Going Solo by Roald Dahl: Book Review

Title: Going Solo
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Publisher: Puffin Books, 1988, YA up
Pages: 210

Believe it or not, this was my first Roald Dahl book. Lucky me, it was geared more for adults, as I found the book in a Roald Dahl collection for children. Wonderful read. I highly recommend this memoir. 

Dahl tells the story of his life as a young twenty-something British employee in east Africa working for the Shell Company. The adventures with his sometimes dangerous surroundings and the people he meets along the way are daring enough, but with the outbreak of World War II, his life turns on a dime. 

With minimal training, he finds himself flying all makes of planes for the Royal British Air Force in active combat against incredible odds. Few in his squad survive. Told with humor in great detail you will laugh and marvel he even survived. He was one very "green" pilot. 

~Sharon

Sharon M. Himsl

Published: Evernight Teen 

The Shells of Mersing

 

Y is for Hazel Ying Lee - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challege

Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944)

Hazel Ying Lee grew up in a large family with seven brothers and sisters in Portland, Oregon. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, to dream of flying an airplane was an unrealistic goal. For one, she was Chinese-American, and two, she was a girl. But dream she did, and when a friend treated her at 19 to a ride at an airshow, it seemed she might fly after all.

Saving her money for flight lessons, Hazel started training at an airfield on nearby Swan Island and joined the Portland Flying Club (one of two girls). Her mother was opposed to the lessons, but according to a sister, Hazel "enjoyed the danger and doing something that was new to Chinese girls." One year later (1932), Hazel became one of the first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot's license and was eager to put her flying skills to work.

With the Japanese invasion of northern China (1932-1933), Hazel joined other Chinese-Americans in the fight. Thinking she would join the Chinese Air Force, she was promptly turned down (twice) in 1933. Female pilots were not allowed. Instead, she accepted an office job with the military and briefly flew for a private airline. [An interesting aside is Korean Kwon Ki-ok's experience in 1925 as China's first female pilot; see K post]. In 1938, the Japanese launched a full scale attack, and after witnessing the deaths of hundreds of civilians, Hazel was forced to return to the United States.  

World War II and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the playing field for female pilots in the U.S. The demand for male pilots was impossible to meet, and although support by the military command and the media was mixed (opposition was high), the Women Airforce Service Pilots (known as WASP) was formed in 1943. Hazel was among the recruits accepted and became the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the U.S. military. More than one-thousand women would join the WASP. Although under military command in every way, the WASP were classified as civilians and did not receive military benefits. That said, military assignments were less than desirable. Their missions as transport pilots often meant flying in open cockpits in bad weather.
 

Hazel (on rt) with other WASP receiving training. 
She flew P-51s, P-47s and P-39s, one of 132
female pilots, selected to "fly pursuit."

Hazel was assigned to the third Ferrying Group at Romulus, Michigan. Automobile factories had been converted into full scale aircraft factories and it was her group's job to deliver new aircraft to designated sites for shipping to war fronts in Europe and the Pacific. Work schedules were full, a "7-day workweek, with little time off," Hazel's sister later described in an interview.

Lifelong friendships were forged. Hazel was known for her sense of humor.

Proud to serve. Fellow pilots described her as "calm and fearless."
One story told was of Hazel's forced landing in a Kansas wheat field.
A farmer was certain the Japanese had landed. Frightened, he held a pitchfork in hand and yelled for his neighbors. Hazel calmly convinced him she was not the enemy.

 Older than most of the WASP, Hazel was considered a leader

Unfortunately, a second forced landing November 1944 in Great Falls, Montana took Hazel's life. More than 5000 fighters had been delivered to the Great Falls airfield at that juncture in time. It was not an unfamiliar setting. Hazel was in the process of delivering a P-63 (a large group had also arrived to land), but due to radio failure in a second P-63, the control tower directed both planes to land on the same runway simultaneously. The planes collided and Hazel died from burns in the collision two days later.  

Thirty-eight women would die before 

the disbanding of WASP in December 1944. 

Hazel, the first Chinese-American woman 

to fly for the U.S. military, was the last to die. 

 

Source:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Ying_Lee; http://www.flygirlstheseries.com/blogpage/2016/1/21/114-tbt-throwbackthursdayhttp://www.azquotes.com/author/23671-Hazel_Ying_Lee; http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lee_hazel_ying/

 

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

U is for Unknown Pilots - The Night Witches: Pioneer Women in Aviation A-Z Challenge

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment: The Night Witches

They flew at night. A soft swooshing noise in the air that sounded like a witch's broomstick signaled their arrival. The Nazis feared them, called them Nachthexen -- the Night Witches, and any pilot able to shoot one down was honored with Nazi Germany's coveted Iron Cross. 

The Night Witches were Russia's all female 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Force during World War II. They were the world's first female fighter pilots.

In 1941, Nadia Popova experienced the death of her brother and witnessed women and children fleeing in the streets during the German invasion. Her home became a Gestapo station. Leningrad was soon under siege and three million of her people were taken as prisoners. Now the German troops were 19 miles away from Moscow and the Soviet Air Force was powerless. Marina Raskova, Russia's record-breaking female aviator, began recruiting women pilots in 1942 to fly bombing missions. Nadia didn't hesitate to volunteer. She had been a member of a flying club since the age of 15 and was a flight instructor. She was 21.

Three Bomber Regiments were formed: the 586th (Yak-1 fighters), the 587th (twin engine dive bombers), and the 588th (night bombers--the Night Witches). Only the 588th would remain an all female regiment, which meant they were the pilots, navigators, and maintenance and ground crews. The new recruits ranged from age 17 to 26. Their hair was cut short and they were issued ill-fitting uniforms meant for the men. The men insulted them, calling them "a bunch of girlies" instead of soldiers, which they very much were. One young woman later recalled, "We didn't recognize ourselves in the mirror---we saw boys there." So they painted flowers on the sides of their planes and used navigation pencils to color their lips.

Nadia Popova, Deputy Commander. In 2010, she said: 

““I sometimes stare into the blackness and close my eyes.
I can still imagine myself as a young girl,
up there in my little bomber. I ask myself,
‘Nadia, how did you do it?’”

Nadia Popova later said it was a miracle any of them survived. Their planes were the slowest in the Air Force and they came back "riddled in bullets." They flew in Polikarpov Po2 biplanes, planes more suited for crop dusting and training, than bombing. Made with plywood and canvas, tracer bullets (the kind that exploded) could easily ignite a plane. But the Po2 had some advantages. It could take off and land just about anywhere, and being slow meant it could make tighter turns, below the stall speed of a German fighter (which had to make wider turns and circle back). The Po2 could travel low to the ground too, unlike the German fighters. Some German pilots were said to have given up out of frustration. The Night Witches thought smart. Another tactic was to fly in close to the target, cut the engine, glide in real slow (that broom stick swooshing noise), drop their bombs (six per plane), and then restart the engine. 

The Polikarpov Po2 biplane

Nevertheless, danger was always at their door. Because they flew low, parachutes were not carried on board. Cockpits were wide open, which meant freezing conditions, frostbite, and zero protection from stray bullets. They had no radar and could only rely on maps and compasses. Missions were long and tedious---two pilots to a plane, eight flight missions a night (as many as 18), which meant traveling back and forth to rearm with bombs. Commenting on the German's claim that the Soviets must have given the women pills, because of their night ("cat") vision, she said:

"This was nonsense, of course. What we did have were

 clever, educated, very talented girls."

Each pilot in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew over 800 missions by the end of the war, flying thousands of missions overall, as many as 18 missions a night for four years. In the end they had helped chased the Germans back to Berlin, but 30 would die in combat. Twenty-three would live to tell their stories and receive the Hero of the Soviet Union title, their nation's highest honor.




Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches; http://www.seizethesky.com/nwitches/nitewtch.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/night-witches-the-female-fighter-pilots-of-world-war-ii/277779/;
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flight-of-the-night-witches-wwii-s-all-female-fighting-force
https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/nadezhda-popova-world-war-ii-night-witch-dies-at-91/

M is for Marie Marvingt - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challenge

Marie Marvingt (1875-1963)
seated in Deperdussin monoplane

Marie Marvingt was fourteen-years-old living in Metz, France (then Germany) with her parents and brother, when her mother died. Marie was put in charge of taking care of the household, but still found time for the books she loved to read on scientists and explorers. She had a heart for learning and adventure.

Her father, a senior postmaster, moved the family to Nancy, where he encouraged Marie to get outdoors and participate in sports. Marie already had a reputation in the family for being an excellent swimmer and didn't need much encouragement.

She liked just about any competitive sport: water polo, swimming, horseback riding, bicycling, canoeing, tennis, golf, football, martial arts, fencing, shooting, even performing circus skills.

At fifteen, she canoed over 248 miles (400km). She especially enjoyed mountain sports and mountaineering, becoming a world class athletic in 1903, as the first woman to climb the French and Swiss Alps, as well as the first Frenchwoman to swim the length of the Seine River (through Paris). She won a military shooting competition in 1907, and between 1908 and 1910, placed first on twenty different occasions in winter sports. Marie was a true champion. Other than being denied entry in the 1908 Tour de France (women not allowed), there seemed nothing Marie couldn't do. Later, Marie actually biked the Tour de France course in its entirety after the event, a fact she was proud of, since only 36 of the 114 male riders had succeeded. In March 1910, she received a multi-sport Gold Medal from the French Academy of Sports in full recognition of her achievements. She was 35.

Marie competing in ski-jumping

Marie turned to aviation and flying as the next big challenge. It would become her greatest achievement yet, but not in a way she could have foreseen or imagined.

She had already tried ballooning in 1907, becoming a pilot in 1909 and later that year, the first woman to balloon across the North Sea and English Channel from Europe to England. She took a ride in an airplane next and was instantly smitten with the sport. After studying fix-winged aviation with Hubert Latham, one of France's great aviators, she learned to pilot an Antoinette monoplane, becoming the first woman to fly this particular plane in September 1910.

Marie shared her enthusiasm in an article she wrote for Collier's Magazine (1911):

“This new sport is comparable to no other. It is, in my opinion, one of the most intoxicating forms of sport, and will, I am sure, become one of the most popular. Many of us will perish before then, but that prospect will not dismay the braver spirits. In devoting themselves to the new cause, those who have the true aviator's soul will find in their struggle with the atmosphere a rich compensation for the risks they face. It is so delicious to fly like a bird!"


Marie competed in a number of air races, but did not win the highly prized Femina Cup in 1910, as first reported. Apparently she entered the race more than once, but never won.

Marie in the Antoinette monoplane, 1911

1912. Deperdussin monoplane that Marie flew

Marie shifted gears and changed her focus. As a trained surgical nurse with the Red Cross (her training is unclear), she began to ponder the possibility of an air ambulance for evacuation of the wounded. Convinced that a Deperdussin monoplane could be adapted, she worked with the owner of the Deperdussin factory, Armand Deperdussin. The design made sense: the plane would have a 100 hp engine and a radio to communicate with doctors and medical supply people, and the patient would lie on a stretcher inside the plane. It was an improvement over one design that put the patient on the plane's wing! Excited, Marie managed to raise enough money for the project, and with cash in hand, placed an order in 1912. Unfortunately, Armand Deperdussin never delivered. He left the company and ran off with funds for the plane!

One can assume Marie felt pretty disgusted at this point. Her efforts to built a much needed air ambulance had been wasted on an unscrupulous factory owner.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Marie disguised herself as a man and joined the French infantry. She served in the front lines until being discovered and was sent home. Later, however, she was asked to assist the alpine troops serving in the Italian Dolomites, a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. Her experience in winter sports and mountain climbing was apparently valued, as was her training as a nurse in the Red Cross. In 1915, she was accepted as a volunteer pilot and became the first woman to do aerial combat in the world. She received the Croix de guerre (Military Cross) for aerial bombing of a military base in Germany.

After the war Marie's interest in developing air ambulance service continued. With the African and Middle Eastern Colonial Wars that soon followed in the 1920s, the need was still great. Many air evacuations of soldiers were being made by the British and French. Marie traveled with the French some, emphasizing the air ambulance's  importance, and probably to observe its use. Methods were rather limited then, for example, a single stretcher attached under the plane's fairing. Hardly safe! It was reported the French made 7000 air evacuations. 

Safer air ambulances had the patient inside the plane on a stretcher behind the pilot, similar to the design Marie paid Deperdussin to build.

Air Ambulance, 1918. Location unknown

A French air ambulance. Date unknown

Marie co-founded Friends of Medical Aviation and helped organize the First International Congress on Medical Aviation in 1929. Delegates from 41 countries attended. She became a vocal voice for air ambulances all over the world, organizing more than 3000 conferences and seminars on the subject.

In the 1930s, Marie served as a war correspondent, journalist, and medical officer in Morocco, working with French Forces in North Africa. In 1934, she established a civil air ambulance service in Morocco and was rewarded for her efforts with the Medal of Peace of Morocco. Training courses were set up next for the nurses (Nurses of the Air) and in 1935 Marie became the first person in history certified as a Flight Nurse. 

By 1939, with the onset of World War II, Marie had been an active proponent of air ambulance evacuation for almost thirty years. She was 64. One can imagine the urgency she  felt traveling to America (several times) to discuss the subject with U.S. leaders. Back at home Marie started recruiting women pilots and nurses. More than 500 Nurses with pilot training volunteered in France for a new parachute corps, backed by the famous French pilot, Marse Hilsz. They would jump in places the air ambulances couldn't reach. Meanwhile, Marie established a special convalescent center for wounded aviators and served as a surgical nurse. She also invented a new surgical suture.

In 1955, Marie was honored by the French National Federation of Aeronautics for her work in aviation medicine, the Deutsch de la Meurthe grand prize. Not one to sit still, she learned to pilot a helicopter that same year. It's said she also biked from Nancy to Paris in the 1961, over two hundred miles. She was 86 at the time. 


Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Marvingt; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_medical_services;
http://www.earlyaviators.com/emarving.htm; http://www.airambulanceservice.com/marvingt.html
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2504.htm

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing