The Women Behind The Few
The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and British Intelligence during the Second World War
'Truly excellent…Goes into fascinating detail.' — Military History Matters
This is the little-known story of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the women’s branch of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, and the vital work they did behind the scenes to ensure the success of some of the most important missions of the war. During the Battle of Britain, for example, WAAF personnel worked in the radar network and the Dowding system, the world’s most sophisticated air defence system, as well as in the Y listening service, intercepting German ground-to-air and air-to-air communications. During the Blitz, they worked with ground-controlled interception radar to aid Fighter and Bomber Commands in protecting Britain’s civilian population from German area bombing.
They assisted with the Allied offensive bombing campaign in various capacities, including working behind the scenes leading up to the ‘thousand-bomber raids’. It was WAAF personnel who were behind the discovery of the terrifying German V-weapons and jet-propelled aircraft and assisted with the sinking of German battleships such as the Tirpitz. The WAAFs collected and disseminated intelligence ahead of the Normandy landings in June 1944 and worked in signals intelligence throughout the landings and the Allied advance into Europe. They were also present in their hundreds at Bletchley Park, working with the Government Code and Cypher School on air intelligence and liaising with the RAF’s Y service.
Though the work and memory of the pilots of Fighter and Bomber Commands are rightfully revered and treasured, their success was made possible by the WAAFs working behind the scenes. This book aims to recover this missing piece of history, granting the WAAFs the recognition they deserve for their wartime contribution to British military intelligence.
'Meticulously researched and compellingly written — a triumph!' — Richard J. Aldrich, author of GCHQ: The Uncensored History of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency
'Undoubtedly one of the best books on the role of women at war so far.' — Michael Smith, author of The Secrets of Station X: How the Bletchley Park Codebreakers Helped Win the War
'Richly illuminating, this is a powerful and deeply engrossing history of the women whose unsung war work was consigned for so many years to the shadows.' — Sinclair McKay, author of The Secret Life of Bletchley Park
Dr Sarah-Louise Miller is an experienced historian, researcher, author, educator and media consultant, specialising in Second World War history. She gained her PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, in May 2022 and is currently based at the University of Oxford. She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of History. Sarah has appeared in numerous historical television documentaries with the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky History and speaks and lectures regularly on Second World War history. She is particularly interested in recovering the hidden histories of women.
More books by author
