Heartwarming and emotional story of one girl's courage in WW2 Fenella Miller (best books for 8th graders txt) 📖

‘I would have managed, eventually, but I’m glad you came onto the platform to help me. As you can see I’ve had a successful day’s shopping.’

He grinned, making him look younger. ‘Are we getting a fashion parade later?’

‘Absolutely not. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back, I’m really not a city girl. If I hadn’t already agreed I wouldn’t go to London again.’

He tossed the boxes onto the back seat and climbed into the front leaving her to make her own way around to the passenger side. She had barely slammed the door before he engaged the gears and the car moved forward smoothly.

‘I had a phone call from some guy in the Air Ministry, you’ll be pleased when I tell you what he said.’

After he’d explained she could hardly believe it. ‘Does this mean we will be able to stay open after the war’s declared?’

‘Certainly does – but I doubt any training will be done so close to London once the Luftwaffe arrive.’

‘I don’t want to think about that. As long as I can keep flying for a few more months I’ll be happy. Do you think they’ll commandeer our aircraft?’

‘Very likely. A Tiger Moth is perfect for training – easy to fly but hard to fly well. Thank God we don’t have to do more than teach the blighters to be pilots. They can learn to navigate and so on somewhere else.’

‘I’m okay with a compass and map but have had no instrument training at all. You just peer over the side in our planes, but they can hardly do that in a plane with a closed cockpit.’

‘I’ll stay until the airfield is closed down. I’m hoping to be a fighter pilot rather than bomber or coastal command – but it’s not up to me.’

The first thing they saw as the car drew to a halt in the yard at the back of the house was the humped mound of the Anderson shelter. ‘I’d forgotten that was going up today. It seems strange to have this in the yard, and gas masks, when war hasn’t even been declared.’

‘Let’s hope we don’t have to use it. I shouldn’t bother to investigate; it will only depress you. Mrs B is in charge of getting things ready in the event of an air-raid.’

The housekeeper was in the kitchen when they walked past. ‘Did you have a lovely time, Ellie? Fred isn’t back yet so you’ve plenty of time before supper.’

‘I’m just going to put these away and change into something more comfortable and then I’ll come down and give you a hand. And yes, I had a good time, thank you.’

‘Go away with you, my girl, it’s not your place to help me. I’m here to help you. I picked a whole basin of raspberries from the kitchen garden so we’re having those for afterwards.’

Jack followed Ellie into her bedroom and dropped the boxes onto her bed. ‘I’m going to sit in the garden until your dad gets back – why don’t you join me when you’re ready?’

The evening gown now seemed too glamorous for her, she should never have allowed her friends to persuade her to purchase it. The summer dresses were perfect, she’d not feel uncomfortable wearing either of those.

She pulled on a faded cotton skirt and an equally disreputable blouse, removed as much of the make-up from her face as she could – there was little she could do about her primped hair until she washed it. She was ready to join Jack in the garden. He’d made no comment about her new, sophisticated look – perhaps he’d not noticed. Greg would have paid her a compliment, but then he was interested in her and Jack wasn’t. This was a good thing as she couldn’t work with him if he started looking at her in that funny way men had when they wanted to kiss you.

Seventeen

The first six RAF trainees arrived at seven o’clock in the morning in a canvas covered truck. They were all young men, not much older than Ellie, and she thought that a couple of them would have been extremely rude to her if they hadn’t been in the company of an officer. These two were offended at the thought of having a young woman instruct them, but this wasn’t a problem as they ended up on Jack’s list.

Instructing the three well-spoken, intelligent young men she was given proved to be a lot easier than teaching the mixed bunch that usually signed up. When they weren’t flying they were studying manuals and text-books. The Flight Lieutenant who’d accompanied them on the first day tested them on what they’d learnt and she picked up quite a lot of interesting information by just being in the vicinity some of the time.

‘I say, Miss Simpson, how are your three bods progressing?’

‘They are all doing okay, no problems so far, Flight Lieutenant.’

‘Good show. We want them solo ASAP so they can log as many hours as possible before the next lot arrive.’

‘We thought they would be here for several weeks – isn’t that the case?’

‘I’ll be for the high jump if I didn’t get them moved onto the next stage of their training in three weeks. I’m assuming you will use the de Havilland as well once they can fly solo.’

‘Yes, of course we will. Excuse me, I’d better get on.’

*

Extra fuel was delivered without being ordered and the trainees brought their own packed lunches so all Gladys had to do was make endless pots of tea. Mrs B baked biscuits or made a cake every day for their pupils which added an almost festive atmosphere.

Ellie was logging more hours than she’d ever done before. The average needed for someone to go solo was around a dozen hours so this meant the first six achieved this by the end of week one. Then came the hard part. Virtually anyone could