RIP Molly Rose 95

[Mince n Tatties]

In an age where reality stars are hailed as heroine's
and lauded upon,Molly Rose was a real heroine.
A local Cambridgeshire girl Molly was a ATA pilot in World War 2,flying 486 planes into dangerous places in Europe and mostly North Africa escaping just, on many occasions.
At this time of year Remembrance and all,I hope people like Molly are remembered for their great contribution..
She has recently just died aged 95...RIP Molly..

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Was this wonderful lady involved in a documentary on TV about ladies like her in WW2?   

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RIP Molly.

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[Mince n Tatties]

Was this wonderful lady involved in a documentary on TV about ladies like her in WW2?   

I believe so, as clips on you tube.

[Forever Fulham]

Thanks for posting this.  I hadn't heard about her before now.  Looked her up. Remarkable woman.  I'd like to see the BBC documentary, "Spitfire Women", mentioned in the article I found below.  Maybe it's on YouTube.  I'll go check.  My uncle was a paratrooper in WWII.  My dad was in the Merchant Marines, which delivered supplies to the troops, much like the women who delivered combat planes to where they were needed.   There was a large factory in Michigan during the war where women riveted and welded and did whatever was possible for the war effort.  Mary Rose's story is part of that tapestry.  Fascinating stuff.  I love those old dogfight documentaries. 


Molly Rose, an octogenarian and one of the last surviving women of the RAF Air Transport Auxilliary, an organization of about one thousand pilots whose job was to move airplanes to where they needed to be. After all, the planes themselves had to get to places where they could be flown into combat.

Ms. Rose was featured in last year's BBC documentary Spitfire Women, which chronicled the integration of women into the ATA. At the beginning of the war the Auxilliary stood as a completely male flying force, until Pauline Gower, a woman with over two thousand hours of flying experience in 1939 alone, whipped up support for the allowance of women into the ranks.



It helped that Gower's father was a member of parliament, and once the resistance was overcome, she became head of the women's section of the ATA.



The ATA made tough demands because unlike RAF pilots, who flew only one type of aircraft, ATA personnel would fly several different types – among them Tiger Moths, Messengers, Dakotas, Oxfords, Wellingtons, and, of course Spitfires – sometimes in the space of one day.

The planes all had different cockpit layouts and controls, and the women had only a manual for basic flying information, and they often flew in extremely challenging weather. But they took it in their stride, as Molly Rose, who had gone straight from her finishing school in Paris to working as an engineer in her father's aircraft factory, drily attested.

10% of ATA pilots died over the course of the war. The video below is of Molly Rose speaking about the Spitfire, one of the quintessential fighter planes of England's defenses in World War II. The "the backbone of RAF Fighter Command" in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific front. In her own words: "It was a woman's airoplane."

[jarv]

Forever Fulham mentioned his dad. Not meaning to hijack this post (I will research this lady) but who else on here had parents in the war? My father was a flight engineer (mechanic) on Lancaster bombers and flew throughout the war. I guess I count myself lucky to be here, my grandfather escaped being posted in the first war, he was considered essential worker at home. A steam engine train driver.

[cmg]

My admiration for this remarkable generation grows all the time.
I recall reading an account by one of these lady delivery pilots when she describes how airmen who met her when she delivered a Wellington bomber (normal crew: 6) insisted on searching the aircraft for 'the pilot' before believing she as the only crew.

Little allowance is made for the fact that the footballers of this generation lost six years of their careers to the war. People like Tom Finney (probably Haynes' favourite player) who drove a tank in Egypt and Italy before he could establish himself as a star player. Or our own Arthur Stevens who fought in the same Normandy action in which Jim Tompkins (called up as a Private in 1939, Major (acting Lt-Col) when he died in 1944!) was killed.

I always regret I never had the sense to thank my own Dad. He survived Normandy,  Belgium, Holland and, eventually, Germany. Although a 100% Londoner he would never have a word spoken against 'the Yanks', having fought beside the 101st Airborne on 'Hell's Highway' in front of Nijmegen, nor 'the Jocks', after some hairy experiences with 51st Highland Div along the Rhine.

[epsomraver]

Forever Fulham mentioned his dad. Not meaning to hijack this post (I will research this lady) but who else on here had parents in the war? My father was a flight engineer (mechanic) on Lancaster bombers and flew throughout the war. I guess I count myself lucky to be here, my grandfather escaped being posted in the first war, he was considered essential worker at home. A steam engine train driver.

Grandad, 2nd battalion  the Rifle Brigade  won DCM at battle of Aubers Ridge France may 9th 1915 threw 3 grenades he caught back at the Germans, 4th one blew part of his hand off. Dad, 2nd battalion  the Royal Norfolks won  MM battle of Kohima  Burma May 1944 , going out under fire to aid wounded and stay with them until they could be brought in under the cover of darkness , like most who were there he never ever mentioned it while he was alive, only found out on visit to Regimental  museum at Norwich .

[Forever Fulham]

That's impressive, Epsom. 

My dad was caught up in enlistment fervor like the rest of his generation.  But he couldn't get into regular service (Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force) like his buddies did.  Was a childhood polio survivor (stunted his growth), and lost an eye when he was three.  Merchant Marines would take him, though.  S.S. Christy Gale.  His best story was of a U-boat firing two torpedoes at his ship in the Atlantic.  Back then, the Merchant Marines weren't well armed, and sometimes they had armed escort ships to help them get from A to B.  He told me how the men panicked when those torpedoes were spotted.  One missed the ship, the other struck but didn't explode.  A dud.  Damn lucky.  The Germans didn't have the best reputation at the time for pulling survivors from the water...