#waaf

[paintermagazine]

‘Pardon me boy ….!’

‘The Bluebird Belles’

Source: ‘thebluebirdbelles’ (IG)

[musingsofahistorymajor]

The Women of Masters of the Air 1x06

Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)

Women's Army Corps (WAC)

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)

[coloursteelsexappeal]

[ontaworks]

[ A Magic Show in the Middle of a Snow ]

I drew one of @nikkiandwendywolfie’s new OC which happens to be Arcticus the Magnificent alongside with character by @snowby3d , @kirbyzaz , and @blubunny-artist, alongside with my OC Buckley as Arcticus is showing off his magic to one of the adorable snow creatures on existence in a middle of a snow day.

———

© 2024 Gadeton, All Rights Reserved

[moonwatchuniverse]

80 years ago... V1 & V2 spotted at Peenemünde RAF Flight Officer / aerial photographic interpreter Constance Babbington Smith During World War II Constance Babington gave up her journalism career and worked in the RAF Women's Auxiliary Air Force as aerial photographic interpreter at the Top Secret No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. In the summer of 1943, Flight Officer Babington was credited by spotting the first V1 flying bombs being tested at Peenemunde in Northern Germany at the Baltic Sea. Soon photo interpreters knew what to look for and spotted V2 rockets (since June 1943) and V1 "doodlebug" ramps in Northern France. Post-war, Constance Babington was attached at USAAF Intelligence in Washington D.C. and was portrayed in the 1965 movie "Operation Crossbow". (Photo: RAF/IWM)

[disappointedart]

OoO your new profile foto is pretty!

Ty! There she is!

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I am reading Our Wartime Days: the WAAF in WWII, by Beryl E. Escott, and I was jumpscared by this quote:

"'one of the nicest things about service life' says Pat Sparks, 'was the number of people one met. We had girls from Eire, Canada, Uruguay, South Africa, America, Australia, and a New Zealand officer."

Pat, you cannot just drop that bomb, as much as we Uruguayans joke that whenever something is happening there WILL somehow be a Uruguayan over there, and just not elaborate on what the heck was a girl from Uruguay doing in the WAAF. The others can be justified as Commonwealth nations, and Eire is in Ireland, which is right there, you know, crossing the water.

Granted, I know for a fact British railway employees joined for WWI, and several of their Uruguayan friends from work volunteered with them and some were KIA and we keep a memorial at the Railway Museum for all of them. I think that happened again for WWII. But there is a different to join forces for direct combat and another to just cross the world to join a respectable but still auxiliary force, as a woman in the 40s.

I NEED ANSWERS, PAT.

[eisbecherovka]

"For breakfast, sausage with baked beans, For dinner, camouflaged with greens. For tea, it finds itself in batter By supper – oh, it doesn't matter. The eternal sausage."

From the Private Papers of Miss M E Harrison. Miss Harrison served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War. Her private papers, which are in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, include "a note book containing humorous poems accompanied by excellent watercolour sketches illustrating various aspects of her service at RAF Watnall, Nottinghamshire, the Headquarters of No. 12 Group RAF Fighter Command, where she was based as a Special Duties Clerk in the Operations Room from 1940 to 1943, her daily diaries for 1941 to 1947 containing mostly personal information about her off duty activities, a scrap book containing photographs of her fellow WAAFs at RAF Watnall and other items relating to her service at both RAF Watnall and at the Allied Central Interpretation Unit (Photographic Intelligence) RAF Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, where she served between 1943 and 1945 utilising her artistic skills in the model making section."

[carbone14]

La reine Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon discute avec un sergent de la WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) lors d'une visite dans un premier établissement de formation de la RAF à Innsworth – Gloucester – 1940's

Photographe : Bertrand John Henry Daventry (Flight Lieutenant) - Royal Air Force official photographer

©Imperial War Museums - C 681

L'officier adjoint de section G H Caffin se tient debout derrière la Reine.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Most stirring of all, though, are the pictures she did during the second world war under the auspices of the WAAC. Yes, they are technical exercises. Yes, they are propaganda. But somehow none of this matters when you stand before them, your lip beginning sentimentally to tremble. My favourite is Corporal Elspeth Henderson and Sergeant Helen Turner (1941), which stars two young women who were awarded the Military Medal for bravery, both of them having continued to work on their switchboard even as their RAF base was bombed by the enemy. Oh, the expressions on the faces! They look so marvellously unimpressed. And while Knight has given all due attention to their uniforms, their equipment, and even to a map on the wall behind them, it is the distinctive orange-red of their lipstick that catches the attention, all their pluck somehow captured in the careful application of a little Max Factor.

Corporal Elspeth Henderson and Sergeant Helen Turner Laura Knight, 1941

[greensparty]

Remembering Liz Wilde 1971-2024

Sad news today that radio personality Anne Whittemore-Firestone, known on-air as Liz Wilde, has passed away at 52. I was a fan of her when she was on WAAF-FM in Boston from 1990-1995, a time I was listening to the hard rock station a lot. Her nickname was Liz Wilde, "The Cream Cheese Bitch". She was funny, raunchy and chatted up multiple rock stars. After she left Boston for stations in Chicago and other markets I lost track of her until I connected with her on social media a few years ago as I was connected to a number of WAAFers because of the overlap with V66 and my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66.

Wilde (center) with WAAFer and Aerosmith's Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton

The link above is the obit and remembrances from RadioInsight.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Cpl Elspeth Henderson was among three female comrades to be awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the face of the enemy for their efforts during the Battle of Britain. Why was this honour questioned in some quarters, including by the airwoman herself?

As bombs pounded down on to the flimsy huts of Biggin Hill airfield on 30 August 1940, three women working there knew they had to act.

Cpl Elspeth Henderson, Sgt Helen Turner and Sgt Joan Elizabeth Mortimer were based at the south-east London fighter station at the height of the Battle of Britain.

That day they were on shift as teleprinter operators in the operations room. As the Luftwaffe began its attack, everyone was ordered to get out and take shelter.

Yet the three stayed at their posts, keen to protect their colleagues both on the ground and up in the sky.

As bombs smashed through the building, Cpl Henderson stayed put, using the plotting table for protection as she waited for the broken telephone lines to be repaired.

Sgt Turner also kept working, while Sgt Mortimer relayed messages at the telephone switchboard before rushing outside with a set of red flags to mark where unexploded devices had fallen on the airfield.

The raid killed 39 that day. Each of the three women would be awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the face of the enemy, a move that was questioned in some quarters.

"It was controversial because Military Medals were viewed as men's medals," explains Heather Redfearn, Cpl Henderson's daughter.

The award also did not sit entirely comfortably with its recipient.

"She was embarrassed about it; she never talked about it very much," Mrs Redfearn says.

"The thing was," explains Mrs Redfearn's husband John, "while she was under the plotting table waiting in case the phones came back, outside you had the phone engineers repairing the phone line, so they're all outside during the air raid - and they're not getting Military Medals - and she's under the table waiting in case the phone lines came on.

"And she did.

"She was a little bit embarrassed about that, but there was no reason to be."

Cpl Henderson spent six months working at the base as part of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She had arrived in March 1940 having signed up the December before, following a realisation she had while at a family event.

"She attended her cousin's wedding and she felt that it was morally wrong that she, a single woman, should be continuing to enjoy civilian live while he, just married, taking on responsibility for a wife, was joining up - so she enlisted the following day," says Mrs Redfearn.

[...]

At its peak, the WAAF had 182,000 members. They would carry out a huge range of activities to aid the war effort across the UK and beyond, from providing weather reports and deploying barrage balloons, to repairing aircraft and intercepting codes and ciphers.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Megadeth - Holy Wars

[releasing-my-insanity]

I saw this filming picture of Helen wearing a green suit and hat in a very small preview and for a second I thought it was Maggie and that she was wearing a uniform.

I very much do not want to see Maggie in a WRNS (Navy) or WAAF (Air Force) or ATS (Army) uniform. But I would love to see her in a Women's Voluntary Services uniform, if the writers wanted her to take a more active role in the war effort.

Women's Voluntary Services began in WWII as roles such as Air Raid Warden and later expanded to cover a huge variety of civilian war jobs.

Or I could see Women's Land Army, but since she's almost certainly a farmer's daughter like Helen, she would be told to stay where she was and work on on her family farm and the other local farms.

[we-are-all-flynn]

willex my beloved

[angeltannis]

Still blows my mind that the deluxe edition of Lacuna Coil’s Comalies has a bunch of tracks performed for WAAF… I thought nothing of it at first, like “yeah that makes sense, it’s a rock station.” then I remembered LC is from fucking ITALY

How did this Boston rock station land Lacuna Coil in their prime lmao