Contact! Britain!: A woman ferry pilot's story during WWII in England by Nancy Miller-Stratford

Author:Nancy Miller-Stratford [Miller-Stratford, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Nancy Miller Livingston Stratford
Published: 2011-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Several times in April and May of 1945, we were given specific orders to fly into our restricted area only over a certain route. This, plus the great amount of shipping which we saw, gave us false hopes that the invasion was taking place. The tenseness that built up during those two months was astonishing. We found ourselves looking at one another but not speaking about the ships in the harbor, exchanging gossip more seriously, guessing where and when the blow would take place, as were millions of others.

On June 4th, I noticed at an American station that all the P-47 Thunderbolts were being given an overcoat of three broad white and two black stripes across each wing and around the fuselage. One soldier, who shouldn’t have said it, remarked that they had worked all night on them and probably would have to do it again that evening in order to complete the job. On the 5th of June, flying over a familiar aerodrome, I noticed that it was jammed with gliders and their power machines, mostly Douglas C-47 (DC-3) airplanes, all with the big “invasion stripes” painted on them. I have never seen such a crowded place. Gliders were all over the field on the grass, in dispersal areas, hangars, and in far parking spaces. Only by being directly over the runways could you distinguish them out of the maze of aircraft. These two clues gave me a hint that something was going to pop soon. But I didn’t expect it the next day.

I woke up at 5:00 AM on June 6th. My ears buzzed. Sleepily, I turned on the lights, saw the time, groaned, and shook my head vigorously. Then, as consciousness came to my aid, I realized that there was a terrific flight of B-17 Fortresses going overhead. It was a steady thundering roar. I remember wondering whether it would be that way on “D” Day. When I dozed off around 5:30, the roar was still there. At 8:30, when I caught the bus to the aerodrome from my new billet, I saw dirty low clouds and still heard the mass of Forts going across. A few sections chose to fly low under the cloud, and they made a stirring sight.

At 9:00 AM, just as I walked onto the field, the field broadcast system blared out with the 9:00 o’clock news, stating that the Germans claimed the invasion had begun. You can be sure that there was tension and excitement in the ATA hut as various reports came in that morning. However, after General Eisenhower’s confirmation, the tension seemed to vanish and a sort of anxiety appeared in its place. It was such a disappointment when the chits came out to find the same usual routine jobs. I believe everyone there had romantic but vain thoughts that there would be spectacular life-saving jobs to squadrons. We had done our work several months previously, although we didn’t know it at the time.

Just before we set out to work

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