The idea of using civilian pilots who were not eligible for RAF service as a kind of Territorial Air Force was put forward in 1938. Initially it was envisaged that the pilots would fly light aircraft to transport mail, dispatches, medical supplies, etc. But within six months the first recruits found themselves moving trainer aircraft, fighters and even bombers from factory and stores to RAF airfields. From the first 28 pilots recruited in Bristol in September 1939, the numbers rose to over 650 pilots five years later. -more Credit for turning ATA into a well-oiled machine goes to its Commanding Officer, Gerard d'Erlanger, a private pilot who was a director of the pre-war British Airways.
When it began, ATA's initials were said to stand for "Ancient and Tattered Airmen". The first recruits, though widely experienced, were far too old for active service, some having served in World War I. There were several one-eyed pilots and two with only one arm: this handicap did not stop them flying aircraft such as the Spitfire and the Typhoon. ATA expanded rapidly, and soon pilots, including women, were being recruited from all over the world. Eventually, 28 nations were represented, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and even Siam. -more Several Polish pilots, including three women, reached Britain after escaping via the Balkans and France: Flight Captain Klemens Dlugaszewski had years of experience with LOT Polish Airlines and had such an unpronounceable name that he was known as "Captain Double Whisky". Later in the war the supply of experienced pilots began to dry up, and so ATA began to train pilots from scratch, including 17 women from the WAAF (Womens Auxiliary Air Force).
The first 8 women had joined ATA on New Year's Day 1940. They included Joan Hughes, who had been Britain's youngest pilot. She became a flying instructor with ATA and after the war with West London Aero Club, where she is well remembered. She also flew replica aircraft in films such as The Blue Max and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Still a member of the Aero Club is Lettice Curtis, who was the first woman to fly a 4-engined bomber, an achievement shared by just 11 ATA women. Lettice Curtis ferried a total of 1,467 aircraft, including 374 heavy bombers and 162 Spitfires. Eventually about one sixth of ATA pilots were women, including a large contingent from the USA, who were recruited by the famous American pilot Jacqueline Cochrane. The female pilots became known at the "ATA-girls"; flying Spitfires was an amazing thing for women to do, and so they were given a great deal of publicity, to the chagrin of some of the men!
The famous trail-blazing pilot Amy Johnson was based at White Waltham and lost her life in ATA service. Her husband Jim Mollison also flew for ATA pilot and Sir Freddie Laker started his aviation career as an ATA flight engineer; both were based at White Waltham. Flight engineers were required for ferrying 4-engined bombers, Catalina and Sunderland flying boats and Douglas Dakotas. One of them, John Gulson, was awarded the George Medal for his part in the rescue of the crew of the Halifax bomber which crashed into the railway cutting at White Waltham in July 1944, with live bombs on board. The crash scene was sketched by June Howden, who came from New Zealand at her own expense to fly for ATA.
Pilots were based at 14 Ferry Pools as far apart as Hamble, between Southampton and Portsmouth, and Lossiemouth near Inverness in Scotland. -more Two of these Ferry Pools (Hamble and Cosford) had only women pilots, with female Commanding Officers, Margot Gore at Hamble and Marion Wilberforce at Cosford. Several were near aircraft factories which were priority targets for the Luftwaffe. The peak monthly output from the Spitfire factory at Castle Bromwich was 320 machines, so it was necessary to move aircraft away to relative safety as soon as they came off the production line. The nearest factories to No.1 Ferry Pool at White Waltham were at Brooklands (Vickers-Armstrong), Langley (Hawker) and Woodley (Miles).
Central Ferry Control was at Andover; overnight they would allocate work to the Ferry Pools. When pilots and flight engineers reported for duty each morning they received details of their day's ferrying. This could involve several flights and might mean staying away overnight. Aircraft taxis, the Avro Anson and the Fairchild Argus, conveyed pilots to their first ferry job and, if possible, collected them at the end of the day. If not, pilots would stay overnight at airfields, in hotels or take a night train back to base; the diary of one American pilot held at Maidenhead Heritage Centre shows that he got fed up with British trains. There could also be much sitting around waiting for the British weather to improve, especially in winter. At White Waltham, home to No. 1 Ferry Pool, the spire of Shottesbrooke Church on the other side of the airfield was a good measure of visibility.
Depending on their level of experience and training, ATA pilots could be called on to ferry any one of 147 different aircraft types from 'anywhere to anywhere'. Yet often they had never seen a particular aircraft type before, and their only guidance was a thin volume of Ferry Pilots Notes - a pocket-sized flip pad of basic do-and-don't for every aircraft in service. Log books in Maidenhead Heritage Centre's collection show that a pilot could fly anything from a Tiger Moth to a Spitfire to a Lancaster, all in one day.
In the run-up to D-Day in June 1944 White Waltham was designated as one of ATA's Invasion Pools, delivering fighters to front-line squadrons and flying Ansons throughout western and southern Europe and the Mediterranean. They provided support for the ill-fated Arnhem operation and after the fall of Germany took large quantities of medicines and vaccines into Europe. White Waltham provided a base for this Air Movements Flight, as well as ATA's own Advanced Flying Training School.
ATA was much more than just its ferry pilots: there were flying instructors, ground school instructors, ground engineers, crash rescue teams, met. officers, motor transport drivers, nurses and doctors, administration staff and so on; there were even Air Cadets employed as messengers and auxiliary crew members. At the outbreak of war, ATA was an idea whose time had come; without it the course of the war might have been very different. At the end of the war, it held a Farewell Air Pageant at White Waltham in September 1945, at which Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, said ATA had written 'a splendid chapter in British history'.
It is also a splendid chapter in Maidenhead's history and one which has not been forgotten in this area. ATA's wings and motto 'Aetheris Avidi' ('Eager for the Air') are incorporated in the logo of West London Aero Club, which unveiled a memorial to ATA in its grounds last June. ATA's flag, lowered for the last time on 30th November 1945, hangs in the clubhouse, on loan from Maidenhead Heritage Centre.
At All Saints' cemetery in Maidenhead there is a group of 17 ATA war graves, representing 6 different nationalities. -more In total 173 ATA aircrew died in ATA service, many due to poor weather, training accidents or mechanical failure. They are commemorated on a special memorial in St Paul's Cathedral, London. Also, there is a general list of fatalities -here
Maidenhead Heritage Centre sells books, videos and DVDs about ATA. We own a nationally important collection of ATA memorabilia, including uniforms, flying equipment and personal documents, and we welcome the donation of additional material. Our reference library includes many books about ATA, diaries and service records, the names of every single ATA employee, obituaries, etc. We are pleased to answer genuine enquiries about ATA.