Women's Auxiliary Air Force

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Poster

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (/ˈwæfs/), was the female auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force during World War II. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 181,000 at its peak strength in 1943, (15.7% of the RAF)[1] with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.

History[edit]

A Women's Royal Air Force had existed from 1918 to 1920, but had been disbanded in the wake of the end of the First World War, alongside the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp (1917-1921) and the first iteration of the Women's Royal Naval Service (1917-1919).[1]

Second World War[edit]

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force was created on 28 June 1939, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the British Auxiliary Territorial Service which had existed since 1938, following the Munich Agreement.[2] Conscription of women did not begin until after December 1941 when the British Government passed the National Service Act (No. 2), which was issued by Royal Proclamation on 10 January 1942. It only applied to those between 20 and 30 years of age and they had the choice of the military auxiliary services, the civilian Women's Land Army or factory work in support of the war effort.[1]

Training[edit]

The first WAAF nursing orderlies selected to fly on air-ambulance duties to France, 1944

Women recruited into the WAAF were given basic training at one of five sites, though not all of the sites ran training simultaneously. The five sites were at West Drayton, Harrogate, Bridgnorth, Innsworth and Wilmslow.[3] All WAAF basic recruit training was located at Wilmslow from 1943.[4]

Roles in the WAAF[edit]

WAAFs did not serve as aircrew. (The use of women pilots was limited to the Air Transport Auxiliary, which was civilian, but 30 WAAFs did transfer to serve as pilots in the ATA).[1] Although WAAFs did not participate in active combat, they were exposed to the same dangers as any on the "home front" working at military installations. They were active in parachute packing and the crewing of barrage balloons in addition to performing catering, meteorology, radar, aircraft maintenance, transport, policing,[5][6] communications duties including wireless telephonic and telegraphic operation. They worked with codes and ciphers, analysed reconnaissance photographs, and performed intelligence operations. WAAFs were a vital presence in the control of aircraft, both in radar stations and iconically as plotters in operation rooms, most notably during the Battle of Britain. These operation rooms directed fighter aircraft against the Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy aircraft positions.[7]

Air Force nurses belonged to Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service instead. Female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the Royal Air Force and held RAF ranks.

WAAFs were paid two-thirds of the pay of male counterparts in RAF ranks.

By the end of World War II, WAAF enrolment had declined and the effect of demobilisation was to take the vast majority out of the service. The remainder, now only several hundred strong, was renamed the Women's Royal Air Force on 1 February 1949.

Directors[edit]

WAAF Recruitment poster

On 1 July 1939, Jane Trefusis Forbes was made Director of WAAF, with the rank of Senior Controller, later, Air Commandant. On 1 January 1943 she was appointed to the rank of Air Chief Commandant with its creation. On 4 October 1943, while Forbes toured Canada, assessing the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division, she was relieved by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who had been head of the WAAF since 1939, again with the rank of Senior Controller, then, Air Commandant, being gazetted to Air Chief Commandant on 22 March 1943. Forbes retired in August 1944, and the post of director was given to Mary Welsh, who was appointed Air Chief Commandant. After the war, the rank of Air Chief Commandant was suspended and in December 1946, the final director of WAAF, Felicity Hanbury, was appointed.

Ranks[edit]

Initially, the WAAF used the ATS ranking system, although the director held the rank of senior controller (equivalent to brigadier in the British Army and air commodore in the RAF) instead of chief controller (equivalent to major-general or air vice-marshal) as in the ATS. However, in December 1939 the title was changed to air commandant, when the ranks were renamed and reorganised. Other ranks now held identical ranks to male RAF personnel, but officers continued to have a separate rank system, although now different from that of the ATS. From February 1940 it was no longer possible to enter directly as an officer; from that time all officers were appointed from the other ranks. From July 1941 WAAF officers held full commissions. On 1 January 1943, the rank of air chief commandant (equivalent to air vice-marshal) was created with the director's appointment to that rank.

Officers[edit]

Air officers Field officers Junior officers
Women's Auxiliary Air Force
(1939-1940)
Senior Controller Controller Chief Commandant Senior Commandant Company Commander Deputy Company Commander Company Assistant


Women's Auxiliary Air Force
(1940-1949)[8]
Air Chief Commandant[note 1] Air Commandant Group Officer Wing Officer Squadron Officer Flight Officer Section Officer Assistant Section Officer


 Royal Air Force[9]
Marshal of the RAF Air chief marshal Air marshal Air vice-marshal Air commodore Group captain Wing commander Squadron leader Flight lieutenant Flying officer Pilot officer
/acting pilot officer 		Officer cadet


NATO code OF-10 OF-9 OF-8 OF-7 OF-6 OF-5 OF-4 OF-3 OF-2 OF-1 OF(D) Student officer

Other ranks[edit]

Rank group Senior NCOs Junior NCOs Enlisted
Women's Auxiliary Air Force
(1939-1940)
 No insignia No insignia
Senior Section Leader Section Leader Assistant Section Leader Aircraftwoman 1st Class Aircraftwoman 2nd Class


Women's Auxiliary Air Force
(1940-1949)
 No insignia No insignia
Warrant officer[note 2] Flight Sergeant[note 3] Sergeant Corporal Leading Aircraftwoman Aircraftwoman 1st Class Aircraftwoman 2nd Class
United Kingdom Royal Air Force
(1939–1950)
No insignia No insignia
Warrant officer Flight sergeant Sergeant Corporal Leading Aircraftman Aircraftman 1st Class Aircraftman 2nd Class
NATO code OR-9 OR-8 OR-7 OR-6 OR-5 OR-4 OR-3 OR-2 OR-1

WAAFs serving with SOE[edit]

Several members of the WAAF served with the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

Other notable WAAFs[edit]

Flying Nightingales[edit]

Nursing Orderlies of the WAAF flew on RAF transport planes to evacuate the wounded from the Normandy battlefields. They were dubbed Flying Nightingales by the press.[11] The RAF Air Ambulance Unit flew under 46 Group Transport Command from RAF Down Ampney, RAF Broadwell, and RAF Blakehill Farm. RAF Dakota aircraft carried military supplies and ammunition so could not display the Red Cross.

Training for air ambulance nursing duties included instruction in the use of oxygen, injections, learning how to deal with certain types of injuries such as broken bones, missing limb cases, head injuries, burns and colostomies; and to learn the effects of air travel and altitude.[12]

In October 2008 the seven nurses still living were presented with lifetime achievement awards by the Duchess of Cornwall.[citation needed]

Gallery[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[14][edit]

  1. ^ created 1943 with first appointment.
  2. ^ also called Under Officer
  3. ^ also called Senior Sergeant

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e MILLER, SARAH-LOUISE (2023). WOMEN BEHIND THE FEW : the women's auxiliary air force and british intelligence during the... second world war. [S.l.]: BITEBACK PUBLISHING. ISBN 1-78590-785-9. OCLC 1349452266.
  2. ^ Narracot, A.H. (1941). "9 - Woman in Blue". How The R A F Works. Frederick Muller Limited. pp. 108 (n115). Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  3. ^ Escott, Beryl E. (1989). Women in air force blue : the story of women in the Royal Air Force from 1918 to the present day. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 131. ISBN 9781852600662.
  4. ^ Pitchfork, Graham (2008). The Royal Air Force day by day. Stroud: Sutton. p. 258. ISBN 9780750943093.
  5. ^ "Ex-London Police Woman Trains W.A.A.F. Police", Imperial War Museum
  6. ^ "Ex-London Police Woman Trains W.A.A.F. Police", Imperial War Museum
  7. ^ Eileen Younghusband. One Woman's War. Cardiff. Candy Jar Books. 2011. ISBN 978-0-9566826-2-8
  8. ^ Talbot-Booth, E.C. (1943). Ranks and Badges in the Navy, Army, RAF and Auxiliaries (PDF). London: George Philip & Son, Ltd. p. 31.
  9. ^ "RAF Ranks". raf.mod.uk/. Royal Air Force. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  10. ^ "No. 38578". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 April 1949. p. 1703.
  11. ^ "The Flying Nightingales". RAF Broadwell website. Retrieved 24 October 2008. [dead link]
  12. ^ "The Flying Nightingales". Hampshire the County Magazine. Retrieved 24 October 2008.
  13. ^ "WW11 RAF Casualties buried in Ireland".
  14. ^ Air Ministry, Women's Auxiliary Air Force: Notes for the Information of Candidates, 5th edition, 1941.

Further reading[edit]

  • Escott, Beryl, Women in Air Force Blue, Patrick Stephens, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-066-7
  • Escott, Beryl, Our Wartime Days, The WAAF in World War II, Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1995. ISBN 0-7509-0638-3
  • Escott, Beryl, The WAAF : A History of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, Shire Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-7478-0572-5 (also quoted at [1][dead link] in context of Czech WAAFs)
  • Gane Pushman, Muriel, We All Wore Blue: Experiences in the WAAF, Tempus, 2006. ISBN 978-0-7524-4130-6
  • Halsall, Christine, Women of Intelligence. Winning the Second World War with Air Photos, The History Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7524-6477-0
  • Manning, Mick & Granström, Brita: Taff in the WAAF (English Association Award Winner), Janetta Otter-Barry Books (Frances Lincoln), 2010. ISBN 978-1-84780-093-0
  • Miller, Sarah-Louise, The Women Behind the Few: The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and British Intelligence during the Second World War Biteback Publishing, 2023. ISBN 978-1-7859-0785-2
  • Rice, Joan, Sand In My Shoes: Coming of Age in the Second World War: Wartime Diaries of a WAAF, Harperpress, 2006. ISBN 0-00-722820-1
  • Settle, Mary Lee, All the Brave Promises: The Memories of Aircraft Woman 2nd Class 2146391 (1966)
  • Stone, Tessa. "Creating A (Gendered?) Military Identity: The Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain in the Second World War", Women's History Review, October 1999, Vol. 8, Issue 4, pp. 605–624, scholarly study
  • Turner, John Frayn (2011). The WAAF at War. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Aviation.
  • Watkins, Elizabeth, Cypher Officer, Pen Press Publications, Brighton, 2008. ISBN 978-1-906206-27-7 A first-hand account by a young WAAF cypher officer on active duty in the Egypt, Kenya, the Seychelles and Italy in World War II.
  • Wyndham J., Love is Blue, Heinemann, 1986. ISBN 0-00-654201-8
  • Younghusband, Eileen, Not an Ordinary Life. How Changing Times Brought Historical Events into my Life, Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning, Cardiff, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9561156-9-0 (Pages 36–70, 251–55 and 265–67 describe the experiences of a WAAF radar Filterer in World War II.)
  • Younghusband, Eileen, One Woman's War, Candy Jar Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9566826-2-8

External links[edit]

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