Women's Auxiliary Air Force

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English

File:Join the Waaf Art.IWMPST4916.jpg
Poster

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (Template:IPAc-en), was the female auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 181,000 at its peak strength in 1943, (15.7% of the RAF)<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.

History

A Women's Royal Air Force had existed from 1918 to 1920 but had been disbanded in the wake of the end of the First World War, alongside the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp (1917–1921) and the first iteration of the Women's Royal Naval Service (1917–1919).<ref name=":0" />

Second World War

File:A Waaf Corporal Ach-gd Watches From the Control Tower As An Aircraft Comes in CH8136.jpg
A WAAF corporal serving as an air traffic controller during World War II. Many jobs formerly held by men were filled by WAAFs due to wartime labour shortages.

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force was created on 28 June 1939, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which had existed since 1938, following the Munich Agreement.<ref name="narracot-108">Template:Cite book</ref> Conscription of women did not begin until after December 1941 when the UK Government passed the National Service Act (No. 2), which was issued by Royal Proclamation on 10 January 1942. It only applied to those between 20 and 30 years of age and they had the choice of the military auxiliary services, the civilian Women's Land Army or factory work in support of the war effort.<ref name=":0" />

Training

Women recruited into the WAAF were given basic training at one of five sites, though not all of the sites ran training simultaneously. The five sites were at West Drayton, Harrogate, Bridgnorth, Innsworth and Wilmslow.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> All WAAF basic recruit training was located at Wilmslow from 1943.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Roles in the WAAF

File:Douglas DC-3 - Royal Air Force Transport Command, 1943-1945. CL122.jpg
LACW Myra Roberts, Cpl Lydia Alford and LACW Edna Birkbeck, the first WAAF nursing orderlies selected to fly on air-ambulance duties to France, 1944

WAAFs did not serve as aircrew. (The use of women pilots was limited to the Air Transport Auxiliary, which was civilian, but 30 WAAFs did transfer to serve as pilots in the ATA).<ref name=":0" /> Although WAAFs did not participate in active combat, they were exposed to the same dangers as any on the "home front" working at military installations. They were active in parachute packing and the crewing of barrage balloons in addition to performing catering, meteorology, radar, aircraft maintenance, transport, policing,<ref>"Ex-London Police Woman Trains W.A.A.F. Police", Imperial War Museum</ref><ref>"Ex-London Police Woman Trains W.A.A.F. Police", Imperial War Museum</ref> communications duties including wireless telephonic and telegraphic operation. They worked with codes and ciphers, analysed reconnaissance photographs, and performed intelligence operations. WAAFs were a vital presence in the control of aircraft, both in radar stations and iconically as plotters in operation rooms, most notably during the Battle of Britain. These operation rooms directed fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy aircraft positions.<ref>Eileen Younghusband. One Woman's War. Cardiff. Candy Jar Books. 2011. Template:ISBN</ref>

Air Force nurses belonged to Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service instead. Female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the Royal Air Force and held RAF ranks.

WAAFs were paid two-thirds of the pay of male counterparts in RAF ranks.

By the end of the Second World War, WAAF enrolment had declined and the effect of demobilisation was to take the vast majority out of the service. The remainder, now only several hundred strong, was renamed the Women's Royal Air Force on 1 February 1949.

Flying Nightingales

Nursing Orderlies of the WAAF flew on RAF transport planes to evacuate the wounded from the Normandy battlefields. They were dubbed the Flying Nightingales by the press.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Closed access</ref> The RAF Air Ambulance Unit flew under 46 Group Transport Command from RAF Down Ampney, RAF Broadwell, and RAF Blakehill Farm.<ref name="bbc-2015-10-24"/> RAF Dakota aircraft carried military supplies and ammunition so could not display the Red Cross.<ref name="bbc-2024-05-12-stokes">Template:Cite news</ref>

Training for air ambulance nursing duties included instruction in the use of oxygen, injections, learning how to deal with certain types of injuries such as broken bones, missing limb cases, head injuries, burns and colostomies; and to learn the effects of air travel and altitude.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although supplied with parachutes, they were instructed not to use them if the plane was shot down on its return from Europe and instead stay with the wounded soldiers onboard and provide medical support should anyone survive the crash.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The first three Flying Nightingales to arrive in France, a week after D-Day, were Corporal Lydia Alford, LACW Myra Roberts and LACW Edna Birkbeck.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="bbc-2024-05-12-stokes"/>

In October 2008 the seven known nurses still living were presented with lifetime achievement awards by the Duchess of Cornwall.<ref name="bbc-2015-10-24">Template:Cite news</ref>

Directors

File:Waaf.jpg
WAAF Recruitment poster

On 1 July 1939, Jane Trefusis Forbes was made Director of WAAF, with the rank of Senior Controller, later, Air Commandant. On 1 January 1943 she was appointed to the rank of Air Chief Commandant with its creation. On 4 October 1943, while Forbes toured Canada, assessing the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division, she was relieved by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who had been head of the WAAF since 1939, again with the rank of Senior Controller, then, Air Commandant, being gazetted to Air Chief Commandant on 22 March 1943. Forbes retired in August 1944, and the post of director was given to Mary Welsh, who was appointed Air Chief Commandant. After the war, the rank of Air Chief Commandant was suspended and in December 1946, the final director of WAAF, Felicity Hanbury, was appointed.

Ranks

Initially, the WAAF used the ATS ranking system, although the director held the rank of senior controller (equivalent to brigadier in the British Army and air commodore in the RAF) instead of chief controller (equivalent to major-general or air vice-marshal) as in the ATS. However, in December 1939 the title was changed to air commandant, when the ranks were renamed and reorganised. Other ranks now held identical ranks to male RAF personnel, but officers continued to have a separate rank system, although now different from that of the ATS. From February 1940 it was no longer possible to enter directly as an officer; from that time all officers were appointed from the other ranks. From July 1941 WAAF officers held full commissions. On 1 January 1943, the rank of air chief commandant (equivalent to air vice-marshal) was created with the director's appointment to that rank.

Officers

Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OF/WAAF 1939-1940Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OF/WAAF 1940-1949Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OF/United KingdomTemplate:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Armed Forces/OF/Blank
Air officers Field officers Junior officers

Other ranks

Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OR/WAAF 1939-1940Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OR/WAAF 1940-1949
Rank group Senior NCOs Junior NCOs Enlisted
Template:Flagicon Royal Air Force
(1939–1950) 		File:OR9 RAF Warrant Officer.svg File:OR7 RAF Flight Sergeant.svg File:OR5n6a RAF Sergeant.svgTemplate:Hr File:OR4 RAF Corporal.svg File:OR1 RAF Leading Aircraftman.svg No insignia No insignia
Warrant officer Flight sergeant Sergeant Corporal Leading Aircraftman Aircraftman 1st Class Aircraftman 2nd Class

Template:Ranks and Insignia of NATO Air Forces/OR/Blank

WAAFs serving with SOE

Several members of the WAAF served with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Other notable WAAFs

See also

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Notes

Template:Reflist

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

  • Escott, Beryl, Women in Air Force Blue, Patrick Stephens, 1989. Template:ISBN
  • Escott, Beryl, Our Wartime Days, The WAAF in World War II, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1995. Template:ISBN
  • Escott, Beryl, The WAAF : A History of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Shire Publications, 2003. Template:ISBN (also quoted at [1]Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore in context of Czech WAAFs)
  • Gane Pushman, Muriel, We All Wore Blue: Experiences in the WAAF, Tempus, 2006. Template:ISBN
  • Halsall, Christine, Women of Intelligence. Winning the Second World War with Air Photos, The History Press, 2012. Template:ISBN
  • Manning, Mick & Granström, Brita: Taff in the WAAF (English Association Award Winner), Janetta Otter-Barry Books (Frances Lincoln), 2010. Template:ISBN
  • Miller, Sarah-Louise, The Women Behind the Few: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force and British Intelligence during the Second World War Biteback Publishing, 2023. Template:ISBN
  • Rice, Joan, Sand In My Shoes: Coming of Age in the Second World War: Wartime Diaries of a WAAF, Harperpress, 2006. Template:ISBN
  • Settle, Mary Lee, All the Brave Promises: The Memories of Aircraft Woman 2nd Class 2146391 (1966)
  • Stone, Tessa. "Creating A (Gendered?) Military Identity: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain in the Second World War", Women's History Review, October 1999, Vol. 8, Issue 4, pp. 605–624, scholarly study
  • Template:Cite book
  • Watkins, Elizabeth, Cypher Officer, Pen Press Publications, Brighton, 2008. Template:ISBN A first-hand account by a young WAAF cypher officer on active duty in the Egypt, Kenya, the Seychelles and Italy in World War II.
  • Wyndham J., Love is Blue, Heinemann, 1986. Template:ISBN
  • Younghusband, Eileen, Not an Ordinary Life. How Changing Times Brought Historical Events into my Life, Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning, Cardiff, 2009. Template:ISBN (Pages 36–70, 251–55 and 265–67 describe the experiences of a WAAF radar Filterer in World War II.)
  • Younghusband, Eileen, One Woman's War, Candy Jar Books, 2011. Template:ISBN

Template:Sister project

Template:WW2AirDefenceUK

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Women%27s_Auxiliary_Air_Force&oldid=686084"