V2 ROCKET FOUND IN HARWICH

Recently a V2 rocket used during the Second World War was discovered in Harwich Harbour, Essex. A local sailing club spotted what looked like the tail of a rocket breaking the service of the water. Once the police had been informed a team of Royal Navy divers were called to the scene to investigate, as well as the Bomb Disposal Squad. WW2 veteran, Eileen Younghusband, knows all too well about the dangers of the V2 rockets. She served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and was tasked with detecting and tracking enemy planes and the V2 rockets in the wartime Filter Rooms.

90-year-old Eileen, who was the first person to track a V2 rocket, feels the location of the discovered V2 is quite interesting. She said: “It’s all very strange. It’s not where I would have expected it to be. The V2s were designed to travel great distances. If they were launched from Pas-de-Calais they were aimed at London, from Rotterdam they were aimed at Antwerp. This one must have been faulty.”

She continues: “These weapons were so different from the bombing of the Blitz when people could see and hear the aircraft and recognise that our fighters were up there retaliating. The V2s were something else. If you heard one, the chances are you were going to die."

Eileen’s book, ‘One Woman’s War’, which details her time in the Filter Room, is available now from www.onewomanswar.co.uk.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

Looking forward to a new set of adventures in 2012 - already I have heard from the Association of Flight Controllers, the current name for Officers doing the work of Filterers in WW2 that I have been made an Honorary Member. I am thrilled with this honour and look forward to meeting modern day practioners of the art of calculating and vectoring ai craft. I am also ecstatic to learn that the proposed museum at Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighteer Command and the air defence of Great Britain in WW2, is not only going to recreate the Filter Room as used in the 1940s but there is a proposal to create a memorial window to the WAAF who served in Radar, Ops Rooms and Filter Rooms. This means we have to raise up to £10,000 for its preparation but I know we will do it. Any ex-Filter Room personnel who read this blog are welcome to contact me at le.croissette@virgin.net if they are willing to support us.

It is time that the vital work behind the scenes done by members of the WAAF was recognised.

Eileen

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

AN ACTIVE FEW WEEKS!

After a successful talk at Barry Library during NIACE week and a book signing, I've given two more talks about the Radar Filter Room, where I showed the film taken in November 1943 at Fighter Command HQ during an active 8 hour evening watch.

The first talk was to Penarth 41 Club, around 30 men - none of whom knew about this essential part of the Radar defence of Great Britain. It is essential the work of the WAAF becomes known and acknowledged as the lynchpin of the successful defence of Britain. 

This talk was followed with the same subject to a different audience - thirty eight-year-olds from All Saints Primary School in Barry. They were so enthusiaistic having visited the Imperial War Museum earlier in the week. Their classroom was decorated with memorabilia from WW2 - a copy of the train taking evacuees away from danger, a copy of an Anderson Air Raid shelter, ration books and wartime posters. They asked over thirty very intelligent questions. Congratulations to the Head Teacher and the inspiring staff who were encouraging these children to learn with pleasure and interest and instilling such confidence in them. I enjoyed every moment of the session with them.

www.onewomanswar.co.uk