GALLANT WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 5

GALLANT WORK

OF WOMEN’S AUXILIARY AIR FORCE PRAISED BY THE QUEEN. TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF BRAVE DEEDS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 2. The Queen paid a tribute to the bravery of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during a 'recent visit to an R.A.F. Fighter Command station, and described as magnificent the -record of their courage and fortitude displayed during bombing attacks. ? 1 These W.A.A.F.’s are doing many jobs to relieve men for active service duties. A typical example of their coolness and resource in an emergency occurred when a squadron-lead-er at one fighter station was wounded by a bomb which fell near the entrance of a shelter he was about to enter, and his legs were badly injured. A girl, who was a nurse before the war, ran to him and improvised a tourniquet, which stopped the flow of blood. Bombs were still falling near, but she help to take the injured officer to the sick quarters. Doctors later declared that but for the girl’s prompt action, it would have been necessary to amputate the officer’s legs.

In another case a woman transport driver was driving a squadron commander and others when a raid began. The girl saw a bomb coming directly down toward the vehicle, and swerved violently, thus saving the passengers, for the bomb fell exactly where the car would have been. Another woman driver was filling a car with petrol when a delayed action bomb went off a few yards from the petrol pump. She just carried on, and shortly afterward set off on another 100-mile journey. RAID WARNINGS THREE HUNDREDTH HEARD IN LONDON. (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, November 3. An air raid warning this morning was the three hundredth in London since the outbreak of war. A raider dived from low clouds and machine-gunned streets in the London area this afternoon. People scattered to shelter and there were many narrow escapes. The same raider later dropped several bombs, one of which hit a footbridge. There were several casualties.