in the eighties. Small world etc.