Description
Object description
British aircraftwomen and NCO served with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Operations Room at Headquarters, Fighter Command, RAF Bentley Priory, Stanmore, GB, 1939-1941; officer served with Women's Auxiliary Air Force at RAF Grangemouth, GB, 3/1942-10/1942
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as aircraftwomen and NCO with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Operations Room at Headquarters, Fighter Command, RAF Bentley Priory, Stanmore, GB, 1939-1941: background to enlistment in Women's Auxiliary Air Force; work of plotters; liaison duties with France during Battle of France; degree of knowledge about situation during Dunkirk Evacuation, 5/1940-6/1940; reaction to fall of France, 6/1940; plotting of dropping of German magnetic mine in Thames Estuary by Chain Home Low radar, 1939-1940; description of Bentley Priory and underground operations room; atmosphere and activities during German air raids; Very Important Person (VIP) visits to operations room; hiding of filter room during visit by Soviet Very Important Persons (VIPs).
REEL 2 Continues: impressions of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's and his style of command; question of inexperienced pilots being sent to operational squadrons; effects of living and working conditions at RAF Bentley Priory; friendship with Australian aircraftwoman; blackout in London; public behaviour during German Air Force attacks; public morale; narrow escape from bombing as ambulance navigator during German Air Force bombing of London; direct hit on London home. Aspects of period as officer with Women's Auxiliary Air Force at RAF Grangemouth, 3/1942-10/1942: effects of psychological strain on fighter pilots.
REEL 3 Continues: attitude of pilots who had flown as auxiliaries pre-war; fear of pilots during combat; station commander's attitude towards Women's Auxiliary Air Force personnel. Aspects of period as aircraftwomen and NCO with Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Operations Room at Headquarters, Fighter Command, RAF Bentley Priory, Stanmore, GB, 1939-1941: Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's treatment of women; plotting of formations of German aircraft assembling during Battle of Britain; tension in operations room during Battle of Britain.