Spitfire Women
academia
Posts: 18,225 Forum Member
✭✭
The programme was about the women who flew in the last war. They were amazing and from the look of the ones still alive to be interviewed, they still are. Marvellous programme.
0
academia
Posts: 18,225
Comments
The book is fantastic - full of stories about them all. Wait till you read about the one who sank to the bottom of the Firth of Forth...:D
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
They are game old gals too
I don't think they make them like that any more!
On a personal note I have had the pleasure of meeting one of the ATA many years ago, the mother of a girlfriend. Even as a gauche teenager in the 70s I was suitably in awe of this redoubtable woman who flew Spitfires.
BBC4, 01.30 Thursday (that's Wed night/Thurs morning; possibly with sign language at that time)
BBC2, 19.00 Thursday, September 30 (that's a week on Thursday).
Set your timers - this really is worth watching. Unsung heroes of the Battle of Britain, delivering unarmed planes from the factories to the front line with no radio, navigating by looking for landmarks :eek:
Great programme.
Her father, Woolf Barnato, was a car racing driver, so speed and thrills has always been part of her affluent life (Woolf's father was part of De Beers Diamond Mining)! Diana not only flew spitfires, she flew many hundreds of planes... including a Lightning... through the sound barrier, when she became known as the fastest woman in the world!
Diana was an amazing woman, who was always very glamorous and sadly she died, aged 90, two years ago.
Woolf 'babe' Barnato was one of the famous Bentley boys and for a short while owned the company after it got into difficulties during the depression. Some excellent stories about Woolf can be found in W.O. Bentleys autobiography.
Bit of trivia - Barnato is the only driver to date with a 100% winning record at the Le Mans 24 Hours - entered three times, won three times.
Seen it a few times, always worth watching again.
I know a little about Diana Barnato Walker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Barnato_Walker
This was at one time Woolf's pre-war family home in West London. It was designed by Robert Lutyens the son of Edwin Lutyens, of Cenotaph fame.
I was shown round it about ten years ago, at the time it was a rather posh nursing home.
I have just watched it again and enjoyed it just as much second time round. Fantastic programme about wonderful women. Flying all those different planes with no maps or radios was just incredible.
Probably the 4 or 5th time I've watched, recorded it the first time round.
Anyone know if the soldiers of Empire or the 2 Walter Tull based programs been repeated in the last month or so of remembrance related programs?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tw1m1
During World War II, a remarkable band of female pilots fought against all odds for the right to aid the war effort. Without these Spitfire Women, the war may never have been won.
Using interviews with the last few surviving veterans, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction, this documentary brings to life the forgotten story of the ATA. The resilience of these women in the face of open discrimination is one of the most inspiring and overlooked milestones in women's rights. Their story is one of courage, sexism and patriotism, but above all a story about women who want to break the confines of the world they live in and reach for the skies.
I have a fabulous picture of her standing in the 'casual elbow on the wing' stance on a Spitfire, goggles in hand. My grandfather had no knowledge of what she was doing and was totally nonplussed when he eventually came back from Burma and Japan in '47 and learnt what his wife had done.
She never flew again after her wartime service saying that 'It needed to be done, so I did it, even though I didn't like it that much. Why would I want to do it again?'.
One is gets quite misty eyed about it and says they were the best days of her life.
Another says she never wanted the war to end for purely selfish reasons, despite losing those close to her.
Saw another documentary about the ATA the other day, chap who joined at 14 as a general gopher/messenger also loved it, flying about derring do, general excitement and danger.
It was unique in terms of equality for the time, even down to the equal pay for the men and women involved.