Britain's FEMALE Spitfire pilots to receive badge of courage at last

12 April 2012

Women Spitfire pilots are to receive a special award to recognise their contribution to victory in the Second World War.

The women of the Air Transport Auxiliary did not take part in combat, but ferried new and refitted planes to RAF bases - freeing fighter pilots to overcome German attacks during the Battle of Britain.

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Unsung heroes: (l-r) Pilots Lettice Curtis, Jenny Broad, Wendy Sale Barker, Gabrielle Patterson and Pauline Gower whose contribution to the World War II will finally be recognised

Now the 15 survivors, who also flew planes ranging from singleseat Hurricanes to massive Lancaster bombers, will receive a commemorative badge, Gordon Brown announced yesterday.

He told the Commons: "It is right that we have recognition for those women Spitfire pilots who did so much to protect and defend the airports and other military services during the war."

Their 100 surviving male colleagues will also be recognised.

The badge will be similar to those awarded recently to other "forgotten heroes}", including the

Land Girls, who worked on farms, and the Bevin Boys, who were conscripted into the mines rather than the armed forces.

The ATA, a civilian unit founded in 1938, delivered more than 300,000 aircraft of 130 different types from factories to frontline airfields.

By 1945, it had 650 pilots from 22 countries around the world including Chile, South Africa and the U.S. Of these, 164 were women.

Many members of the unit had been barred from joining the RAF on medical grounds.

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Heroines: The Spitfire ladies as they are today

Flying in even the worst weather, they quickly gained a reputation for bravery - 173 pilots and eight flight engineers were killed.

Among them was pioneering aviator Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.

She joined the ATA in 1940, but a year later she had to parachute out of her plane and was drowned in the Thames estuary.

Churchill's Cabinet were well aware of the importance of the ATA. One minister said of them:

"They were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if engaged in the battlefront."

One of the surviving pilots, Mary Ellis, 89, escaped unhurt from two crash landings.

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Pilot Joan Hughes is dwarfed by a Short Stirling

She said last night: "Looking back, I suppose I was very lucky. But when you are in your early 20s, you don't think of danger.

"Back then, people thought a woman was odd even wanting to fly."

Mrs Ellis now lives on the Isle of Wight, where she was managing director of Sandown airport.

Joy Lofthouse, now 94, had never even driven a car, let alone flown a plane, when she saw an ATA recruiting advert.

She ended up piloting 18 different aircraft, including Spitfires and Hurricanes.

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Pioneer: Pilot Lettice Curtis with a Spitfire during the war

Mrs Lofthouse, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said: 'The weather was our biggest enemy.

We didn't have radio contact with the ground and there were a couple of times I thought I'd lost one of my nine lives.

"We're all very pleased about this award of course. The only thing is, it's coming so late there aren't so many of us left alive."

Freydis Sharland: 'I was often frightened'

Freydis Sharland

She said: "I was often frightened, especially in bad weather. Many times I wondered if I would ever see the aerodrome again.

"We lost so many friends.

"The next morning their name would be scrubbed off the board in the office, and the place would be horribly quiet.

"At the end of the war, we were obviously very relieved. Yet I also remember feeling sad it was over."

Mrs Sharland, 87, from Benson, Oxfordshire, became a commercial pilot and once single-handedly delivered a plane to Pakistan - where she was barred from the men-only officers' mess.

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