Woodfield Publishing Limited

This book has proved extremely popular with former Waafs.

It tells the story of a WAAF MT driver, who clocked up thousands of miles in her trusty Hillman Staff Car during the years 1941-46. She travelled all over wartime Britain in the course of her duties and her many experiences are sure to rekindle memories for those who also served in the WAAF during the wartime years.

Her writing perfectly recaptures the spirit of the times as she affectionately recalls the people she knew and the places she visited.

The stories in this book were contributed by those who served, in various capacities, in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during World War II. Most were just teenagers or in their early twenties when they answered the call for women to volunteer for non-combatant duties in the Armed Forces.

Having left home, many for the first time, they faced the daunting prospect of entering a previously all-male preserve and taking over tasks that women had hitherto been thought incapable of. The girls of the WAAF operated barrage balloons, teleprinters and radar sets, they worked as mechanics on motor vehicles and aircraft, they worked in office and administration jobs, in hospitals, as drivers of ambulances, trucks and staff cars, as cooks and batwomen and a host of other roles, and usually under hazardous and makeshift conditions.

But in their off-duty hours the girls partied, danced and had fun with an intensity that could only happen in wartime. Friendships were made which lasted a lifetime, romances flourished, and despite their sadness when friends or sweethearts were killed and the horrors that many of them witnessed, the youth, faith and camaraderie they shared carried them through the bad days.

This book contains first-hand accounts of all the above, and much more besides, and provides a valuable insight into the lives and loves of these indomitable young ladies, who made such an invaluable contribution to the war effort over 60 years ago.

When 19-year-old Rebecca Barnett and her two friends left their office jobs on Tyneside in 1941 to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and 'do their bit' for the war effort, they little imagined that they would end up on a tropical island.

But that’s exactly what happened when they were among 50 WAAFs posted to Koggala, Ceylon as teleprinter operators.

There they found a hot-house climate, beautiful beaches, palm trees, fabulous sunsets and 2,500 lovelorn servicemen...

Adventure and romance were sure to follow – and indeed they did – though not in the way that anyone might have expected ...

Rebecca's warmly nostalgic and good-humoured account of her unusual wartime adventures is delivered in an easy-going style that is sure to entertain a wide variety of readers.

The memoirs and letters of Joe Pack and his wife-to-be Margaret Dillon, written in World War II, reveal a fascinating story, with many twists and turns.

To begin with there are Joe's recollections of his experiences as a Halifax pilot with No. 35 Squadron, culminating in his bein shot down over the Dutch/German border on his 18th operation.

His subsequent evasion from capture and return to the UK ~ via the famous Comète escape line ~ is an amazing adventure story in itself, but this is but a part of his wartime experiences...

Sylvia Pickering's first book about her World War II experiences in the Women's Auxilliary Air Force (WAAF) - Tales of a Bomber Command Waaf - has already proved very popular. It was composed entirely of original letters which Sylvia sent to and received from friends and family during the wartime years.

This second book about Sylvia’s life as a WAAF is similarly composed mostly of correspondence from the wartime years. In it she is posted from R.A.F. Coningsby as a "disturbing influence" and a "subversive element" only to prove her detractors wrong in a most satisfactory way when posted to H.Q. 5 Group (Bomber Command) at Morton Hall.

We meet two Australians – Ken, a mid-upper gunner of 460 RAAF Squadron and Tom, a rear gunner of 463 RAAF Squadron. Their rivalry for Sylvia’s affections are charted in Ken’s playful and hopeful letters.

There is a wonderful tale of an evening out with Tom spent getting drunk just to find our what others "found so enjoyable" about the process.

Tom became a POW in Stalag Luft 7 after being shot down by night fighters and the report on the conditions on their forced march and the map of the route are dreadful reminders of the privations faced by those who fought.

It is wonderful to be able to read the letters from Jimmy, Sylvia’s fiancé; remarkable, eloquent love letters of the sort which feature less and less in modern relationships.

Peace saw Sylvia finally able to indulge her passion for horses, find happiness in her marriage and, at the age of eighty, write her second remarkable book...

The publication of this book marks the fulfilment of a promise made over 60 years ago in the summer of 1944, when a young RAF officer told his WAAF fiancée that one day he would write the story of their love as an inspiration to all those who read it.

He never had the chance to do so. On the night of 26/27 November 1944, Mosquito DK292 of 192 Squadron in which he was navigator, failed to return from a mission to Munich. No trace of Vic or his pilot Jack Fisher was ever found.

Nina and Vic were to have been married the following week.

Nina was devastated, but she determined to put the heartbreak of war behind her and eventually found a new love, was married and raised a family - but for 50 years her unworn wartime wedding dress remained at the back of her wardrobe, along with hundreds of letters, still in their original envelopes, her diaries, a rusty nail from the gate of the church where she and Vic had become engaged, old photographs and a pair of his silk flying gloves - a testimony to the love they shared and lost.

In the early 1990s Nina's daughter Janine began to work with her mother on a book to fulfil Vic's promise. Together they joined the RAF 100 Group Association, based in Norfolk, which enabled them to talk to Vic's former best friend and other colleagues and begin to trace his final, fateful journey. The result is this book, told mostly in Nina and Vic's own words via their letters, but supported by diary entries, telegrams, photographs and other wartime memorabilia - together they tell a fascinating and moving story.

Nina died in the summer of 1996, having passed on the duty of keeping Vic's promise to Janine, a promise which has now been kept.

Radar Days is a book notable for its humour and charm, as well as being a historically interesting record of activities at one of the top-secret radar bases that guarded British shores during world War Two. Gwen Arnold takes her readers on an entertaining journey from her formative years in the seaside town of Bournemouth to her wartime role at Bawdsey Manor RDF Station near Felixtowe in Suffolk, where she was stationed for most of the war. On the way there are humorous and well-observed vignettes of her family life, her first experiences of employment in her home town, her early romantic liaisons and her induction into the armed forces... all of which combine into an affectionate picture of what it was like to grow up in the 1930s and to serve in the wartime Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

Like so many young women of her generation, Gwen spent the best years of her youth away from the comforts of home, doing an important wartime job, but was still keen to learn about life and love. Her search for a suitable young man with whom to spend the rest of her days was played out against a background of bombs, blackouts, curfews and 48-hour passes, with snatched moments of relaxation and romance amongst long weeks and months spent ‘doing her bit for the war effort’ – which in her case involved working with early versions of the Radio Direction Finding (RDF) equipment that would later become known as ‘Radar’.

As the war progressed, she and her WAAFs colleagues observed life and death dramas as they unfolded over the North Sea: waves of incoming hostile aircraft and massed aerial dogfights during the Battle of Britain; the comings and goings of the RAF and USAAF bomber fleets from East Anglia and Lincolnshire; incoming V1 and V2 flying bombs plus many more events that the antenna picked up...

A unique perspective on Word War 2 and much else is contained in this thoroughly entertaining and good natured personal memoir.

Peggy Butler has unearthed her wartime diary/scrap book along with photos and snippets of information – with additional contributions from many of her colleagues – and created a book that will bring back many memories for those who served in the Royal Air Force in World War 2 and particularly those involved in RDF/Radar.

Particularly interesting because it was written at the time when Peggy was just 20 years old and serving at RAF bases in Tannach, Scotland and Bawdsey Manor, Suffolk. Peggy has resisted the temptation to re-edit the text and has allowed the voice of her younger-self to reveal her wartime thoughts and feelings.

The sentiments expressed will bring back many memories for those who also spent their wartime years in uniform.

In January, 1941 Sylvia Pickering eagerly set off for No.1 WAAF Reception Centre at the Grand Hotel, Harrogate, leaving behind her sheltered home life in rural Lincolnshire to join other young volunteers – some of whom had come from as far away as Australia and New Zealand – to pull together and ‘do their bit’ to save Great Britain from imminent danger and invasion.

Thanks to Sylvia’s rediscovery of some long-stored letters, both written and received by herself, we have the opportunity to peep into the world of a generation of young people who left home early and had to grow up quickly, learning about life and love against the backdrop of a world at war.

Although Sylvia modestly describes her book as a ‘perfectly ordinary story’ of a WAAF at war, it constitutes a very worthwhile piece of social history because it is composed almost exclusively of correspondence written at the time - which Sylvia either sent to or received from friends and family. We must be grateful for her secretarial training which prompted her to keep all this material, which now provides a fascinating insight into the everyday lives of the young men and women of the wartime RAF.

Sylvia’s story takes place in the ‘bomber county’ of Lincolnshire, where so many of RAF Bomber Command’s wartime aerodromes were situated, and we follow her on active duty to the Armoury Sections at RAF Cottesmore and RAF Coningsby.

In her letters, the voice of Sylvia’s youthful self describes such diverse off-duty pursuits as learning to dance the tango, visits to the cinema and horse-riding on her beloved mare, Bridget. (Somewhat unusually, her horse accompanied her wherever she went during the war.) We also discover her views on the potency of pink gin, the problems of transport in the blackout, and many other wartime irritations.

Also prominently featured are the joys and heartbreaks of Sylvia's inevitable romantic entanglements; in particular her relationship with 'Roo' - a young Australian airman with whom she lost touch (as was so often the case in those days) when he was 'posted elsewhere'.

It was to be 50 years before she discovered what had happened to him…

More Tales of a Bomber Command Waaf, the second instalment of Sylvia's wartime memoirs, is now available.

"Why did we join? Why did we join?
Why did we join the Royal Air Force?
Ten bob a week. Nothing to eat.
Damn great boots making blisters on your feet..."

These were the words to a song that Eileen Smith and her pals used to sing under their breath as they route-marched round the country lanes near Wilmslow whilst on basic training for the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) in the early years of World War II.

Eileen answers the song's question herself in this charming and nostalgic book, in which she recalls the many experiences and friendships of her years in WAAF uniform. 

She and thousands like her, joined the WAAF in order to ‘do their bit’ for the war effort and although the facilities were Spartan and the work less than glamorous, they knew that this would be a time of their lives that none of them would ever forget.

After basic training – interrupted by a spell in hospital with suspected TB – Eileen (known as ‘Smithy’ to her service pals) was posted to RAF East Kirkby, an operational bomber station, home to 57 Squadron and 630 Squadron, both equipped with Avro Lancasters. 

It was 1944 and Allied air raids on Germany were at their peak, as were the losses of Bomber Command aircrews. With the young flyers facing the very real possibility of 'getting the chop' on their next mission, romantic liaisons took on an extra dimension and Eileen does well to recapture the emotionally-charged atmosphere, which inevitably led to all manner of relationships ... and all kinds of trouble. There are many laughs to be had at the high jinks she and her fellow servicemen and women indulged in to relive the tensions of their situation, but there is sadness too, of course, for the many young men who did not live to see the end of hostilities...

A good balance is struck and the result is an entertaining and a historically valuable record of wartime life in the WAAF that is highly recommended to readers of all ages.