The W.A.A.F

Virginia Gómez, and Monica Gallego

What is the W.A.A.F.?

The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, also known as WAAF, were responsible for helping the Royal Air Force during World War II. They did an outstanding job.

The WAAF was first established in 1939 by King George VI. However, it was previously an Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the female force equal to the Territorial Army. This unit was disbanded along with the other women’s services until the WAAF was completely formed in the late 1930s, due to the imminent war. Katherine Trefusis-Forbes, who had served in the Women’s Volunteer Reserve during the First World War, commanded the WAAF.

If a woman wanted to join the WAAF, she had to be between 18 and 43 years old. Originally, they were given duties such as cooking, office work and driving. Women weren’t certainly allowed to fly, and their abilities often were questioned in the early years.

What did the W.A.A.F. do?

However, the occupations changed as the war progressed and men had to abandon their jobs for combat duty. The role of women then became more and more technical. Consequently they were trained in:

Telegraphy.
Telephony
The interception of codes and ciphers
The interpretation of aerial photographs

Although women didn’t participate in active combat, they were exposed to the same dangers as men, as they were working at military installations.

A new breed of woman:

The trouser-ed, dungaree-ed, sea-booted woman of the WAAF was a new breed of female: strong and independent. These women looked like heroes for the rest of women. They could also complete even the hardest of jobs, including the operation of balloon sites. These balloons were designed to deter enemy bombers. The job consisted in lifting and lowering the barrage balloons, which were 66 feet long and 30 feet high when inflated. Men doubted wether women would have the required physical strength, but they were successful. Some members of the WAAF with particular skills were trained as agents to take part as Special Operations Executives (SOE).

Members of the WAAF served all over the UK, in the US, in Egypt and later in Europe after the invasion of June 1944. The WAAF was re-formed into the WRAF in 1949, and fully integrated into the RAF in 1994.

UNIFORM.

They wore a uniform that consisted of a light blue mess jacket with four pockets, and depending of the type of service, a skirt or a pair of trousers of the same colour, a shirt, a cravat and black flats with shoelaces, definitely matched with a black sash with the British lion. They also wore a grey cap and other accessories.

Nevertheless, they had problems with the uniforms because they had been created for men, so they didn’t fit well because they used to be in big sizes.

A mess jacket.

A shirt.

A cravat.

A cap.

Black flats.

AN IMPORTANT WOMAN.

Jane Trefusis Forbes was an ATS instructor in 1938. In 1936, the emergency service had been launched to train women in case of war. She was promoted to director of the WAAF. She did an exceptional job and she received a medal for this.

There were others important women but altogether every single woman was essential in a different way.