This has been on my kindle for some time and I can’t wait to get my teeth into this. Here’s an excerpt

Lorna Peel


The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was established in 1939 by King George VI and was linked with the RAF so that RAF personnel could be substituted for women whenever possible.

Originally the roles of the women in the WAAF were domestic duties such as cooking and driving. Women were not allowed to fly and their general capabilities were often doubted in the early stages of the war. During the Battle of Britain, however, the RAF were under huge strain and this led to a change of role for the WAAF. It became crucial for the WAAF to take on more technical tasks, and they were trained in operating teleprinters—like Into The Unknown’s Kate Sheridan—radar plotting, the maintenance of barrage balloons and the interpretation of photographs.

There were approximately seven thousand WAAFs based at Fighter Command airbases such as Biggin Hill during the summer of 1940. These bases were targets…

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