>>Brought me out in gooseflesh that one Mark.
You should try sitting down and talking with them.
www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/doing-their-bit-the-female-fighter-pilots-of-world-war-ii/
In that article you will see mention of: "19-year-old Margot ‘Chilli’ Duhalde, spoke no English at all on arrival, yet went forth with the same sense of courageous daring"
I knew her personally though sadly she died about 2 years ago now, about 10 days after I last spoke with her.
She lived in Valparaiso of a reasonably affluent family and held a pilot's licence and flew as part of a Chile/French social group. She told her parents she was going to go and visit a friend in Canada. Instead she caught a boat and went to Southampton intending to join the Free French Air Force, got arrested as a spy, released again, and then told that the French did not accept female pilots. She heard that the RAF did and so joined up and flew for the war.
At the end of the war she left the ATA and joined the French Air Force as their first female combat fighter pilot.
She returned to Chile in 1947 and was refused a job by LAN (Chile's national airline) as they did not hire females. They had some balls, I wouldn't have said that to her.
She opened her own flying school and worked as an instructor. Margot later became Chile's first female air traffic controller. She retired in her 80s.
She was a force of nature and was, shall we say, 'determined' to get her own way in all things.
She didn't need our help, which is why I can talk about her, though she was a close part of our organisation. however she is pretty typical of the ones that do need us.
I could tell you some stories that I've been told personally by the person(s) that did them. Awe inspiring some of them.
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