Friday Book Review ? Spitfire Women of World War II | Meg Mims ...

Today, I asked J. Gunnar Grey to post a review of her own choosing. Sounds fascinating ? thanks, Gunnar! ? Meg

This is an amazing book, not least because it?s nonfiction. Spitfire Women of World War II tells the story of the women pilots who flew ferry missions for the British as part of the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II. Remember, in those days flying was still considered very much a male sport, Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson notwithstanding. When it was announced in 1940 that women pilots would help ferry military aircraft, both lightweight trainers and sexy, high-powered fighters (later including huge four-engine bombers), the public was divided. Some thought the women pilots were patriotic and brave, but another, outraged and vocal group considered them attention-seeking and selfish.

All sorts of adventuresome women signed up to fly for the ATA.

• Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from the U.K. to Australia, who lost her life in the Thames Estuary trying to get an Airspeed Oxford to RAF Kidlington in foul weather in 1941.
• Diana Barnato Walker, who successfully landed a Hawker Typhoon after the bottom half disintegrated and who lost two loves, a fiance and a husband, in separate flying accidents.
• Audrey Sale-Barker, model beautiful and an Olympic skier, such a natural pilot she looped and spun the aircraft during her first solo flight.
• Mary de Bunsen, with a hole in her heart, lousy eyesight, and a polio limp, who preferred taking tea with Thomas Hardy or watching the London blitz from a central rooftop with her mother to the social life of dances and balls.
• Joan Hughes, too small in stature to see over a four-engine bomber?s landing wheel, who liked to tell disbelieving men her height didn?t matter because she wanted the aircraft to carry her, not the other way around.
• Margot Duhalde from Chile, who spoke no English when she arrived in Liverpool in May 1941 but was desperate to fly.
• And Ann Wood, one of a handful of American women who volunteered to fly for Britain before the U.S. entered the war, who blasted beneath the Severn Railway Bridge in a Spitfire. Twice.

Spitfire Women is narrative nonfiction at its best, easily comparable to The Perfect Storm and a great read. I heartily recommend it for anyone who enjoys history, engaging characters, and real emotions of heartbreak and triumph. Five stars.

J. Gunnar Grey, the1940mysterywriter

Copyright ? 2007 by Giles Whittell. Published by Harper Perennial, London.

Tags: book review, J. Gunnar Grey, solo flights, Spitfire Women, women pilots, World War II

Source: http://www.megmims.com/blog/history/friday-book-review-spitfire-women-of-world-war-ii

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