RAF stocked up on tissues because women in war ‘would cry all the time’

RAF chiefs ordered extra tissues for the women’s unit during the Second World War over fears that they would always be crying, an Oxford historian has disclosed.

Files examined by Dr Sarah-louise Miller show that male bosses also held long inquiries into how many hours’ work would be lost to women suffering period cramps, after the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF ) was established to help the war effort. They initially feared that women could not be trusted with secrets, despite later playing a vital part in gathering crucial classified intelligence, and debated whether female mechanics should be given trousers to climb in and out of planes.

However, the military leaders did value women with good sewing and nail polishing skills, believing it showed a natural talent that would translate well to precision work on wiring radar circuits. By the end of the war, 180,000 WAAF members had played key roles in code-breaking, planning raids, and reconnaissance, as well as discovering the terrifying German V-weapons and proving critical in plotting the Normandy landings.

Dr Miller, who unearthed the insights while researching many recently declassified files for her new book, The Women Behind the Few, said that when she asked one airman “What did you like about the WAAF?”, he replied: “They make fantastic sandwiches’.”

The book tells how the women were essential in their own right for RAF operations even though the men were hailed as the Few who won the Battle of Britain. Dr Miller said: “The women did a tremendous amount – stuff like debriefing crews which they were very good at because they were so sensitive.

“Half of the crews’ mates didn’t come back from bombing raids and the women had to try and get usable intelligence out of them when they were in a dazed, traumatised state, and they’re tired and they don’t want to talk about what’s just happened.

“But where the Air Ministry is concerned, I actually found a file in the National Archives that said: ‘If we must accept WAAF we probably ought to stock up on tissues because they’re just going to burst into tears all the time’. There was also a concern women would become hysterical.

“But, actually, they knew how to treat these airmen. They were sensitive towards them, and with tea, whisky and sandwiches they coaxed intel out of them when they were in that state. The whole ‘women are more emotional’ argument got blown to pieces there.”

‘The WAAF were sensitive towards these airmen, and with tea and whisky, they coaxed intel out of them’

A historian researching the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in the Second World War has found an Air Ministry file in the National Archives with the comment: “We probably ought to stock up on tissues because they’re just going to burst into tears all the time.” In the event 180,000 WAAFS served with great courage and fewer tears than warranted. It is strange, though, to think tissues might have been considered. In a film of the period like Brief Encounter, not only did the doctor have a cotton handkerchief in his pocket to remove the grit from Celia Johnson’s eye, but she had one to pull out when she wept on her husband’s shoulder under cover of the desire to strangle Dolly Messiter. And of course the cinema audience must have dabbed away their tears with handkerchiefs. Outside of the Air Ministry they were innocent of tissues.