ATA 1 Air Transport Auxiliary 2025
ATA 1 Air Transport Auxiliary
2025
The Triumph of the Human Spirit ~ That Is All That Need
Be Said
Calmness, Defiance, Resolution
The triumph of the human spirit ~ that is all that need be said. Not quite. The role and service of Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War is often either understated or not even mentioned. Yet, without these dedicated men and women ATA pilots, the Royal Air Force and the Commonwealth Air Forces would have been hardpressed to maintain both defensive and offensive operations against the Luftwaffe and against Nazi Germany itself.
We now have the ATAA ~ The Air Transport Auxiliary Association. This organisation keeps alive the memory of all personnel serving in the ATA during the Second World War, as well as acting as a portal that we can visit in order to correctly report events and to check our research.
A BBC Video Clip here taken from Spitfire Women which was first screened in 2010 is a very welcome introduction.
As the text accompanies the clip explains:
“During WWII 168 female pilots fought against all the odds for the right to aid the war effort. These trailblazers were part of the Air Transport Auxiliary - a thousand strong organisation that delivered aircraft to the frontline RAF. They were expected to fly wherever the need was greatest , in whatever aircraft was required - one in 10 women pilots died flying for the ATA.
Their story is one of courage, sexism, patriotism but above all, a story about women who wanted to break the confines of the world they lived in - and reach for the skies.”
In 2007 Anna Peterson (now Anna Cole) very kindly contributed her poster and 2007 college thesis to the ATAA Archive, and now practises law in New Hampshire.
The Poster can be seen here.
ATA Officer Joy Lofthouse
A pilot flying Supermarine Spitfires direct from the assembly lines to Royal Air Force fighter stations.
VICTORY born of Bravery.
This wartime image in between operations is courtesy of the Spitfire SoC to whom all rights are reserved.
In 2025, our frontline RAF pilots in the Royal Air Force are men and women. And something else that is incredibly moving. In the Wikipedia link found here, I learned that Joy Lofthouse flew eighteen types of aircraft and these included both fighters and the twin-engine and four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Air Forces.
Now that is an incredible achievement!
16 February 2025
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
© 2025 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Digital art is by KTW unless otherwise credited
Portrait Image of Pilot Joy Lofthouse (Gough) by kind permission of the Spitfire Society
Joy Lofthouse
1923-2017
Newsletter
Links
https://www.spitfiresociety.org
