Air Force women in World War II
As 2011 draws to a close, we should not let it pass without acknowledging a little-known anniversary: in 1941 a bud burst into blossom, bloomed briefly, and was then absorbed by the RNZAF.
The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was born from a Fovernment War Cabinet decision to relieve Air Force men of mostly menial tasks, so the men could serve overseas.
At first, WAAFs held no rank but simply wore a uniform – Air Force blue, of course. The first WAAFs arrived at Ohakea Air Force Base in 1942, just three years after two new hangers were completed at great cost. They were intended to house Wellington bombers (which never arrived).
Eventually, WAAFs were to be everything from AML Bomber Teacher instructors to shoe fitters (loaned to Ministry of Supply). WAAFs were PT instructors and mess hands, parachute packers and typists: in fact "… nearly every trade that was not beyond their physical capabilities". But, unlike their sisters in the oyal Air Force, our WAAFs were never destined to wear "wings" as pilots, not even to ferry aircraft around New Zealand. The recruiting material made this plain with the slogan, "They Serve – that Men may Fly". It was to be "… useful and inspiring work", and at times even "… thrilling…". From this distance, it is difficult to see mess-hands or she fitters' duties as "inspiring" or "thrilling", but no doubt they were "useful".
Some Air Force men at Ohakea were suspicious of women entering their all-male world, but others took to the WAAFs immediately; not surprisingly, there were "Air Force romances", sometimes even marriages. The Ohakea Base Commander's short hand typist, Joy Pickett, became an aerial-surveyor trainer's bride, as Joy Dally. By mid-1943, Joy had grown so large with pregnancy that she could no longer button up her blue serge uniform. So, one day, she stayed home. Two burly MPs [Military Policemen] arrived to escort he back to her desk, and her typewriter. There were forms to be filled out, signed and approved by the "proper authorities" before a "serviceperson" could reside permanently off-base!
Michael was born in nearby Palmerston North Hospital's maternity unit but was raised as an Ohakea "base boy".
Joy's husband, Charles, trained new pilots to operate cameras, and was often terrified at having to fly with the recently recruited Sergeant-pilots, some of them straight off farms, They had to be traines to use the big clumsy pn-board cameras needed to record how successful bombing raids had been, or to confirm the "kills " that fighter-pilots claimed.
Sometimes, Charles had to photograph the same pilot's crashed remains: one famous frame he took is of a barn, through which a hapless pilot, flying solo this time, had ploughed, his eyes firmly fixed on the camera looking down, not on the aircraft's wind-shield forward.
Ohakea Base life had a social side, of course, with dances in nearby Bulls or Sanson, or the 'flicks' in Palmerston North (if one could find a friendly base Petrol Sergeant, for the coupons). Perhaps there was contact with the RNZA F Trainee Air Crew at Levin'sRNZAF Station, but there were certainly drills, parades and family deaths in battle.
Joy lost her brother. Artillery Sergeant Jim Pickett, a plasterer in civilian life. Jim was one of the rear-guards defiantly defending Crete's Maleme aerodrome from Adolf's paratroopers. The Kiwi defenders of Crete killed so many fallschir mjaeger during the invasion that Adolf never used them again.
Charles lost a brother, Sergeant Tail Gunner Aubrey (Dan) Dally, on a raid over Dusseldorf with the RAF. Dan was a "30-second man". That was the estimated average survival time of a tail-gunner once an enemy fighter came at his bomber. Fighter pilots on both sides were trained to "attack from the rear" first, to "take out" the tail-gunner, leaving the bomber an easy "kill" from behind.
Of course, all this was faraway from Ohakea, and while some of our WAAFs were based overseas in the later years of the war, most of the 4,750 who eventually served were stationed at bases all over Ness Zealand.
RNZAF women today serve everywhere, doing everything: they share the same ranks (one day we may have a woman as Air Vice-Marshall) but 70years ago it was rather different. No "call-ups" but simply volunteers, Kiwi women keen to "do their bit" for our nation's war effort.