Jennifer Ryan's Blog - Posts Tagged "pilots"
The Woman Who Flew Spitfires
Throughout the Second World War, Mary Ellis ferried Spitfires and other military planes from the factories where they were made to the RAF bases that needed them, one of 169 women who pushed their way in to do a man’s job—eventually for a man’s pay.
At 100 years old, she still had the sprightly yet clipped manner of a woman who had survived and thrived in the man’s world of aviation. One of the last World War Two pilots still alive, I was lucky to have lunch with her near her home on the Isle of Wight in the south of England.
Armed with questions and preparing myself to meet a frail centenarian, little did I expect that she would bark a few questions at me, and then proceed at last to tell me things I’d never known about the women who took on the dangerous role of delivering planes for the war.
Bad weather, friendly fire, barrage balloons, derelict planes, and coming face to face with a Nazi bomber were among the many dangers these women faced in their day-to-day duties. Flying without navigation equipment or radio support, getting lost or trapped above thick cloud cover became a life-or-death situation. Every morning they were handed their orders: around three to six ferrying jobs for each day, sometimes short hops and others from the very south of the country to the very top of Scotland.
“It wasn’t for the faint hearted,” Mary said when I asked what kind of girls took up the job. “The flying was hard work, but then you had to deal with the prejudices too. No one thought we women could do it, and we had to work twice as hard as the men, and we couldn’t get away with accidents or mishaps.”
By the end of the war, women had demonstrated their aptitude for levelheadedness, with fewer broken planes, more flights per person, and less deaths than the male ferry pilots. On top of these feats, the women quietly pressed for equal pay for equal work, and were awarded it in 1942, the very first women ever to break that threshold.
Thank you to Mary Ellis and the other fearless women WW2 pilots for bravely bolstering air control and for steadfastly furthering the equality for women.
At 100 years old, she still had the sprightly yet clipped manner of a woman who had survived and thrived in the man’s world of aviation. One of the last World War Two pilots still alive, I was lucky to have lunch with her near her home on the Isle of Wight in the south of England.
Armed with questions and preparing myself to meet a frail centenarian, little did I expect that she would bark a few questions at me, and then proceed at last to tell me things I’d never known about the women who took on the dangerous role of delivering planes for the war.
Bad weather, friendly fire, barrage balloons, derelict planes, and coming face to face with a Nazi bomber were among the many dangers these women faced in their day-to-day duties. Flying without navigation equipment or radio support, getting lost or trapped above thick cloud cover became a life-or-death situation. Every morning they were handed their orders: around three to six ferrying jobs for each day, sometimes short hops and others from the very south of the country to the very top of Scotland.
“It wasn’t for the faint hearted,” Mary said when I asked what kind of girls took up the job. “The flying was hard work, but then you had to deal with the prejudices too. No one thought we women could do it, and we had to work twice as hard as the men, and we couldn’t get away with accidents or mishaps.”
By the end of the war, women had demonstrated their aptitude for levelheadedness, with fewer broken planes, more flights per person, and less deaths than the male ferry pilots. On top of these feats, the women quietly pressed for equal pay for equal work, and were awarded it in 1942, the very first women ever to break that threshold.
Thank you to Mary Ellis and the other fearless women WW2 pilots for bravely bolstering air control and for steadfastly furthering the equality for women.
Carrot Popsicles for Easter!
Q: What do you do if sweets and candies are rationed and you haven't seen an ice cream in years?
A: Find an enormous carrot, peel it, push in onto a stick, and hand it your kids for a special treat.
Sugar was one of the first things rationed in WW2 Britain, closely followed by butter, jam, cakes, cookies, and all things sweet, leaving it difficult to celebrate special dates. Millions of children grew up never having even tasted chocolate; an aunt who was only eight at the end of the war told me that the first time she had ice cream was on a trip to Ireland in 1948. "I couldn't believe it just melted in my mouth!" she exclaimed.
Ingenuity became tantamount: how could the population keep spirits up? There was a fear if people felt that they were doing without, this loss of appetite for war would lead directly to Britain's surrender. And so everyone put their collective thinking hats on and came up with some delicious ways to uphold food traditions during the worst of the shortages.
Carrot Lollies were just the start. Carrot Fudge was very popular, using the sweetness of carrots to make up for the lack of sugar, and a recipe for Mock Marzipan used just a small amount of sugar mixed into flour with almond essence. These were cut into cubes and placed in chocolate boxes to be offered around during celebrations, such as Easter.
Many people even felt that rationing brought them closer together. "We all had to do whatever we could," my aunt told me. "We all helped with the growing of vegetables, and we all had to cook as imaginatively as we dared. My extended family--aunties and uncles--would save their sweet rations for me and my little sister. It gave them a sense of pride and purpose." Then she grinned, "And of course it made us all appreciate everything a lot more."
A: Find an enormous carrot, peel it, push in onto a stick, and hand it your kids for a special treat.
Sugar was one of the first things rationed in WW2 Britain, closely followed by butter, jam, cakes, cookies, and all things sweet, leaving it difficult to celebrate special dates. Millions of children grew up never having even tasted chocolate; an aunt who was only eight at the end of the war told me that the first time she had ice cream was on a trip to Ireland in 1948. "I couldn't believe it just melted in my mouth!" she exclaimed.
Ingenuity became tantamount: how could the population keep spirits up? There was a fear if people felt that they were doing without, this loss of appetite for war would lead directly to Britain's surrender. And so everyone put their collective thinking hats on and came up with some delicious ways to uphold food traditions during the worst of the shortages.
Carrot Lollies were just the start. Carrot Fudge was very popular, using the sweetness of carrots to make up for the lack of sugar, and a recipe for Mock Marzipan used just a small amount of sugar mixed into flour with almond essence. These were cut into cubes and placed in chocolate boxes to be offered around during celebrations, such as Easter.
Many people even felt that rationing brought them closer together. "We all had to do whatever we could," my aunt told me. "We all helped with the growing of vegetables, and we all had to cook as imaginatively as we dared. My extended family--aunties and uncles--would save their sweet rations for me and my little sister. It gave them a sense of pride and purpose." Then she grinned, "And of course it made us all appreciate everything a lot more."
