WAAFs did not serve as
aircrew. (The use of women pilots was limited to the
Air Transport Auxiliary, which was civilian, but 30 WAAFs did transfer to serve as pilots in the ATA). communications duties including wireless
telephonic and
telegraphic operation. They worked with
codes and ciphers, analysed
reconnaissance photographs, and performed
intelligence operations. WAAFs were a vital presence in the control of aircraft, both in radar stations and iconically as
plotters in operation rooms, most notably during the
Battle of Britain. These operation rooms directed fighter aircraft against the
Luftwaffe, mapping both home and enemy aircraft positions. While the official terminology for the WAAF at barrage balloon sites was
barrage balloon operator, they were often referred to in the press as the
balloon girls. Air Force
nurses belonged to
Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service instead. Female medical and dental officers were commissioned into the Royal Air Force and held RAF ranks. WAAFs were paid two-thirds of the pay of male counterparts in RAF ranks. By the end of the Second World War, WAAF enrolment had declined and the effect of
demobilisation was to take the vast majority out of the service. The remainder, now only several hundred strong, was renamed the
Women's Royal Air Force on 1 February 1949.
Flying Nightingales Nursing Orderlies of the WAAF flew on RAF transport planes to evacuate the wounded from the Normandy battlefields. They were dubbed the Flying Nightingales by the press. The RAF Air Ambulance Unit flew under 46 Group Transport Command from
RAF Down Ampney,
RAF Broadwell, and
RAF Blakehill Farm. Training for air ambulance nursing duties included instruction in the use of oxygen, injections, learning how to deal with certain types of injuries such as broken bones, missing limb cases, head injuries, burns and colostomies; and to learn the effects of air travel and altitude. Although supplied with parachutes, they were instructed not to use them if the plane was shot down on its return from Europe and instead stay with the wounded soldiers onboard and provide medical support should anyone survive the crash. The first three Flying Nightingales to arrive in France, a week after D-Day, were
Corporal Lydia Alford,
LACW Myra Roberts and LACW Edna Birkbeck. ==Directors==