THE TOUR CONTINUES...

Eileen will be appearing at (or attending) these venues in the next few months:

September 12th
The Official Opening of the Battle of Britain Memorial Museum in Bentley Priory, the Wartime HQ of Fighter Command, under Air Chief Marshal Dowding, where she once served, to be opened by a member of the Royal family and where Pat Robins, the writer, and Eileen will be demonstrating how they worked in the Filter Room tracking the aircraft picked up by Radar and identifying them as friend or foe, in order to initiate fighter interception. 

August 3rd - 4th 
Eileen will be spending two days at Llancalach Fawr, the Manor House. This is a World War II reenactment weekend (where Hugh Turnbull is acting as commentator). Eileen is giving a talk each day on the Filter Room and will also be available for people to talk with her.

September 15th
Special service for the RAF at St. Paul’s Cathedral to commemorate the Battle of Britain

September 26th
Talk in Barry to All Saint’s Mothers! Union on the Filter room

October 3rd
Talk on Education during my Life – Teaching and Learning for the Retired Head Teachers Association in a Cardiff Hotel

NOW AVAILABLE ON KINDLE

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Links:

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Candy Jar

One Woman's War

Kangazang

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Another Christmas on the horizon and another year almost gone - I hope 2011 has been kind to you and yours. I send you seasonal greetings and my best wishes for a peaceful and happy year to come. Although the news is full of doom and gloom, we must make the best of it. Austerity is not necessarily all bad – it makes us appreciate things money cannot buy.

This past year has been a more than eventful 365 days. My second book, dedicated to the WAAF of the Filter Rooms of Fighter Command was published initially in an exclusive limited soft back edition in January by Candy Jar Books of Cardiff. This is a young company run by Shaun and Justin, two enterprising young men with media and photographic backgrounds. On my 90th birthday, it was launched as a hard back edition at RAF St. Athan. That day I shared my birthday with the Commanding Officer, Wing Commandeer Williams, the only difference being that he was half my age and twice my height!

We toured the camp in a jeep called Queenie, designed like a Popemobile for our Queen when she toured Berlin for the first time. Then we inspected the troops on the Parade Ground and finally in the Mess were presented with two enormous birthday cakes, decorated with the RAF insignia, to be cut up and shared with the RAF, MOD and local council representatives – a memorable day and all of which was filmed by HTV and shown on the evening news. The following weekend I was taken to meet the Air Officer commanding the whole of the RAF in Wales at the Swansea Air Show. The following day, the first sunny one in weeks, I held a party for fifty-six friends in the garden of Picquets – it was great to welcome them all.

Candy Jar are great publicists and this has led to so many activities. I have given twenty-six talks to varying groups, ranging from a wonderful class of eight year olds in a Primary school in Barry to a bunch of Radio Hams; and from Bletchley Manor, where I was presented with the Freedom of Bletchley and a veterans badge as a member of a Bletchley outstation, to Rotary clubs and Cardiff University. I have enjoyed them all.

I was invited to the St. David’s Day dinner in the City Hall in Cardiff and then honoured with a visit to my house by the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones who wanted to view the Filter Room film of a watch at Fighter Command HQ, taken in November 1943. There have been several interviews with both BBC TV and Radio and ITV but the most interesting was the invitation to appear on BBC Breakfast on September 7^th. I have always been a fan of this show and was delighted to meet Bill Turnbull and Chris Hollins. Sadly Sian was not on that day but I met Louise. I even received a passing nod from Craig Revel Horwood! Wales’ answer to Terry Wogan, Roy Noble has invited me twice to be on his show and I am due there again for the radio broadcast on Christmas Day – obviously recorded beforehand.

A recent visit to Aces High Aviation Gallery in Wendover, Bucks saw me signing vast numbers of aviation memorabilia for aeronautical fans in the company of four wonderful Battle of Britain fighter pilots, one of whom was Geoffrey Wellum, the author of First Light, two WAAF airwomen, and four great American Mustang pilots. Our ages totted up to almost one thousand years but everyone was “with it”! There was also a short appearance in the fourth episode of Channel 4’s saga, entitled WW2 - the Last Heroes and another one in a series for ITV. But what I have enjoyed most is all the interesting people I have met during the year, including several WAAF colleagues who have made contact again after all these years. One of these is Patricia Robins who writes both under that name and also Claire Lorrimer. She has written 80 books and is still doing so – definitely puts me in the shade.

I have been thrilled to talk to Emma Soames, Winston Churchill’s granddaughter who contributed a foreword for One Woman’s War, and to make contact with Dame Vera Lynn who contributed an endorsement.

The final surprise for the year has been finding again the little girl Hélène, then five years old, to whom together with her two brothers I taught French in Contrexeville in the summer of 1938. This was the year of the Munich crisis when Chamberlain, Hitler and Mussolini met and signed the non-aggression pact. Due to the threat of war, I had to leave the family and France suddenly and return home. A French author, with whom I have worked recently, managed to trace her after all these years. She is now 78 years old and living in Grenoble. She rings me regularly, speaking impeccable English.

Thanks to the wonderful care of my eye surgeon, Chris Gorman, we have managed to keep Wet Macular Degeneration at bay but it is a constant battle. I have just had my 30 eye injection with the drug Lucentis. I must admit I walk like an old woman but I keep my brain active, if not my body. I thank my many friends for their support and their kindnesses.

Eileen

V2 AT THE FILTER ROOM ROCKET DESK

Out of the blue I have received a letter from a WAAF airwoman who worked with me in the 11 Group Filter Room and  who knew me by my maiden name   Eileen Le Croissette! It shows how we kept secrets - I never knew about this secret operation - The Rocket Room.- This is her letter:-

Mary  -------------

WAAF 1941-1946  Cpl 448876

Innsworth Lane

, Glos; Leighton Buzzard Plotter School

1941-3: 12 Group Watnall

1943-6:  11 Group, Stanmore, Bentley Priory, down the Hole, then moved to Hill House

20^th June 2011

Dear Mrs Younghusband

It has been a great pleasure to read your “One Woman’s War”. Your letter to the press “Filtered Out” thrilled my Filter friends. “Ops” always had the publicity, but you highlighted the frantic work on the Filter Room table, describing the Radar Chain, and how the system was unknown.

To discover you were S/O Le Croissette was amazing, remembering you at Stanmore, down the “Hole” and at Hill House.  As a plotter, I did most duties from Teller, Filter Office’s Clerk for Y Service, plotting on all stations - Beachy Head on D-Day, with the mass raid of 1,000 A/C.

So far, nothing has been written about the Rocket Office, my last duty.  Why?  This small office built onto the rear of the Filter Room, manned by two, sometimes three officers plus one NCO, contained a long switchboard of phone lines, alarm bells, a place for the recorder; on the side, just enough room for a large map to trace the firing points of each “incident” to landing, and final Home Office report of casualties and damage. The first V2 on September 8^th.

The Office was manned from about August 20^th. I cannot remember the names of the officers, except Betty Wix (666!) and Pat Robbins (daughter of the novelist, Denise Robbins).

After much waiting around, the officers used to go up to the Rest Room for a break, having given me strict instructions to sound the alarm if anything happened.  Alone, I was terrified every time a call came, but many were for Pat Robbins, from an American officer called HAM!  Pat produced the humour of the team, often asking for advice and suggestions on the current story she was writing.

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