The ATA
Hi Cliff,
The ATA girls certainly did a wonderful job. In 1943 I was stationed at RNAS Henstridge flying Spitfires and Seafires. I hurt my right hand operating a clay pigeon machine and as I could not use the handbrake lever of a Spitfire I spent a couple of weeks attached to the station flight, flying a Stinson Reliant.
One of our pilots was doing a high altitude test in a Spitfire, his engine cut out and he made a forced landing a few miles from an airfield where they were learning to fly Horsas. I flew the Stinson Reliant to this aerodrome to pick up the pilot but when I reported to the control tower I was told that he was being kept in hospital for a day or two. Standing in the control tower was a young woman in civilian clothes powdering her nose and applying lipstick. I wondered what she was doing there. When she had finished applying her make up she picked up a parachute, walked out to a runway, boarded a Halifax, sat in the pilot's seat and took off.
A few weeks later I was back on Seafires and twelve new Seafires were delivered by ATA pilots. A couple of the ATA pilots were young women. They certainly knew there stuff!
Gordon