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As part of a series of blogs commemorating the 75th anniversary of V-J Day, I will reflect on the part women played in the Far East during the Second World War.

It is hard to tell the story of women in the Far East war because there is no single story. Many will remember the 1980s television drama ‘Tenko’ about Australian, British and Dutch civilian women taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore in 1942. The horrors faced by women prisoners of war and internees were captured in testimonies at military tribunals after the war.

Women did not only fight for survival in prisoner-of-war (PoW) and internment camps. They fought in and supported resistance movements in Japanese-occupied territories, and female war correspondents reported the Far East war from the front line. Marsali Wood, who sadly passed away in April, was a wireless operator for Special Operations Executive (SOE). Patricia Rawlinson was an SOE coder. Based in Colombo, she decoded agents’ messages from across the Far East. Ursula Graham Bower led Naga guerrillas and fought herself against the Japanese armies that invaded Burma in 1942.

Following significant advances by the Japanese and the capture of Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong, British forces retreated to India. South East Asia Command (SEAC) was formed in November 1943 with Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten appointed Supreme Allied Commander.

In February 1944, Director of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) Dame Trefusis-Forbes led a delegation to India. With a manpower shortage, she investigated how the WAAF could be employed in SEAC. WAAFs aged 20-38 years were invited to volunteer. Roles on offer included transport, maintenance, plotting, wireless telegraphy and clerical duties. The first draft arrived by ship in November 1944. By January 1946, over 1,200 WAAF officers and airwomen were in Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai and Sri Lanka. The total number of WAAFs serving overseas during the Second World War was small: only 9,000 of 182 000 personnel at its peak strength.

SEAC HQ moved to Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1944. WAAFs were employed there in vital communications work, conveying top secret signals between Lord Mountbatten and other commanders.

Aerial reconnaissance was an important tool in the Far East war. Having a base close to operations was vital, enabling intelligence to be generated quickly. A group of WAAFs from RAF Medmenham joined the Command Photographic Interpretation Centre in Delhi early in 1945. The shipping section produced reports on the Japanese navy while another section investigated the use of H2S radar. WAAF Eve Holiday was based at No. 347 Reconnaissance Wing at Bally, near Calcutta. She said:

‘The interpretation was very different from Benson…Most of the cover was over jungles and rivers, and sort of “Guerilla Warfare Interpretation” was needed. You had to watch for elementary signs of human habitation – trees being cleared, track activity, smoke from fires. I remember searching sortie after sortie for smoke. The Japanese knowing that the Allies would avoid upsetting locals by attacking temples, habitually used them as ammunition dumps; so you had to watch the track activity very carefully… On the rivers sampans [wooden boats] were often used as gun positions, and we got to know when they were converted’.

Arriving in India before the WAAF, Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS) served in all theatres during the Second World War. In the Far East, they joined medical personnel from the other services as well as civil detachments.

In Burma, wounded troops were staged at RAF Casualty Air Evacuation Units and flown by air ambulances staffed by nursing orderlies to base hospitals in India . Naval sick and wounded from the Battle of Okinawa travelled by hospital ship to forward island bases, from which they were flown to Australia in Transport Command Douglas Dakotas. The first arrivals were accompanied by a Sister from Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.

PMRAFNS nurses had to adapt to the language barriers while treating troops of diverse nationalities serving with the Fourteenth Army. The RAF deployed mobile field hospitals closer to the front line. Mobile field hospitals, as one nurse described, were miles from the fighting but ‘close enough to feel the earth rumble’. The forward hospitals treated the diseases prevalent in the sub-tropical jungle climate. Crucially, troops could return to combat much sooner than if they were evacuated to Indian base hospitals. One nurse’s letter from India described the ad hoc nature of this arrangement, working in basic conditions:

‘We have at last started our Mobile Field Hospital. We moved from our original site into one that might have been built for as, as far as basha huts are concerned. Basha huts are built of bamboo with thatched roof, straw walls with mud slapped on either side and holes cut for windows. No glass, of course, but wooden shutters. We find 250 Ib. bomb cases most useful, serving as stools, lockers, stands for bowls and duty dressing containers.’

The units moved frequently, their mobility keeping them effective in the ever-shifting combat environment. In July 1945, PMRAFNS nurse described moving to Rangoon as the front advanced:
‘We arrived and, of course, nobody expected us – everywhere you went, nobody expected you…[We] didn’t know one end of Rangoon from another, but we were told just go out and find a building. We finally settled for a building without a roof, but it had water and electricity’.

Medical workers did not have the same protection as in other theatres as Japan was not a signatory to the 1929 Geneva Convention and massacres of captured medical personnel did occur. PMRAFNS were evacuated with other British women when the Japanese laid siege to Imphal in 1944.

Servicewomen in the Far East war were drawn from all nationalities. Locally recruited volunteers in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps in India included Indians, Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Anglo-Burmese, Burmese and Nepalese women. Over 10,000 women served in its army, naval or air forces branches from March 1942 until it was wound down after Indian Independence in 1947. The Corps was open to British subjects between 17 and 50 with a good knowledge of English. With a HQ in Delhi, the women could be posted across India. Basic training took six months and typical roles included switchboard operators, drivers, aircraft plotters, clerks, mechanics and storewomen. Others were engaged in highly secretive intelligence work in signals and as cypher clerks. Junior Commandant DK Cursetjee described it as ’a very democratic organisation [which] makes no distinction whatever between races, classes or religions’

One woman who served was nineteen-year-old Private Begum Pasha Shah. Her photograph appeared in The Sphere in late 1944 with the caption ‘The first Muhammedan [Muslim] girl to join the Women’s Auxiliary Corps in India’. Speaking seven languages, she served as a clerk in an RAF orderly room in southern India.

Members who completed three years’ service between 1942 and 1945 were entitled to wear the Indian Service Medal. Photographs of them marching proudly at the victory parade in London after the war appeared in British newspapers.

Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 following the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some felt a sense of relief that such a terrible war would be over. WAAF Joan Wilson was a wireless operator based in Sri Lanka. She later reflected:

‘…we had some of the people who were ex-prisoners of war come in. And although they had already been in hospital and supposed to have been well-fed they were still skin and bone… if the atom bomb stopped one person from that I was pleased. It was a horrible thing. Really horrible. But something had to be done.’

After V-J Day, discussions began in Air Command South East Asia about whether to deploy WAAF further east as its HQ with its female clerical personnel prepared to move to Singapore. On 22 August 1945, the Secretary of State for Air approved the employment of WAAF anywhere in South East Asia. The first WAAF arrived in Singapore from Sri Lanka not long after its liberation. In February 1946, the first officers and airwomen arrived in Hong Kong. All WAAF personnel were withdrawn from India by June as the political situation deteriorated.

Two mobile field hospitals treated released prisoners of war including No. 81 Mobile Field Hospital, the first RAF hospital in Singapore. Sisters and medical orderlies joined medical evacuation flights as repatriation of POWs began in earnest. Those too ill to be flown were returned on hospital ships. More PMRAFNS moved into Japan as Commonwealth forces joined to form BC (Air) with Australian, New Zealand, British and Indian personnel overseeing Japan’s surrender.

Servicemen returning to the UK were processed through RAF Cosford, which repatriated men from all theatres. WAAF Marie Goddard was a medical clerk at No. 106 Personnel Reception Centre. Returning POW, Aircraftman Frederick George Freeman was receiving specialist treatment at No. 4 Medical Rehabilitation Unit in June 1946 when he met Marie. They were engaged six months’ later and married in 1947.

This year, 75 years since V-J Day, it is important to remember the women who contributed to that victory. They are perhaps some of the forgotten people of a forgotten war.

I have known of the defeat of Singapore from a young age. This is due to my Father telling me of his Uncle who served in the Army, was captured in Singapore, returned home years later with scars on his back, did not talk about his experiences and died soon after. This sadly was not an uncommon experience amongst those who returned from captivity. The capture of Singapore has been ingrained into my memory as it has been for thousands of other families. For many it marked the beginning of years as a prisoner of war (POW) for others it marks the end of the Empire. It was the worst British military defeat. A defeat that stupefied Churchill in the words of his Doctor.

Singapore is located off the tip of the Malaya (now Malaysia) peninsula and was a British creation of Empire through and through, founded by Stamford Raffles. By the 1930s it was the fourth largest port in the world. As Jan Morris notes in ‘Farewell the Trumpets‘, ‘It was traditionally one of the main pivots of imperial power’.

Between the wars a major building project took place fortifying the island, costing 60 million pounds. This was designed to ensure security of the empire east of Suez. It had batteries of guns guarding the sea, an airbase and some 7,000 men. Singapore was widely assumed to be impregnable, to be able to hold out any attack until a fleet sailed in sent from Britain. Australia and New Zealand looked to Singapore to aid their security against the threat of Japan. It gave them peace of mind to know that, in the event of conflict, having a base where a fleet despatched from Britain could be based and so act as a deterrent.

During his tenure as Chancellor during the interwar period, Winston Churchill had restricted the money being spent to fortify Singapore. On 15 December 1924, Churchill wrote to the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin stating that he did not believe that there was ‘the slightest chance’ of a war with Japan ‘in our lifetime’. On the basis of these views he successfully reduced the planned scale of fortifications in Singapore. This view changed on 7 December 1941 when Japan launched a surprise attack against the United States bombing Pearl Harbour and on the same day Singapore.

The men and leadership of the Japanese Army and Navy were highly experienced and efficient veterans, having been at war with China since 1937 and their aircraft, particularly their fighters were much better then was thought at the time, although they had no independent air force. Their Navy was the strongest in the Pacific. Unlike the Allied forces they also embraced the jungle and were not wary of it, their tactics were to close quickly with the enemy, this would keep their opponents off balance and always on the back foot. As an opposition they were dismissed by many in Allied High Command, perhaps due to old-fashioned ‘empire thinking’. It is also to be remembered that threats were nearer Britain’s shores at this time with Germany on the doorstep and that is where the concentration of Allied forces would be, defending Britain. To give some idea of the priority of the defence of the Far East the Admiral in charge of the British Far Eastern fleet, which consisted of three cruisers and five destroyers, was himself based in London.

An RAF officer was in charge of the defence of Singapore. Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham was appointed Commander-in-Chief of British Far East Command and was responsible for overseeing the defence of Malaya, Singapore, Burma and Hong Kong. However, this Command had restrictions, he did not have full control over all the forces or the civilian administration. A veteran of the Royal Flying Corps, he was appointed on 18 November 1940, aged 62, returning from retiring from active service. Brooke-Popham asked for reinforcements continuously as his experience told him that his forces could not fight off a Japanese offensive. His requests were turned down or ignored. He wrote of ‘the feeling of being neglected’. After the Japanese invasion and its rapid success, he was relieved of command on 27 December 1941. He was accused publicly of being responsible for the loss of Singapore and the Government decided to change their minds on offering this highly experienced officer a baronetcy in the New Year’s Honours list. Sir Robert Brooke-Popham continued to serve where he could. He left the active list in May 1942 and from 1942 – 1945 served as inspector-general of the Air Training Corps and also president of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes. As his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry states, Brooke-Popham was a ‘brilliant professional officer’ who recognised the weakness of the situation in Singapore and the Far East, but as commented by H Probert in ‘The Forgotten Air Force: The Royal Air Force in the War Against Japan, 1941 – 1945‘ for all his endeavours, [Brooke-Popham] had to pay the price of being in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

The Royal Air Force was to play its part in the battle to defend Malaya, the gateway to Singapore. But this air battle was effectively over within two days. The RAF could not match the superior numbers of aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy and, on the whole, their aircraft were outclassed.

At the outbreak of war with Germany in September 1939 the RAF had at its disposal to defend the Far East 24 Bristol Blenheims, 10 flying boats (a mixture of Supermarine Sunderlands and the older Short Singapores) and 24 torpedo bombers in the form of Vickers Vildebeests. Fleet Air Arm also contributed Fairey Swordfish and Supermarine Walrus aircraft. In 1939, the RAF had no fighter aircraft station in the Far East. It was estimated by High Command that some 336 aircraft would be needed in the defence of Malaya and Singapore in the form of 22 squadrons. When Japan attacked there was 14 squadrons with a total of 215 aircraft. The mainstay Allied fighter aircraft was the American built Brewster Buffalo. Considered unsuitable for war in the West because of its poor comparative performance it also proved to be outmatched in rate of climb and speed by the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M ‘Zero’ fighter. Most RAF pilots were also lacking combat experience, many arriving fresh from flying training schools in Australia and New Zealand.

Although operations were carried out with bravery and professionalism, nothing could stop the losses from occurring. Losses that were not easily replaceable. It would however be wrong to think that the RAF just fought defensively.

On 8 December 1941, the Royal Air Force launched an offensive against the Japanese landing forces, 88 aircraft in total in a series of attacks were involved in the operation, one transport was sunk but this did not hinder the landings. Soon, Japanese aircraft would be based on the Malaya Peninsula, a key component of the Japanese invasion plans. On 9 December 1941, the RAF launched a bombing raid with Blenheim bombers against Signora airfield in Southern Thailand, crowded with Japanese aircraft. Six bombers took part and although without fighter cover pressed home the attack. As soon as they reached their target they were attacked in force by Nakajima Ki-27 ‘Nates’. Three of the six bombers and their crews were lost although the airfield was hit. The RAF losses could not be replaced. By the end of 8 December 1941 only 50 out of 110 operational aircraft based in Northern Malaya were available to the RAF.

Many of these losses took place on the ground. There was a lack of an early warning system, and RAF airfield defences were also found to be wanting. Many aircraft were destroyed on the ground by targeted bombing by the Japanese. The speed of the Japanese advance meant that on 9 December 1941, two days after the attack was launched, all but two squadrons were withdrawn to Singapore. This was the last line of defence, to defend the naval base, to enable reinforcements to come in by sea.

By mid-January, the RAF had only 56 operational fighters left spread across five squadrons. Hawker Hurricanes arrived on 13 January 1942 in crates and were rapidly assembled to aid the defence of Singapore and had an immediate effect. Twenty-seven Japanese bombers flew unescorted over Singapore and the Hurricanes shot down eight of them. On the following day Japanese bombers reappeared, but this time accompanied by Zero fighters.

Five Hurricanes were shot down. The Hurricane was slower and less manoeuvrable then the Zero. These Hurricanes had originally been destined for the Middle East and had a desert air intake filter fitted on their engines which reduced their speed by thirty miles an hour. Spitfires were seen as essential for the defence of Great Britain and would not be sent to Singapore which was last in the list of British priorities behind the defence of GB, Middle East and also aid for Russia. The Hurricane did inflict damage to the Japanese air force but this became progressively harder with the small force operating piece-meal, as soon as airframes were erected and losses worsened by a shortage of spare parts.

The force also lacked warning of raids, this was due to the over running or dismantling of radar stations as the Japanese forces advanced ever closer. This meant the Hurricanes were often caught climbing to intercept Japanese raids and, without the advantage of height, they were vulnerable to the Japanese fighters.

The RAF did all they could to stop the advance of the Japanese. On 26 January 1942, No. 100 and No. 36 Squadron launched an offensive against Japanese forces landing at Endau on the east coast of Malaya who wished to join with forces on the west. Twelve Vildebeests accompanied by Hurricane and Buffalo fighters attacked Japanese transports and landing craft. The Vildebeests stayed on course despite heavy opposition by Zero fighters, five were shot down. The operation was repeated by No. 36 Squadron later the same day, eight more allied aircraft were shot down.

By early February 1942 only a small air force was left operating from Singapore. The rest would be operating from Southern Sumatra. Japanese forces continued pressing home their attack. Some one million people were now trying to find shelter in Singapore, water supply was becoming a problem as was fuel and ammunition shortages. Despite impressions of Singapore being a fortress capable of withstanding a siege it lacked the facilities to sustain resistance in the face of enemy land attacks.

At 5.15pm on 15 February 1942, Lieutenant-General Arthur E Percival, General Officer Commanding in Malaya and architect of the defences of Malaya and Singapore and his chief of staff made their way to a Ford factory in Bukit Tamah to meet Japanese High Command led by Lieutenant-General Yamashita Tomoyuki who had successful led the campaign. The discussions took 55 minutes in which Percival was reluctant to use the word surrender. But the surrender document was signed at 6.10pm. This signalled the greatest military defeat in British history. The British suffered 138,708 casualties compared to 9,824 for the Japanese. Of these British casualties 130,000 would face hardship and atrocities as prisoners of war.

As for the Royal Air Force’s contribution Percival commented in a despatch that the men of the Royal Air Force ‘through the later stages of the Malayan campaign, went unflinchingly to almost certain death in obsolete aircraft which should have been replaced many years before.’

‘Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.’
J Robert Oppenheimer

In July 1944, Group Captain Leonard Cheshire DSO, and two bars, DFC, was retired from flying having logged a record 102 operations as a pilot with RAF Bomber Command. On 8 September, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, not for an individual act of gallantry, but in recognition of his courage and outstanding leadership from the summer of 1940. Although by no means a natural pilot, Cheshire quickly mastered every aspect of his trade and every aircraft type he flew. His coolness under fire was legendary, and this, combined with his shrewd judgement and warm sense of humour, made him an excellent skipper. As a commanding officer, Cheshire was compassionate and approachable to all of his men regardless of rank, and he inspired strong personal loyalty. The squadrons he led were efficient and happy.

In November 1940, Cheshire, while still a pilot officer, was awarded his first Distinguished Service Order for bombing Cologne in a flak-damaged Whitley and bringing the aircraft safely home. In March 1943, aged 25, he became the RAF’s youngest group captain; but chose to forfeit his rank in November to take command of No. 617 Squadron, the celebrated ‘Dambusters’. Cheshire’s unconventional approach to low-level target marking brought the squadron success; and his fourth operational tour ended with him perfecting the technique at the controls of a Mustang fighter.

In July 1945, Group Captain Cheshire was working dejectedly at a desk job in Washington DC when he was told, in the strictest secrecy, about the $2 billion-dollar Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb. He was also informed that he had been selected by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to witness the dropping of the bomb on a target in Japan. Cheshire duly set off for the Marianas in the western Pacific, arriving at the huge American air base on Tinian Island at the end of the month.

In the Far East, Japan was embroiled in a bloody, and ultimately futile, war of attrition against the United States and its British Commonwealth and Chinese allies. America’s military and industrial power was by now overwhelming, and over three million Japanese servicemen and civilians were dead. The US Navy’s submarine blockade ensured that food and medicine were in short supply, and Japan’s highly flammable cities lay within range of USAAF B-29 bombers. On the night of 9/10 March 1945, 16 square miles of Tokyo were razed in an incendiary attack that killed at least 80,000 people.

While Allied victory was assured, the war was expected to go on into 1946, and it was clear that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would be costly. American military planners were unable to agree a figure for projected casualties, but half a million Purple Heart combat decorations were stockpiled. In the spring of 1945, Japanese diplomats had begun to extend unofficial peace feelers to the Soviet Union unaware that Stalin had promised (at the Yalta Conference in February) to join the war against Japan by mid-August.

Throughout the war, Japanese rule in Asia was tyrannical and cruel, and it caused the deaths of an estimated 24 million men, women and children. Japan also refused to recognise the Geneva Convention, and the 140,000 Allied servicemen it captured laboured as slaves in appalling conditions. Some 30,000 of these men were executed or died from malnutrition, disease or ill-treatment; and of the 5,102 RAF prisoners, 1,714 lost their lives. Preparations were made for all prisoners to be massacred in the event of an Allied invasion of the Japanese homeland.

It was against this grim backdrop that US President Harry S Truman, attending the Potsdam Conference in Germany, learned of the successful atomic test on 16 July at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Buoyed by the news, Truman, on 26 July, jointly issued the Potsdam Declaration with Winston Churchill and Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, calling on Japan to surrender or face ‘prompt and utter destruction.’ Kantaro Suzuki, Imperial Japan’s last prime minister, chose to ignore the ultimatum.

At 02.45 am, on 6 August 1945, a B-29 of the USAAF’s 509th Composite Group took off from Tinian bound for Japan . The pilot on the 1,570-mile flight was the unit’s commanding officer, Colonel Paul Tibbets, and the Superfortress was named ‘Enola Gay’ after his mother. The aircraft had ben specially modified to carry a uranium ‘gun-type’ fission bomb, codenamed ‘Little Boy’, and its destination was the city of Hiroshima. Enola Gay arrived over the target, and at 08.15 am, Major Thomas Ferebee, Tibbet’s bombardier, flipped the release switch dropping the device. Little Boy detonated 1,890 feet above Hiroshima; and in an instant 90 per cent of the city was destroyed, and the first of 140,000 people died. Two days later, the Soviet Union responded to news of the attack by invading Manchuria, dashing Japanese hopes of a negotiated peace. On Tinian, meanwhile, preparations went ahead for a second atomic strike.

In the early hours of 9 August, B-29 ‘Bock’s Car’, flown by Major Charles Sweeney, began the long journey from Tinian to Kokura. The aircraft was armed with a plutonium implosion-type bomb codenamed ‘Fat Man.’ Finding the city obscured by cloud, Sweeney set course for the secondary target, the port of Nagasaki, and dropped the bomb at 11.02am. Cheshire, aboard the camera plane ’Big Stink’, witnessed the explosion from 50 miles away:

‘By the time I saw it, the flash had turned into a vast fire-ball which slowly became dense smoke, 2,000 feet above the ground, half a mile in diameter and rocketing upwards at the rate of something like 20,000 feet a minute. I was overcome, not by its size, nor by its speed of ascent but by what appeared to me its perfect and faultless symmetry…‘Against me’, it seemed to declare, ‘you cannot fight.’ My whole being felt overwhelmed, first by a tidal wave of relief and hope – it’s all over! – then by a revolt against using such a weapon.’

Although dropped well off target, the bomb destroyed half of Nagasaki and claimed 70,000 lives. The death toll in Hiroshima was far greater, and the devastation appeared worse, but it later emerged that ‘Fat Man’ had been the more effective device.

Shizuko Nagae, a young mother, was two miles from the blast:
‘There was a long black line moving slowly downwards…They were burned, wounded people who tried to escape from the fires near the epicentre coming over the mountain. They were almost naked. Their hair stuck together with blood…

…All of the dead bodies were cremated from morning to night every day…The workers collecting bodies on the street just held them by the limbs and threw them into the cart. Their hideously burned hands and feet stuck out of the cart as if they were dolls.’

On 15 August 1945, President Truman announced the surrender of Japan, which had received guarantees that its emperor would remain head of state. The war was finally over, but the ethics and military necessity of the decision to deploy nuclear weapons have been debated by historians, philosophers and spiritual leaders ever since.

On his return to Tinian, Captain Robert A Lewis, co-pilot on the Enola Gay, wrote in his flight log ‘My God, what have we done?’ Cheshire, however, immediately understood what he had witnessed at Nagasaki and the implications for mankind of the advent of weapons of mass destruction. He also saw that this terrifying new power could be used for good or ill and that nuclear proliferation was inevitable. It was for this reason that he remained a firm believer in deterrence for the rest of his life.

At the end of the year, Cheshire was diagnosed with psycho-neurosis, and he retired from the RAF in January 1946. Restless and unable to adjust to civilian life, he busied himself writing newspaper articles and delivering speeches around the country about the ‘biological necessity’ of maintaining world peace. In February, he gave a broadcast on the BBC in which he said:

‘we are faced either with the end of this country or the end of war… to end war each one of us must play our part…it is not a responsibility we can shelve nor one that we can say belongs exclusively to the government.’

Convinced that peace could be attained through the selfless actions of individuals, he established Vade In Pacem – ‘Go In Peace’ – a community designed to help ex-service personnel integrate into civilian life. ‘VIP’ failed, but in 1948, Cheshire began nursing Arthur Dykes, one of its former members, who was homeless and dying of cancer. Dykes was a devout Roman Catholic, and his influence on Cheshire was so profound that he converted to the faith and was received into the church on Christmas Eve. The bomber veteran went on to nurse several more terminally ill or disabled people, and so began the charity known today as Leonard Cheshire. In 1955, a service was established in Mumbai in India, and the organisation was soon operating world-wide.

The tenth anniversary of the atomic attacks saw the opening of memorial spaces in both cities. Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park features the famous ruined Industrial Promotion Hall, or ‘A Bomb Dome’, preserved as it was immediately after the blast on 6 August 1945. The Dome is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives over one million visitors every year. The Nagasaki explosion was commemorated by the unveiling of a 32-feet-tall statue of a seated man praying for peace. A black marble vault below the statue holds a nominal roll of the bomb’s victims, and in 2005, Corporal Ronald Shaw’s name was added to it.

Ronald Francis Shaw of Edmonton, in North London, was captured in 1942 while serving with No. 84 Squadron in Jakarta. Forced to work in an iron foundry in a shipyard, he died on 9 August, at the age of 25, and is buried with 1,800 other Commonwealth servicemen at the CWGC Cemetery at Yokohama. Japanese historian Shigeaki Mori, who survived the Hiroshima attack as a boy, managed to trace Ronald’s family to Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. His relatives gave their blessing to his inclusion on the roll and said they hoped to visit Nagasaki one day.

The epicentre of the Nagasaki bomb was very close to Urakami, the home of the city’s long-established Christian community. The blast wrecked the Roman Catholic Cathedral, and the glass eyes of a statue of the Virgin Mary inside it were destroyed. Her wooden face refused to burn, however, and some members of the congregation consider this miraculous. Shigemi Fukahori, who was 14 years old in 1945, is alive to the significance of Nagasaki’s agony 75 years ago and says simply: ‘I believe the war ended because of our sacrifice.’

Leonard Cheshire died, aged 74, on 31 July 1992, and there are now moves for him to be canonised as a saint.

I am indebted to Dr Robert Owen, Official Historian of the No. 617 Squadron Association, for his advice and support.

The RAF Museum Midlands tells the story of the RAF through its collection and the stories of the people who served in the RAF. But the RAF Museum Midlands is more than that. Located in the West Midlands it also tells the story of the RAF in this part of the UK. During the Second World War, several local people served within the RAF and several aircraft were purchased and donated to the RAF by the people of Wolverhampton. Such aircraft were given the name of their donors.

The idea behind the naming of aircraft in exchange for public donation began in the United Kingdom during the First World War, when the government encouraged donations as a public relations exercise. Donations were not raised for any particular aircraft, but a scale was produced to indicate to the public what their money could buy, £1,500 would buy a BE2c, £2,250 a Vickers Gunbus and £3,500 a Short floatplane.

The scheme was revived during the Second World War by the Minister of Aircraft Production William Maxwell Aitken, then Lord later Baron Beaverbrook, and the Spitfire captured the public imagination like no other aircraft. The nominal sum of £5,000 was set as the minimum donation to purchase a Spitfire (despite the actual cost being over £8,000) and communities and individuals around the world responded to raise funds for ‘their’ Spitfire.

One of the first Spitfire funds was set up by the Wolverhampton Express and Star newspaper, which had raised £1,250 by 18 June 1940, just a few days after the commencement of the Fund. A total of £6,746 was raised and Spitfire Mk. Vb AB917 was subsequently allocated and named ‘The Inspirer’, for being one of the first funded aircraft. A Ministry of Aircraft Production plaque was presented to the newspaper in honour of their Fund, and this plaque was later donated to the RAF Museum.

Although purchased in 1940, ‘The Inspirer’ did not begin its operational service until January 1942 when it was assigned to No. 401 (Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)) Squadron at RAF Gravesend in Kent. As part of the Biggin Hill Wing alongside Nos. 72 and 124 Squadrons, No. 401 Squadron carried out fighter sweep operations over France, providing fighter cover to medium bomber squadrons attacking targets such as railways, factories and military sites.

On the wing of ‘The Inspirer’ is 21-year-old Sergeant Alexander Douglas Blakey also of No. 401 (RCAF) Squadron. Blakey flew AB917 on 8 February 1942 on formation and camera gun practice, and then again on 16 February carrying out practice attacks on tanks. Blakey was killed a few days after this photograph was taken, on 9 March, when the Spitfire he was flying broke up during an air test.
AB917 was principally flown by Pilot Officer Gerald Bickle Whitney, a 21-year-old Canadian born in Ontario but resident the USA. Whitney took AB917 on fighter sweeps to Dunkirk, convoy protection patrols over the English Channel, offensive air patrols seeking out Luftwaffe opposition, and air-sea rescue support sorties.

On 28 April 1942 No. 401 Squadron was top cover in a wing sweep for a formation of Boston medium bombers once more targeting St. Omer in France. They ran into formations of German Me 109s and FW 190s and Blakeslee and Whitney in AB917 dived to intercept but were themselves attacked. Blakeslee made two successful attacks on the FW 190s but AB917 was damaged by enemy fire. Whitney managed to get the aircraft back across the Channel but crashed in the village of Whitfield near Dover. Whitney is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking.

Following the success of the first fundraising effort, a second Wolverhampton fighter fund began, this time championed by the Mayor of Wolverhampton. It raised £5,076 and the second aircraft Spitfire Mk. Vb P8715 was named ‘Wulfrun’ after Lady Wulfruna, the Anglo-Saxon noble who founded Wolverhampton.

First delivered in 1941 to No. 19 Squadron, by April 1943 ‘Wulfrun’ was with another Royal Canadian Air Force squadron, No. 411 stationed at RAF Kenley in Surrey. It became the regular aircraft of Flight Lieutenant William Thomas Johnstone, a 25-year-old native of Calgary. Johnstone joined the RCAF in 1940 and had served in Canadian squadrons in the UK since 1941. With No. 416 (RCAF) Squadron he had participated in Operation Jubilee, the attempted capture of the port of Dieppe, on 19 August 1942.

With P8715 Johnstone participated in fighter sweeps, patrols and bomber escort operations. On 28 March 1943 they were part of the escort for over 100 American Liberator and Flying Fortress heavy bombers attacking targets in Northern France and on 4 April they escorted 24 Lockheed Ventura medium bombers on a raid against Caen aerodrome in Normandy.

On 14 April 1943, Johnstone and P8715 set out from RAF West Hampnett at 2.25pm, part of a Wing attack against railway rolling stock in the Normandy area. The successful raid was interrupted by attacking enemy aircraft and P8715 was hit, forcing Johnstone to bale out of the stricken aircraft into the sea off Cherbourg. He was able to get into his emergency dinghy and his location was marked, and six aircraft from No. 411 Squadron returned to the scene 90 minutes later, but no sign of him was seen.

What happened to Johnstone was never ascertained, and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial to the RAF’s missing.

The Wolverhampton connection goes much further than the donation by its people. Many Wulfrunians served within the RAF. There are too many to mention, but let’s pick one: Wing Commander Edward Christopher Deanesly DFC.
Wolverhampton born and with a lifetime association to the Birmingham area, Christopher Deanesly was a Battle of Britain pilot whose RAF career included success as a night fighter pilot in the Wolverhampton-built Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft.

Christopher Deanesly was born in Wolverhampton on 27 January 1910, the grandson of the one-time Mayor of Wolverhampton and Director of Sunbeam, John Marston. His family lived at 43 Penn Road. His father Edward was Honorary Surgeon at the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire General Hospital (later the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton).

He joined the part time Royal Auxiliary Air Force in 1937 and served as a pilot with No. 605 Squadron based at Castle Bromwich aerodrome in Birmingham. He was present at the opening of Elmdon Airport (now Birmingham International Airport) in July 1939 and recalled in a letter to test pilot Alex Henshaw (X002-9256/007/005/063) how Hams Hall power station in Warwickshire (now the site of Hams Hall Distribution Park) was ‘a most useful navigation aid above cloud’.

He was called up to full time RAF service and on 3 October 1939 he arrived at RAF Acklington in Northumberland to take up his posting with No. 152 (Hyderabad) Squadron, flying the biplane Gloster Gladiator. At this time No. 152 patrolled the North Eastern coastline and Humber and Tyne estuaries. Deanesly participated in patrols, attempted interceptions of enemy aircraft, reconnaissance sorties and convoy escort. While with No. 152 Squadron Deanesly gained the nickname ‘Jumbo’ due to his large stature.

The Squadron converted to the Spitfire I in January 1940 and in July of that year were transferred to RAF Warmwell in Dorset to aid in the defence of Portland Naval Base.
On 25 July a No. 152 Squadron patrol spotted a large formation of enemy aircraft approaching Portland from the south east and flew to intercept them.

The formation consisted of approximately 18 Ju 87 dive bombers, 1 Do 17 and 12 Me 109s, and the patrol flew to intercept. Deanesly in Spitfire K9901 and his Section attacked the Dornier, reporting that he fired a 6-7 second burst of ammunition at it, closing to within 40 yards and only breaking away when he had ‘about rammed’ it. (note 1)

The Dornier, from Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 (Dive Bomber Group 1) based in Normandy, France, was attacked by others after this and crashed at East Fleet Farm Dorset with the loss of one crewman. Deanesly however went on to follow other aircraft from the formation. He described how he flew through a ‘swarm of dive bombers (Ju 87) which were attacking a small ship’ and shot at them as they climbed from their dive. (note 2)

He fired the remainder of his ammunition before noting return fire from one aircraft, and then suddenly his cockpit was filled with black smoke as his engine had been hit. He was too low to bale out and coolly put his Spitfire down on the sea five miles off Portland, managing to escape from it before it sank. He spent an hour in the water before being rescued by the SS Empire Henchman, a Ministry of War Transport tug, and was finally landed at Lyme Regis by an RAF launch.

With time off for recuperation, Deanesly was back in action with No. 152 Squadron by 25 August when RAF Warmwell was bombed and the Squadron scrambled to attack the retreating formation, although Deanesly did not engage with any enemy aircraft.

On Thursday 26 September Deanesly was in one of nine No. 152 Squadron aircraft airborne for an afternoon patrol, when they intercepted a formation of Ju 88 aircraft and accompanying Me 109 escorts flying south over the Isle of Wight. Flying as the leader of Green Section he began an attack on the Ju 88 bombers when he was hit by fire from an Me 109. Wounded, Deanesly nevertheless was able to bale out, landing in the sea twelve miles from the Needles rocks. His aircraft, Spitfire K9982, crashed into the Channel and was lost. Pilot Officer Dudley Williams of Black Section saw Deanesly take to his parachute and land in the sea and was able to direct rescue boats to his location. (note 3) Brought to Swanage, Deanesly was taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries.

This ended his operational service in the Battle of Britain but following convalescence Christopher Deanesly’s RAF career followed a new path as a specialist night fighter pilot.

Notes
1 Air-50-64-9 Combat Report The National Archives
2 ibid
3 Air-50-64-60 Combat Report The National Archives

Bibliography
The Battle of Britain Then and Now ed. W. Ramsey 1980 After the Battle
The Blitz Then and Now vols. 1 & 2 ed. W. Ramsey 1987 After the Battle

‘Good God!’

This was the incredulous reaction from the beachhead master when Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) Nurse Iris Bower arrived on Juno Beach early on 11 June 1944. With fellow nurse, Mollie Giles, she travelled on a tank landing craft, becoming one of the first women to set foot on the D Day beaches. She was later awarded an MBE for her work.

Soon after D Day, women like Iris went directly into danger on the beaches while fighting was still taking place. They helped deliver thousands of soldiers to British hospitals, saving countless lives.

Two days after Iris, three nursing orderlies departed from RAF Blakehill on the first casualty evacuation flights to Normandy. It was 13 June, one week since D Day. Corporal Lydia Alford and LACWs Myra Roberts and Edna Birkbeck; each travelling in an RAF Douglas Dakota. The moment of their return was captured by an official RAF photographer. The welcoming party of newspaper correspondents dubbed them the ‘Flying Nightingales’ and the name stuck. They were the first British women on active service to be flown into a war zone.

The Air Council had approved the employment of WAAF nursing orderlies for evacuation from battle areas three months previously, in March 1944. The trade was introduced into the WAAF in 1941 and volunteers were sought for air ambulance duties the following year. Hundreds of WAAFs answered the call and by June 1943, over 200 had been trained. At first, they worked only in the United Kingdom, transferring sick and injured personnel by air to hospitals from locations across the country.

Many of the volunteers had never flown before. Their initial training involved a six-week course at RAF Hendon where they learnt how to treat battlefield injuries such as facial injuries, fractures and burns; how to administer oxygen and give injections and blood transfusions. They received further instruction in the use of emergency safety equipment and in how to handle the large numbers of wounded they would be treating.

A crucial test was their ability to cope with the flying conditions. British journalist Letitia Lumley noted in a 1944 article:

‘I saw some of those young women during their training at an airfield in the south of England. They were climbing in and out of the big transport planes, handling stretchers, familiarising themselves with the equipment. They were waiting with some apprehension for their first flight.
Persistent air-sickness naturally disqualified them.’

WAAF members who passed the examinations were then posted to RAF air ambulance stations. Three main RAF stations in No. 46 Group, Transport Command were tasked to receive casualties from the Continent: Blakehill, Down Ampney and Broadwell; later Brize Norton was used when evacuating after Arnhem. Approaching the invasion of Europe, all personnel were confined to camp and could not enter or leave as preparations got underway.

RAF Douglas Dakotas were adapted for the purpose of casualty evacuation. Each aircraft could carry 24 casualties and 18 could be stretcher cases. There was space for nine stretchers on each side, in rows of three with the lowest on the floor and the others on racks. Eventually, the aircraft were adapted to carry up to 21 stretcher casualties, but the load could never exceed 24. One nursing orderly was present on each aircraft with a crew of four.

Ammunition, rations and other supplies were carried on the outbound flight. Flying in the Douglas Dakotas was a noisy and uncomfortable experience. There were no seats and so the orderlies stood during the return journey or sat on boxes of supplies on the way out. Once they landed, there was little time to offload freight and load stretchers into the aircraft.

Corporal Lydia Alford described her first landing in Normandy:

‘Chiefly I remember the dust which was everywhere, coming up in great clouds. While the freight was being unloaded I tried to make the wounded men as comfortable as possible in all that dust. I had water to give them and panniers of tea. There was a little stray dog which came up from somewhere or other and started to play with the wounded- it cheered them up no end.’

Initially casualties were evacuated from airstrips close to the Normandy beachhead. Later a shuttle service operated, carrying casualties to bases near the coast from forward fighter airfields within 20 miles of the front line. The shuttle service was carried out by Handley Page Harrow aircraft, which had the advantage of only needing a short runway for take-off. Converted to carry a mix of stretcher and sitting casualties, they were renamed Sparrows. Each aircraft carried one nursing orderly. At the rear area bases, the wounded were graded according to the severity of their injuries and distributed either to nearby hospitals by road or flown by air ambulance to England.

On their return to England, the stretchers were carried off the aircraft at the three main airfields in England, which could each hold 300-400 casualties per day. They were situated close to hospitals and to railheads where lower priority casualties could be distributed.

In the first month of casualty evacuation from the Continent, 1097 stretcher cases and 467 sitting cases were evacuated with ‘Flying Nightingales’ by Douglas Dakotas from Nos. 48, 233 and 271 Squadrons. Over 100,000 men were evacuated by air ambulance after D-Day. For the year 1944, the RAF flew 300,000 casualties in all theatres of war.

The most obvious advantage of evacuating casualties by air was that the wounded could be treated at specialist hospitals within hours, where the same journey by rail and sea may have taken up to three days. The process also saved manpower and freed up other lines of communication for military purposes.

Many of the wounded men evacuated were experiencing air travel for the first time; knowing they would get back to Britain within hours boosted their morale. It was felt that the presence of female nursing orderlies on board the flights was especially comforting. LACW Edna Birkbeck remembered, “They’d always know when we were over the coast. I’d tell them that and say, ‘it won’t be long before you get home’ and they’d cheer”.

Nursing orderlies were undeniably affected by some of the injuries they saw. Rosa Powell recalled: ‘For me the ones who had severe burns from flame-throwing tanks were the worst. I can still smell the burned flesh.’ However, they showed fortitude in their duties. As LACW Edna Birkbeck said, ‘you couldn’t let it get to you’.

In addition to the fear of sniper and artillery fire on the ground, the women also faced considerable danger in the air. Their aircraft were not marked with the Red Cross emblem, enabling them to carry supplies to the front line. However, this meant they could be legitimately attacked by enemy aircraft. Aircraft were frequently fired at and on a few occasions were brought down. In the event of an attack, the nursing orderlies could not use parachutes and were instructed to stay with the casualties to treat any crash survivors.

LACW Margaret Walsh was killed in April 1945, when her Douglas Dakota KG406, went down over the Channel while en route to Brussels, killing all on board. Her body was never found. As Margaret Wilson recalled:

‘One day I came back from my flight into the hut and I saw she was upset. She was due to go out and she had obviously seen something on the cards. I said, ‘If you are worried, I’ll take your place on the plane. No problem. I’m all dressed to go.’ But Margaret wouldn’t let me. I think the
middle of the next day, we were told that the plane was lost over the Channel…I can still see her face – I can still remember her.’

LACW Nora Helen Speed completed 95 operational sorties, 59 carrying casualties, from RAF Down Ampney. She was awarded a British Empire Medal in 1946. The citation read:

‘She has distinguished herself by her devotion to duty and solicitude for her patients and has frequently voluntarily performed nursing orderly duties in the wards after returning tired from her flying duties. She has shared the risks and discomfort experienced on these flights, particularly during the early days after the assault on Normandy when aircraft were often subjected to shelling and mortaring.’

After D Day, the work of the ambulances continued as they carried thousands of released Prisoners Of War back to Britain and transported people from liberated concentration and labour camps in need of urgent medical attention.

One of the few ‘Flying Nightingales’ still living is Margaret Wilson. Margaret was inspired to volunteer for air ambulance duties after working as a nurse in London during the Blitz and treating terrible injuries caused by the bombing.

She recalls a particularly memorable flight on VE Day: “The happiest flight for me was flying back to the UK on 8 May 1945 with a group of paratroopers who had been POWs. The captain came to tell us that he had just heard on the radio that the war was over… I have never been kissed by so many men! Everybody was crying and laughing”.

Today very few of the original ‘Flying Nightingales’ are still living. LACW Ruth Jarvis sadly passed away in April at the age of 102. In 2008, their work was officially recognised when the remaining seven ‘Flying Nightingales’ were each presented with a medal, a lifetime achievement award and a statuette of Florence Nightingale by the Duchess of Cornwall. In recognition of their courage, Douglas Dakota ZA947 in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight was painted to resemble Douglas Dakota FZ692 of No. 233 Squadron. FZ692, known as ‘Kwicherbichen’, took part in casualty evacuation flights with ‘Flying Nightingales’ after D Day.

Since the ‘Flying Nightingales’, aeromedical evacuation has evolved from simply transporting casualties and keeping them alive, to mobile treatment areas using technically advanced equipment. During operations in Afghanistan, Medical Emergency Response Team Chinooks transferred casualties from the firefight to the Role 3 hospital at Camp Bastion; acting as a flying emergency room. From Camp Bastion, RAF C-17s provided aeromedical evacuation of personnel back to the UK for treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Servicewomen continue the legacy of the “Flying Nightingales” by flying into combat areas to evacuate casualties. Flt Lt Michelle Goodman was the first woman to be awarded the DFC in June 2007 after flying her Merlin helicopter into Basra under intense enemy fire to rescue a seriously wounded casualty. Without her actions, the casualty would have died within 15 minutes. Wg Cdr Charlotte Thompson-Edgar received the Associate of the Royal Red Cross Award in 2015 for her work leading Medical Emergency Response Teams treating injured troops in Afghanistan. She pioneered new clinical training methods and helped save the life of a triple amputee.